Matthijs J. de Jong holds the Chair by Special Appointment of "Bible Translation in Contemporary Context" at Vrije Universiteit, and is head of translation and exegesis at the Bible Society for the Netherlands and Flanders (NBG). His primary research and valorization interest lies in contextualizing Bible translation, both as a historical phenomenon and as a contemporary global activity. He accomplishes this by critically examining the prevailing yet conflicting paradigms: one that views Bible translation strictly as a linguistic procedure, and another that regards it as a form of cultural rewriting.
De Jong obtained his MA (cum laude, 2000) and his PhD (cum laude, 2006), both at Leiden University, The Netherlands. He obtained an MSt in Oriental Studies at Oxford University (2000/01). His dissertation was awarded the Praemium Erasmianum in 2007. As a Bible translator at the Bible Society for the Netherlands and Flanders, he contributed extensively to the Dutch “Bible in Plain Language” (2014) and on the revision of the Dutch standard “Nieuwe Bijbelvertaling” (released 2004, revised version released in 2021), known as the NBV21. De Jong is particularly motivated to demonstrate that the complexities inherent in Bible translation challenge widely held notions of translation as a simple and straightforward process.
