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Contents

Introduction………………………………………………………………...3

SECTION I. THE NOTION OF IDIOMS AS LINGUISTIC UNITS……………………………………………………….5

1. The meaning of idioms………………………………………...5

2. The structure of idioms………………………………………...7

3. The categories of idioms……………………………………….8

SECTION II. TRANSLATION OF IDIOMS USED IN BIBLICAL TEXTS…………..………………………………………………….12

2. Types of Bible translation…………………………………….12

   1. The main difficulties in translation of idioms used in the Bible……………………………………………………….………14

3. Approaches to the idiomatic translation in the Biblical texts…………………………….………………………………….15

2.3.1. Biblical idioms and body parts…………………......17

2.3.2. Idioms involving the Hips and Loins.......................20

2.3.3. Idioms involving One’s Bosom or Breasts………...22

CONCLUSIONS………………………………………………………………....24

BIBLIOGRAPHY………………………………………………………………..25

Introduction

The letter of the Bible is the shrine of its spirit and the organism by which it comes into contact with the reader's mind. Hence the most spiritual of Bible students may well feel grateful to all who have toiled at the wearying task of preserving, and where necessary and possible restoring the true letter of the Sacred Text in its original tongues. All honour then to men who like Ginsburg, Tregelles, and Westcott and Hort have for long years laboured chiefly that others might enter into their labours.

No English Bible can be more than a translation, since the Sacred Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments were originally written in Hebrew and in Greek. Hence it must be obvious to all, that just in proportion to the importance of these documents must be the obligation to translate them as accurately and adequately as possible; and since in the very nature of things no translation can be perfect, improvement is always possible. Even if no further improvement were attainable, various renderings for different classes of readers would still probably be of service. Besides, Divine favours are freely and widely bestowed; and, the humblest individual translator may reasonably deem it possible to contribute something to the common stock of happy and effective renderings [17].

The theme of the paper is “Idioms in Biblical texts”.

The subject of the present paper is based on the collecting idioms and idiomatic expressions from the Bible and its analysis. English is remarkable in its willingness to invent new words and borrow existing words. Again and again, linguists find changes that reflect encounters with other cultures, so that studying the history of the language is a bit like looking into a verbal melting pot. Hebrew idioms, for example, were easily absorbed into Modern English, even while their origins lay at the dawn of civilization in the Ancient Near East. There are some kinds of idiomatic expressions in the Bible:

• Greek Bible idioms;

• Ancient Hebrew idioms;

The aim of the work is analyzing two methods of idiomatic translation in Biblical texts:

• literal translation;

• idiomatic equivalent or dynamic equivalent translation.

The following objectives of the research have been set:

• to provide theoretical evidence and discuss on idiomatic English;

• to study problems of Biblical translation and to take into account the main tips how to explain, analyze and translate idioms;

Research methods:

• Descriptive-theoretical literary analysis;

• Contrastive linguistic analysis

Relevance to the work: As noted by an increasing number of idiomatic scholars, it is clearly problematic to assume that idioms form a homogeneous class of linguistic items. Careful attention must be paid to the many syntactic, lexical, semantic and pragmatic differences that exist among words and phrases that are generally judged as idiomatic. The investigation of a wide range of idioms clearly demonstrates that many idioms are analyzable and have figurative meanings that are at least partly motivated. Many idioms have individual components that independently contribute to what these phrases figuratively mean as wholes.

Practical value: the future of idiomatic expressions in the English language seems certain. This development will continue through new mediums like the Internet and interactive mediums. It is hard to say what this will do to idioms and what kind of new idioms are created. This will be an interesting development to follow, and by no means does it lessen the humor, variety and color of English language.

The structure of the work: the paper consists of introduction, two sections with theoretical and practical part, conclusions, bibliography.