Monday, 11 January 2010
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Hear The Voice – New Bible Translation
By Justin at BeDeviant
I’m a self-confessed translation junkie. If there’s an English translation available, I probably have it. NLT, NIV, TNIV, NJB, ESV, KJV, NKJV, NET, The Message, EKG, PPT–I love them all.
Imagine my delight when I learned about a new translation called The Voice, published by Thomas Nelson. I picked up a copy of the The Voice at STORY 2009 and couldn’t be more pleased with it. From the preface of The Voice:
The Voice is created for and by a church in great transition. Throughout the body of Christ, extensive discussions are ongoing about a variety of issues including style of worship, how we separate culture from our theology, and what is essential truth. In fact, we are struggling with what is truth. At the center of this discussion is the role of Scripture. This discussion is heating up with strong words being ex- changed. Instead of furthering the division over culture and theology, it is time to bring the body of Christ together again around the Bible.
Right now it’s only available in the New Testament. But it’s a steal at $20. You can also download the entire book of John for free on the website. Check it out and let us know what you think!
What’s your favorite translation and why?
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About the Author
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- From: bedeviant
- Name: Justin
- About Me: A religious deviant who enjoys coffee, reading theology, graphic design, and spending time with his wife while creatively exploring the riches of the Spirit of Christ.
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Comments (31)
I like NASB best, but like to cross-reference other versions as well. I am getting more and more curious about this ESV.
Being a translation junkie also, I have just about all of them. However, the translation that I trust the most is the New American Standard (NAS). I trust the word-for-word translation method more than thought-for-thought methods.
That being said, I also like the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV).
If the NAS did not exist, I would probably use the English Standard Version (ESV) for the same reasons that I use the NAS.
Personally, I wonder if we (American Christianity) haven't "over-translated" the bible. I wonder if, with all of our various translations, we haven't contributed to the confusion and made the bible an object of suspicion and doubt, instead of making it clearer.
My favorite is the KJV.
There is a reason that the overwhelming majority of people who make accuracy of translation into English their highest priority choose the KJV: a disagreement over textual criticism, the methods used to arrive at the correct text from a collection of hand-written copies, including both scribal errors and (possibly) deliberate changes. Up through the KJV, the underlying principle was "majority rules", that is all things being equal, the reading that is the most common is the most likely to be correct. However, virtually all post-KJV translations have used a different underlying principle: "age before beauty", that is assuming that a handful of older by a century manuscripts rediscovered beginning in the 18th century contain the correct readings even though they represent only about 5% of the total. The problem is that if this assumption is wrong (and there are excellent reasons for believing it to be wrong), all such versions are introducing more errors than they correct while after nearly 400 years the errors in the KJV have pretty much all been caught and either corrected or footnoted in modern editions. Since the total differences in the NT versions amount to no more than 5% and (arguably) change no major doctrines of Christianity, one might be tempted to dismiss this as Yet Another argument about the number of angels who can dance on the head of a pin, but conservatives point with some justification to the occasionally dishonest footnotes in some modern versions which falsely assert "majority rules" for what are in fact minority readings and call into question by enclosing within brackets text that there is no rational reason for questioning.
Among KJV Bibles IMHO the best is The New Defender's Study Bible put out by the ICR (the free online version is available here: http://www.icr.org/defenders/) because of its over 9000 footnotes, located on the same page and keyed to the verses in question, that, according to the Introduction, "explain the Bible's difficult passages, resolve its alleged contradictions, point out evidence of its divine origin, confirm its historical accuracy, note its remarkable anticipations of modern science, demonstrate its fulfilled prophecies, and in general remove any doubts about its inerrancy, its authority, and its ability to meet every human need."
Bold claims indeed, but IMHO it delivers. Despite several years of Bible reading and study, it pointed out things right in the text that I had overlooked. Several different printed editions (hardback, bonded leather, etc.) are also available from them.
I prefer the NASB translation. Especially, the un-updated version, it's a bit more technical. But I love the NIV, a good all-purpose Bible...but nothing beats going back to the original language. Thank goodness for the help of scholars
I'm in a hurry so I only had time to read the first few verses, which were beautiful. I would need to read the whole book to have a solid opinion, but I am looking forward to doing so!