Some notes and a link on my book’s (What’s in a Version?) page.
There’s a moment in sermons that makes me cringe and my wife grin. She kind of enjoys seeing me squirm. What is this important moment? It’s when a pastor says, “What the Greek really says is . . .” Sometimes it’s worded a bit differently, but I believe that when you hear or read that…
In posting recently on translation I’ve noticed that many people connect one’s idea of inspiration with one’s approach to translation. The assumption seems to be that a person who believes in some form of verbal inspiration, especially verbal plenary inspiration, will necessarily favor a formal, word-by-word, or literal translaltion. Of these terms I prefer formal,…
Dave Black comments some on linguistics and teaching biblical languages in a post today. (Check out the linguistics conference coming up!) The difficulty is the difference between teaching someone a language in a classroom and in discussing and describing that language in some detail as a linguist would want to do. Both the framework and…
Since I’ve been making moderately negative comments about The Voice here on this blog, I’m going to link to a more favorable short review at Englewood Review of Books. Here’s the conclusion: In some of the introductory material, the editors (led by Chris Seay) note that “Too often, the passion, grit, humor and beauty have…
Brian Russell of Real Meal Ministries has posted a summary on Bible translation that is quite good. It’s hard to keep things straight in a short, readable essay. (HT: Methodist Blogs Weekly Roundup by Allan Bevere.) I would note that he uses the popular rather than any of the technical definitions of “paraphrase,” but I…
Someone kindly e-mailed me a question about this Bible version, so I decided to take a look for myself. This is just a preliminary look, but you can find my notes at The Scriptures, and you can compare my results on this version with others using my Bible Translation Selection Tool. I would say that…
Henry – a question. I just noted a request from a new attendee and new reader of the Bible at the Bible Study I attend (and teach occasionally). One or two of the faithful people there use the NIV. I have been cautious with this version and just read what I consider a mistranslation of Romans (noted here) I don’t read books myself that sell themselves based on adjectives like ‘international’ – a word that seems to me to be code for ‘conservative’. Is my gut feel out to lunch here?
Our pew Bible is REB, one that I think is reasonably good – though ‘New’ and ‘Revised’ as adjectives clearly date the translation. Like many I grew up with the AV and RSV – both also suffering from adjectives in the name. That’s why I call my own translations personal!