Tag Archives: translations

“The Message” isn’t always a translation

Leave a reply

There’s some debate about whether Eugene Peterson’s The Message is a translation or a paraphrase. I’d argue that it’s both, in some ways.

That is, Peterson translated from the Greek without consulting English translations, according to him. That’s a translation. Yet it seems to me that he then took that translation and “riffed on it,” producing a paraphrase of his own work!

Look at Paul’s question to the Ephesians in Acts 19:2. Here’s how the NIV translates it:

“Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?”

I’m no Greek expert, but looking at the GNT, the question seems to consist of 5 words which basically state what is above. Now look what Peterson did with the question:

“Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed? Did you take God into your mind only, or did you also embrace him with your heart? Did he get inside you?”

See what I mean? The first sentence is the translation. The next two… have no basis in the Greek text. They aren’t translation. At best they are paraphrase. Essentially they are Peterson’s commentary on the translation.

How is the reader to know that? How is the reader supposed to know when Peterson is merely injecting things into the text?

Look at Romans 8:38-39. In “translating” this verse, Peterson writes:

Do you think anyone is going to be able to drive a wedge between us and Christ’s love for us? There is no way! Not trouble, not hard times, not hatred, not hunger, not homelessness, not bullying threats, not backstabbing, not even the worst sins listed in Scripture: (Tim: underline mine)

As a reminder, here’s how the NIV does it:

“For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

In another post, I’ll note how Peterson avoids discussion of spiritual powers; that’s a definite problem. What I’ve underlined shows a major theological point that Peterson has inserted into this passage… with no textual basis. Depending on what Peterson means in what he has authored here, I very well may agree with him. However… that’s not Romans 8. That’s not translation.

Again… how is the reader supposed to know?

It’s not your father’s Bible…

6 Replies

There was a time when I basically had one Bible that I used all of the time. It was a New International Version that had been given to me by some friends in California (whose pet dog had chewed up the Bible I received for high school graduation). I would always have the Bible with me and would use it for devotional reading, personal study, class preparation, as well as teaching and preaching.

Those days are gone. I think I’ve mentioned before that I’ve embarrassed myself at times by arriving somewhere to teach class or to preach and discovered that I didn’t bring a Bible with me! I no longer have a trusty, go-with-me-everywhere Bible.

Here are the main ways I read the Bible now:

  • Accordance: I use the Accordance program on my Mac for most of my work in preparing classes and studies. In the basic setup, I have 5 versions open side by side: New International Version, Dios Habla Hoy, King James Version (with Strong’s), English Standard Version, Reina-Valera 1960.
  • Bilingual New International Version-Nueva Versión Internacional: A friend in Stockdale, Texas, gave me this Bible. I use it for preaching on Sundays. There are copies of this same Bible available to those in attendance, and I can refer to passages by page number as well as chapter and verse.
  • BibleGateway.com: I use this site at times for a quick lookup of a passage. I also use it to print out the main text for my sermons. (Larger font works well for my middle-aged eyes)
  • PocketSword: I use this Bible app on the iPod when I’m teaching class at ACU. I often don’t have a convenient way to carry a full text, and this electronic version works well. Plus it’s easier for me to read without glasses. (Funny how that is becoming a recurrent theme in my choice of Bibles)
  • NIV Study Bible: Even though I have the full text of this study Bible within the Accordance program, there are times when it is helpful to look at an actual book

How about you? Has your method of reading the Bible changed over the years? Has your Bible version of choice changed at all? Do you think the next generation will be reading the Bible in traditional book form or some other format?

Lost in Translation: Bible Edition

11 Replies

OK, I enjoyed last Friday’s game so much, that I decided to do it again. This time, however, we’ll limit ourselves to a limited pool of possible answers. Every answer will be a passage from the Bible.

Lost in Translation combines the old game of Telephone (or Chinese Whispers, as some call it) with modern machine translations. As the site asks, “What happens when an English phrase is translated (by computer) back and forth among five different languages?” Well, the results are often humorous.

I’ll run a few passages through the babelizer. See if you can guess the original:
(1) But, if, the HORSEMAN when serir with you you seem undesired chosen equipment then for this day that you are useful, if of i, that its ancestor beyond the servissero of the river I or Amorites, where the track alive you. But the one that interests to me and becomes for my family, he we used the HORSEMAN.
(2) Where I can go of its alcohol? Where I can conserve its presence?
(3) For him it is of the beauty, of which, of the one of faith and they are present these works trapunta, of them of God with the work that does not support to him, not to be able to praise nobody.
(4) What era, you continued being, what era, the fact is made again; the sun is not nothing of the currency of a cent nine.
(5) Plus a man it does not inform to its neighbor, or a man his Know of the brother for example the horseman, parce that me everything knows, Aid of them with major.

Have fun!

Lost in translation

20 Replies

It’s been a favorite site of mine for some time, maybe because I do a lot of translating. I thought I had mentioned it here before, but can’t seem to find it. If this is the second time I’m sharing this, well… forgive me, I’m getting old.

Lost in Translation combines the old game of Telephone (or Chinese Whispers, as some call it) with modern machine translations. As the site asks, “What happens when an English phrase is translated (by computer) back and forth among five different languages?” Well, the results are often humorous.

I’ll run a few sayings through the babelizer. See if you can guess the original:

  1. If somebody goes the lady, we correspond to them. If they give return, they were always with you. Don’t, never was they.
  2. It’s more simply the end to gain the decree that had shutdowns of the resources.
  3. The definition of the Verrücktheit returns to the same thing many and many signals and examines the diverse results
  4. Sufficiently in an extension of often – of me to a handspike and an end of the pressure, where the place for movements and me the world
  5. We are not something therefore of the screen of the light bulb like, than they do not see

As I work with translating on a regular basis, sites like this help to keep me humble.

The quest for the perfect version of the Bible

23 Replies

bible1Over on the Better Bibles Blog, Rich Rhodes talked about listening to an audio version of the King James Version. He found that the epistles were very difficult to listen to because of the vocabulary employed. He concludes his post by writing:”This is why I’m so passionate about getting a translation that speaks to the heart of English speakers.”

That’s what I find with the versions I use in Spanish. In my radio programs, I use the Spanish equivalent of the GNT, which isn’t my favorite version. I use it because it’s the easiest to understand in a spoken format like that. In our bilingual service, I use the bilingual NIV/NVI Bible because our congregation owns a number of those and most of our Spanish-speakers use them. (I like the NIV in English, but don’t like the Spanish version much at all)

Maybe I’m too picky, but I really haven’t found a Bible that truly fits what I would like to see in a Bible. For now, I settle for “the lesser of evils.”

What about you? Have you found what you’re looking for in a Bible version?

[Edit at 3 p.m. CDT: Matt Dabbs tells about a church burning all non-KJV Bibles. I’m guessing they’ve found the version they like!]

As I mentioned before, I’ve been participating in the Tyndale Blog Network, reviewing products that I receive from Tyndale. This time I’m a part of one of their virtual book tours, the Mosaic Bible blog tour. This Friday, October 16, The Kitchen will be hosting the tour, with Kevin O’Brien doing a Q&A session about the book.

In addition, Tyndale will be giving away a copy of The Mosaic Bible to one of the readers of this blog. On Friday, leave a comment indicating that you would like to be in the drawing for the giveaway.

Today’s stop on the blog tour: Internet Monk