There a teacher’s saying that there are no bad questions, except the ones you don’t ask. There’s another saying that says that once you know the right question, the right answer will follow. As with many one liners, these two seem to clash. On the front of my book What’s in a Version?, I have…
This post is based on Acts 2:42 and 46. In the NLT of Acts 2:42 the phrase breaking of bread, admittedly a bit less than meaningful in modern English, is translated as sharing in the Lord’s supper. The NRSV reads “breaking of bread” but a note in the New Interpreter’s Study Bible suggests “Lord’s Supper,”…
Exodus 24:12 in the NLT reads: And the LORD said to Moses, “Come up to me on the mountain. Stay there while I give you the tablets of stone that I have inscribed with my instructions and commands. Then you will teach the people from them. The phrase I’m interested in here is “stay there…
One basis I use for comparing Bible translations is the way in which idioms are handled. It’s difficult to measure this precisely, because you have to consider several things: Is the idiom as used comprehensible to modern readers? Does it mean the same thing to modern as to ancient readers? Is there a reasonable English…
The JPS Tanakh of Isaiah 49:7 reads, in part: Thus said the LORD, The Redeemer of Israel, his Holy One, b-To the despised one, To the abhorred nations,-b . . . Note b reads: Meaning of Heb. uncertain. Emendation yields “Whose being is despised / Whose body is detested”; cf. 51.23. I noticed this first…
I’m doing some studying in 2 Corinthians right now, and I encountered the following translation while reading it through in the Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB): 11But now finish the task as well, that just as there was eagerness to desire it, so there may also be a completion from what you have. 12For if…
Or should I make that AKOH PISTEWS? Note that a similar question can be asked in Galatians 3:5, but I will assume due to theme that one will give the same answer in both places. Writing an exegetical article on this verse could be quite lengthy, but I agree with J. Louis Martyn in his…
In George Orwell’s Animal Farm things eventually boil down to “all the animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.” I think I can apply this to Bible translations as well as to animals, especially when one is looking for an authoritative translation. The fact is that no translation perfectly reflects the…
