A Secular Bible: Contesting Scientific Knowledge Claims on How to Translate the Old Testament in Sweden, 1971–1974

This article investigates tensions between scientific and religious knowledge in Sweden in the 1970s. As a case study, the article surveys the work of a governmental committee, appointed by the Social Democratic Government in 1971 to prepare the production of a new Swedish translation of the Old Testament. The knowledge production of the committee experts, being researchers trained in the methods of historical-critical biblical scholarship, favoured what was perceived as a scientific perspective on the translation of the Old Testament. As the committee report was published in 1974 and put into circulation in the form of a referral round (remissrunda), it met with criticisms from a number of actors representing Christian organizations and denominations. I suggest that this critique was primarily targeted at the scientific knowledge underpinning the arguments of the committee. A translation based on such knowledge would differentiate the biblical texts from their true religious purpose and context of use, bringing about a secularization of the Bible itself. Contesting the knowledge claims of the committee experts was vital since, ultimately, the knowledge base of the new translation would decide what kind of Bible that would occupy the public space of future Sweden.