Every translation you read involves multiple layers of scholarly decisions and interpretations, not to mention theological opinions and church commitments. For example, the ancient Hebrew and Greek manuscripts contained very little punctuation; to the modern reader who is used to spaces between words and periods at the end of sentences, the first time they see a reproduction of an early manuscript ittakesthemsbysurprisebecausethewordsallruntogether. So adding modern punctuation is already an act of interpretation. So is the way a Bible text is divided. It surprises some to learn that the pattern of dividing the Bible into chapters and verses with which we are familiar did not emerge until the sixteenth century. The divisions were made for the sake of reading and reference in early printed Bibles, and do not reflect the intentions of the original authors or the literary structure of the books.
Furthermore, in our polarized church life, there are Bible translations produced and favored by evangelical Protestants, those admired by progressive Protestants, and others used primarily by Roman Catholics. It makes you almost long for the day when you could only buy the King James version!
Today it is hard not to be bewildered by the enormous variety of English versions available. It is helpful to keep in mind that there are two basic kinds of translations:
Formal equivalence translations: Word-for-word translations from the original languages taken from the best available critical editions of the early manuscripts. Their strength is their literal faithfulness to the Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic originals. Their weakness is that this literalness sometimes misses the poetry and idiomatic meanings in the original languages and often leads to clunky or overly complex English prose.
Functional equivalence translations: These translations aim at rendering the meaning of the texts “thought for thought,” rather than word for word. Their strength is that they are usually easier to read or to hear read aloud. Their weakness is that they are yet one further step of interpretation away from the original languages, favoring one possible meaning of a passage and obscuring others.
It is usually possible to determine whether the version of the Bible you have is a “formal’ or “functional” translation (or a compromise between methods) by reading the Introduction or Preface to the Bible. This will give a good introduction to the intentions of the translators, and a sense of the time and theological commitments out of which they worked.
For studying the Bible for the sake of preaching, it is important to have a Bible that is reliable as a word-by-word or “formal” translation. Today, these include the New American Standard Bible, the New King James Version, and the New Revised Standard Version. It is also useful to have good functional translations at hand, such as the New International Version and various simplified versions. These have usually been intended for youth, for those unfamiliar with the Bible, or for reading aloud, and include the J. B Phillips translation (1958, revised 1972) and the New International Readers Version (1996). In this category I especially favor the Contemporary English Version because of its strong combination of faithfulness to the original languages and its sparkling, contemporary language. It is a wonderful version for reading aloud in worship.
Some Bibles are not translations at all, but paraphrases, like Living Bible, Paraphrased (1967), The Good News Bible (1976, also called Today’s English Version), and The Message, by Eugene H. Peterson (1993). These are very popular because they are easy to read, attractively printed, and widely marketed. Such Bibles can be helpful to preachers, especially when used in conjunction with formal translations. Most preachers find they are not adequate by themselves for sermon study, however, for three reasons. First, they are not usually translations from the original languages but free renditions of previous English versions. Second, because in their attempt to render the scriptures into up-to-date language they often lose the nuance, ambiguous meanings, and subtleties of the scriptures. Third, they often represent only one writer’s interpretation or theology rather than that of a team of scholars or a consensus between different churches.
It is helpful to remember that like any book, a Bible has to be edited, arranged on a page, copyedited, printed, bound, marketed, and sold. Bibles are consumer items, not unlike toothbrushes, and the Bible that has the best features and the most appealing packaging will win the day in the bookstore. There are many popular editions of study bibles that are aimed at specific target audiences: youth, children, men, women, singles, and so on. These are typically devotional study bibles rather than scholarly ones. That is, the comments may be long on advice about how to apply scripture to ones life but short on how best to interpret tricky passages. Using such a devotional edition of the Bible is appropriate for your personal study, but perhaps less helpful for sermon preparation for a congregation whose members come from a wide variety of life backgrounds.
For more about the major English translations see:
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The American Bible Society websites: www.Bibles.com or www.Bibleresourcecenter.org |
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The International Bible Society: http://www.gospelcom.net/ibs/Bibles/translations/index.php |
İClifton Guthrie 2005
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