When I express my views on translations, I want to have mercy and grace. Translations take millions of dollars to produce and promote. They are being produced by godly Christian people who have a love for God, His Word, and His people. While the various entities who produce the Bibles can make a considerable amount of money on them, I believe there are very few who put the work and energy into this process just for the pay day. Also considering that I don’t generally work for free, I don’t hold the profit motive against them. (Well in just a matter of weeks, I will be retired so all I do will be for free. Those who know me will be amazed by how well I contain my excitement!) While I don’t get any monetary reward from the RBC, I respect the work these people have done and thus don’t begrudge them their financial rewards.
I am also conscious that people love their translation. They feel strongly about them and get emotionally attached to them, but I have to be honest with my evaluation of each translation and of translation methods as a whole. Bear with me when you don’t agree. Use this as an opportunity to think openly and deeply about your choices and to reevaluate the positions you hold. Maybe you never gave the issue deep thought; this is that chance. Be open.
The truth is that the results of all the translation work through the years has not been uniform. There are some exceptionally good translations such as the ESV, NET or the NASB. While most translations are not exceptional, they still are good but should be for limited use, such as the NLT. At the other end, there are a few translations that are bad, such as the Message. Thus, there are the good, the bad, and a number of translations falling in-between. There is also the ugly. Translations not just poorly done but done to support heretical teachings. Words twisted or added to endorse non-Christian views such as the Passion Translation and the Jehovah Witness’ New World Translation (see our Warning! Translation Trouble! ).
To be clear, I’m not talking about Bible editions that you would buy but the translated text base of the marketed Bible edition. The notes, references, helps, and maps are added to the text for sale (search at the top of the page for “Bible Edition” or “Bible Primer” for more information on that topic).
From the very beginning, our desire at the RBC has been to teach about the translation of the Bible—the process and the methodology used, along with the result: the actual translations produced. To that end we are planning for a collection of series of posts to present you with information about translation.
We will start by talking about what a translation of the Bible should be like. This will cover areas of method: word-for-word or thought-for-thought, accuracy, how to translate gender terms, and much more. In general, we will cover the methods and philosophies of translation. These will be published under the topic of Translation Theory.
Another series of post in the Translation Collection will be posts on the history of Bible translation: Translation History. We will start with the translation work of the OT done before Jesus was even born. From there we will cover the early translations into many languages as the gospel spread across the mid-east, Asia, northern Africa, and Europe. We will then shift to concentrate on the English Bible starting with early presentations through Tyndale and the King James Version to the modern translations of today.
The final group of posts will be Translation Evaluation. We will look at a vast number of currently used translations. We are planning to produce multiple posts on most of them. The plan is to cover the history of the translation including what revisions have been done and if possible explain the nature of the revisions. Along with who is in charge of the translation work, we will discuss the various translation methods and philosophies used by the translators and seek to give some helpful information about each translation.
I will give my evaluation of how well a translation work has been done based on what we have learn in our Translation Theory series. We will also cover what would be the best way for us to use that translation. We’re hoping to be able to give a score or grade on various aspects of each translation along with an overall grade or score for the translation. Please be in prayer for us as we determine the best, clearest, and fairest way of doing this.
The end result will be, to the best of our ability, a collection of posts that are informative, insightful and an honest assessment of the translation methods, philosophies and of the translations themselves. We are well aware that you may not agree with our conclusion. The truth is we may be wrong sometimes. Our hope is this venture will get all of us thinking deeply and carefully about the issues. If we come with an open heart and a respectful attitude, the hope is this project will be of benefit to us all.
The posts in this collection will be published periodically. We will intersperse these with posts on other topics, so we are still speaking on a broad range of subjects and areas of interest for all our followers and to us here at the RBC. So, keep us in your prayers as this is a huge undertaking. This is our plan, but we are open to what God may change about it and the direction He wants us to take. Our goal is to glorify God, lift high the name of Jesus, to rely on the power and guidance of the Holy Spirit and to edify the Body of Christ. Be sure to come back each Thursday to see what we have for you!
Until the next time we see you here at CultivatingFaith.org, God Bless! #CultivatingFaithOrg