Bible4

One more thing on the Bible. Which Bible?

There are so many translations to choose from. Or maybe interpretations. If a speaker needs someone to translate their words into the language of the people listening, they get in a person called an interpreter. Translation tends to refer to written words. For some reason. But good translation always involves interpretation at some level - the translator/interpreter has to understand the meaning in both languages. Bad translation is easy - you can get Babelfish or Google Translate to do that.

The question you have to ask when you're translating is, how much interpretation do I do? The simplest way to translate is to use a computer to read every word in the original language and find an equivalent in the 'target' language. This is called transliteration. The problems with this are firstly that there often isn't a word-to-word equivalence between two languages. The most common example is probably the English word 'love' - which is used to transliterate several different Greek words. This is a misleading example though because English usually has many words for every one Greek word. (English's voracious appetite for absorbing other languages is one reason it's so widely used.)
Another problem is that languages like Greek and Latin don't rely on having the words in a certain order, as we do in English, so a list of transliterated words won't make much sense.
Anyway, the technical term for translating this way is "formal equivalence".

The other end of the translation spectrum (dynamic equivalence) is more dependent on humans. This involves reading chunks of the original, deciding what it means, and saying that in the target language. Possibly using very idiomatic, contemporary language. At its extreme this amounts to paraphrasing the original.

But there are all points on the spectrum between these - and most translations of the Bible into English are somewhere between these extremes.

I grew up with the RSV and NIV, but took a tip from a curate we had and got myself an interlinear New Testament. This has the Greek words, with their closest transliteration into English on the line below. It also has the RSV translation in another column. This is often helpful - you can at least see where the same word crops up in the Greek. It does take a bit of effort to learn the Greek alphabet so that you can then look up the words in a dictionary like Strongs. thankfully I can now take my iPad to Bible studies and just click on my interlinear bookmark (try it!). There are other online bibles available here and here.

Moving along the translation spectrum from formal to dynamic equivalence, the next stop is something like the (Authorized) King James Version. Which is why some people insist on it. (The NKJV is similar, but with less thees and thous. ) There are already a few turns of phrase in English here though.
In a similar zone we have the RSV (Really Safe Version!) and it's inclusive-language update, the NRSV. Which was the recommended version at my theological college. Because it's pretty close to the original, good for Bible study.

The NIV (Nearly Infallible Version) is very popular, and a pretty good mix of readability and faithfulness to the original. Though my OT tutor said sometimes it "papers over the cracks", theologically.

There are several modern translations that come next, like the Contemporary English Version and the New Living Translation. I quite like that one, but occasionally find something that makes me wonder, "where did that come from?". Which is even more a problem with the Good News Bible. This was written for people who don't have English as their primary language. I find it a good one for children. Usually Ok for Sundays. Not good for Bible study.

The Bible I have in the shed at the moment has a green plastic cover. I like green plastic. It's called The Message /remix. It's the last one i read cover to (green plastic) cover. Because it's a paraphrase, it's an easier read. It's therefore at one end of the translation spectrum (with the Living Bible and the Street Bible). The Message is great for reading, not much use for Bible study. It's quite good for liturgy sometimes too. It's in "American English" according to the website, and sometimes seems dated already. But, as translator Eugene Peterson says in his introduction to the Psalms, the most scholarly, accurate translations don't capture the poetic spirit of a prayer or a Psalm in the way that he tries to. And he often succeeds.


It's often helpful to look up several versions of a scripture. Often there are new meanings to be seen because of a different word here and there.
I''m afraid there's no "best" translation. It depends what you want it for, and what you're not used to.

The best-known verse in the Bible is possibly John 3:16. Our Greek tutor at college said that 'so much', i.e. an amount of love is not a good translation, pace NLT, GNB, MSG. But you can see this sense of the words creeping in through dynamic equivalence.
And the word translated 'world' in every version is the Greek word 'cosmos'. Which people usually think means 'the people in the world', rather than using the more obvious transliteration from the Greek word 'cosmos' to the English word 'cosmos'. If we think of Jesus saving the universe rather than just individual sinners, it give us a whole different emphasis on theology. And it comes down to the interpretation of just one word.

I can understand why in Islam it's important to keep the scriptures in their original language!



John 3:16

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. KJV

For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. NRSV

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. NIV

For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. NLT

For God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not die but have eternal life. GNB

This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. MSG

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