A timely publication when many people have been asking us which Bible gives us the best translation. Issues of editorial bias, cultural conflict, contextual understandings, accuracy, contradiction, falsehoods, gender bias, poor scholarship, credible scholars, etc.
What’s the Difference Between the NIV, NRSV, and Other Bible Translations? | Sojourners
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Emerson Powery is professor of biblical studies and the assistant dean for the School of Arts, Culture and Society at Messiah University. He is the author or editor of several books, including The Good Samaritan: Luke 10 for the Life of the Church (Baker Academic, 2022) and served as an associate editor for Apocrypha and NT for the Common English Bible translation (2011).
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This is quite an informative and easy to follow article.
We could ask though if there is any use spending so much time and effort on ancient documents relating to our religious history?
But yes there is… quite a lot actually. We need to know how we got to this point in our quest for understanding and wisdom. In order to achieve this, documents must be as accurate as they possibly can be.
Just as the roof of a building may bear little resemblance to its foundation, the modern grasp of understanding and wisdom may seem to have hardly any resemblance to early religious beginnings… yet, without the solid foundations, we would be lost.
Thanks for this. I confess I have not read the article in detail, but many like it.
A personal comment: I have been reading the New Testament in the original language for over 50 years. It’s the way I normally read it, since I completed a qualification in classics (major in Greek) all that time ago. I hasten to add that I am not and never have been in ministry or the academic/theology guild – just an interested amateur.
I have one major disappointment with ALL NT translations – their uniformity of style. I would be more comfortable if, for a purely random example, Matthew were in the style, say, of the NKJV, Mark in the style of the NRSV, Luke the Good News Bible…, John the Jerusalem Bible…, Paul the NIV…, James the NEB…, Peter the Message… and Revelation by someone who was not fully fluent in English (ie with some grammatical howlers!). Don’t hold me to those nominations; they are purely to illustrate the variety in the original Greek of the NT. The New Testament is a library, not a book!
Regards
John Court (I attend Eastwood Uniting, NSW)
PS if a previous version of this was accidentally sent, please use this version. Ta, J
That is very interesting John and I can understand where you are coming from on this matter. There is so much that is contentious about the translations. Wonder whether you could say more in an article for all of us to think about.