The Bible in TRANSLATION , part 2

1. The Bible in TRANSLATION, part 2

2. KJV domination • ERV (1881) • ASV (1901) • RSV (1952) • NASB (1963 – 1995) • NKJV (1982) • NRSV (1990)

3. English Revised Version (1870-1895) • “And they did eat, and were all filled; and there was taken up that which remained over to them of broken pieces, twelve baskets.” (Luke 9:17) • American Standard Version (1901)

4. NKJV (1982) • Updated language but still…. • “day of his espousals” (Song of Songs 3:11) • “dandled” (Isaiah 66:12) • Inferior edition of the Greek text

5. “In these lay a great multitude of sick people, blind, lame, paralyzed, waiting for the moving of the water. For an angel went down at a certain time into the pool and stirred up the water; then whoever stepped in first, after the stirring of the water, was made well of whatever disease he had. Now a certain man was there who had an infirmity thirty-eight years.” (John 5:3-5 – NKJV) • “Few textual scholars today would accept the authenticity of any portion of vv. 3b–4, for they are not found in the earliest and best witnesses.” Biblical Studies Press. 2003; 2003. The NET Bible Notes .

6. Modern speech versions • Discovery of large numbers of Greek papyri: • “It became clear that the NT documents were written in a plain, simple style to meet the needs of ordinary men and women. Should they not then be translated into the same kind of English?” (The Bible in Translation, pg. 105, Metzger)

7. “A striking feature in all this writing is that it was done in the street language of the day, the idiom of the playground and marketplace. In the Greek-speaking world of that day, there were two levels of language: formal and informal. Formal language was used to write philosophy and history, government decrees and epic poetry. If someone were to sit down and consciously write for posterity, it would of course be written in this formal language with its learned vocabulary and precise dictation.

8. But if the writing was routine – shopping lists, family letter, bills, and receipts – it was written in the common informal idiom of everyday speech, street language. And this is the language used throughout the New Testament. Some people are taken aback by this, supposing that language dealing with a holy God and holy things should be elevated – stately and ceremonial. But one good look at Jesus – his preference for down-to-earth stories and easy association with common people – gets right to that supposition.” (Introduction to the NT, Eugene Peterson)

9. Modern speech versions • The Twentieth Century NT (1901,1904) • “Drink ye all of it.” (KJV, ERV) • “Drink from it, all of you.” • Weymouth’s NT in Modern Speech (1903) • Moffatt’s Translation of the Bible (1913,1924-5) • Smith and Goodspeed’s American Translation (1923,1927)

10. “I have said all this to you in figures, but a time is coming when I shall not do so any longer, but I will tell you plainly about the Father. When that time comes you will ask as my followers, and I do not promise to intercede with the Father for you for the Father loves you himself…” (John 16:25,26 - Goodspeed)

11. “Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father.’” (John 20:17 – KJV) • “You must not cling to me for I have not yet gone to my Father.” (John 20:17 – Goodspeed)

12. Revised Standard Version (1952) • New Jerusalem Bible (1966) • The first Catholic Bible in English translated from the Greek and Hebrew • New English Bible (1970) • Asphodel, lapis, lazuli, panniers, reck, ruffled bustard, runnels of water, and stook • New Revised Standard Version (1990) • Revision of the ASV, using best Hebrew and Greek sources • “…the most up-to-date textual studies of the NT” (Essential Guide to Bible Versions, Comfort, page 175)

13. New International Version (1978) • Somewhere in between a “literal” translation and a free, modern-speech edition • Since 1987 has outsold the KJV • “When I brought your ancestors out of Egypt, I did not tell them anything about burnt offerings and sacrifices.” (Jeremiah 7:22 – God’s Word) • “For when I brought your forefathers out of Egypt and spoke to them, I did not just give them commands about burnt offerings and sacrifices…” (Jeremiah 7:22 – NIV)

14. “No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father’s side, has made him known.” (John 1:18, NIV) • “No one has ever seen God, but the one and only [Son], who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known” (TNIV)

15. New American Standard Bible (1971,1995) • “Literal” translation • “No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him.” (John 1:18 – NASB) • J.B. Phillip’s Version (1972) • “Of all modern English translations of the NT epistles, this is one of the best – perhaps actually the best – for the ordinary reader.” (The English Bible, pg.223, Bruce)

16. “I have been speaking to you in parables – but the time is coming to give up parables and to tell you plainly about the Father. When that day comes, you will make your requests to him in my name, for I need make no promise to plead to the Father for you, for the Father himself loves you…” (John 16:25,26 – J.B. Phillips)

17. Easy to read translations (ABS) • The Good News Bible (1976) • “The GNB is not a word-for-word translation. Instead it adopts the principle…called ‘dynamic/functional equivalence’” • Stresses the clear meaning of each passage • Gone are the Latin words • The Contemporary English Bible (1995) • Directly from the best available original texts • Designed for “early youth”

18. Paraphrase Translations • “A free rendering or amplification of a passage…the expression of its sense in other words.” • Living Bible (1971) • Paraphrase of the ASV into simple English • Mid-1970’s – 46% of all Bible sales in the USA • “The words of Amos, who was among the herdsmen of Tekoa…” (ASV) • “Amos was a herdsman living in the village of Tekoa. All day long he sat on the hillsides watching the sheep, keeping them from straying.” (LB)

19. New Living Translation (1996) • Dynamic/functional equivalence rather than paraphrase • Reading level junior-high student • “No one has ever seen God. But the unique One, who is Himself God, is near to the Father's heart. He has revealed God to us.” (John 1:18 – NLT)

20. Paraphrase translations

21. Does not choose simple English words, but power-packed words to convey the meaning • Chagrined, embryonic, resplendent • “It is obvious what kind of life develops out of trying to get your own way all the time: repetitive, loveless, cheap sex; a stinking accumulation of mental and emotional garbage; frenzied and joyless grabs for happiness; trinket gods; magic-show religion; paranoid loneliness; cutthroat competition; all-consuming-yet-never-satisfied wants; a brutal temper; an impotence to love or be loved; divided homes and divided lives; small-minded and lopsided pursuits; the vicious habit of depersonalizing everyone into a rival; uncontrolled and uncontrollable addictions; ugly parodies of community. I could go on.” (Galatians 5:19-21 – The Message)

22. New Century Version (1991) • Readable down to 3rd grade level

23. GOD’S Word (1995) • “Natural equivalence” • “Avoid the extremes of formal equivalence (literal), but without the errors of dynamic/functional equivalence (inaccuracy due to oversimplification)”

24. NET Bible • 25 scholars; from the original languages • Extensive footnotes (60,932 translator’s notes!) • Free download (Bible.org) – “The Bible is God’s gift to humanity – it should be free.”

25. “For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do: by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and to deal with sin, he condemned sin in the flesh” (Romans 8:3 – NRSV) • “But God sent his Son to have a human nature as sinners have and to pay for sin.” (GOD’S Word) • “…to be an offering to pay for sin…” (NCV) • “…for sin” (KJV) • “by giving His Son as a sacrifice for our sins.” (NLT) • “to be a sin offering.” (NIV) – footnote (“for sin”)

26. “God went for the jugular when he sent his own Son. He didn't deal with the problem as something remote and unimportant. In his Son, Jesus, he personally took on the human condition, entered the disordered mess of struggling humanity in order to set it right once and for all. The law code, weakened as it always was by fractured human nature, could never have done that. The law always ended up being used as a Band-Aid on sin instead of a deep healing of it.” (Romans 8:3 – The Message)

27. Conclusions • The Bible has never been so widely available and so well translated • Taken “as a whole” all of the modern translations of the Bible are trustworthy – but none are “perfect” - Strength in numbers

29. Gnostic Gospels • “The time will come when people will not listen to sound doctrine, but will follow their own desires and will collect for themselves more and more teachers who will tell them what they are itching to hear. They will turn away from listening to the truth and give their attention to legends.” (2 Timothy 4:3-4)

30. Mid-2nd century – Gnosticism (knowledge): • All believed that they received secret knowledge. (“New age” movement) • Jesus – a giver of secret knowledge • One of the insiders or disciples really “got it”, passed on the secret knowledge • This “secret revelation” was a means of learning to free their souls from the material world. • Borrowed from many religions and melded this into their mysticism. Wove Christian ideas into their metaphysical beliefs

31. The Gospel of Mary • The Gospel of Thomas • The Gospel of Truth • The Gospel of Philip • The Gospel of Judas

32. Gospel of Judas (300 A.D.) • “I know who you are and where you are from. You are from the immortal realm of Barbelo.’ A great luminous cloud appeared. Jesus said, ‘Let an angel come into being as my attendant.’ A great angel, the enlightened divine Self Generated, emerged from the cloud. Because of him, four other angels came into being from another cloud, and they became attendants for the angelic Self-Generated.

33. The Self-Generated said, ‘Let (…) come into being (…),’ and it came into being (…). And he (created) the first luminary to reign over him. He said, ‘Let angels come into being to serve (him),’ and myriads without number came into being. He said, ‘(Let) an enlightened aeon come into being,’ and he came into being. He created the second luminary (to) reign over him, together with myriads of angels without number, to offer service. That is how he created the rest of the enlightened aeons.

34. Adamas was in the first luminous cloud that no angel has ever seen among all those called ‘God.’ He made seventy-two luminaries appear in the incorruptible generation,…The seventy-two luminaries themselves made three hundred sixty luminaries appear in the incorruptible generation, in accordance with the will of the Spirit, that their number should be five for each.

35. The twelve aeons of the twelve luminaries constitute their father, with six heavens for each aeon, so that there are seventy-two heavens for the seventy-two luminaries, and for each firmaments, (for a total of) three hundred sixty (firmaments...).They were given authority and a (great) host of angels (without number), for glory and adoration, (and after that also) virgin spirits, for glory and (adoration) of all the aeons and the heavens and their firmaments….”

36. “Matter is evil and unredeemable” • Judas is a hero! • Denies a bodily resurrection • It is implied by some: • “These have same credibility as the NT writings! Just luck that they didn’t end up in the canon!”

37. Ancient Christianity dealt with Gnosticism (180 A.D.): • “These people don’t know what they are talking about! This is not the tradition. This is nonsense!” • (1 John 4)

38. Almost all Gnostic gospels written 300-350 years after the fact! (NT written by 70 – 100 AD) • Paul, disciples, write as “insiders” • Gnostic writers, write as “outsiders” • Gnostic writing – no interest in history, facts, evidence (interested in mystical ethereal realms, self revelation) • “The Jesus Legend”

39. Historical 1st hand account • “We proclaim to you the One who existed from the beginning, whom we have heard and seen. We saw Him with our own eyes and touched Him with our own hands. He is the Word of life. This One who is life itself was revealed to us, and we have seen Him. And now we testify and proclaim to you that He is the One who is eternal life. He was with the Father, and then He was revealed to us. We proclaim to you what we ourselves have actually seen and heard...” (1 John 1:1-3 – NLT)

40. Historical 1st hand account • “Dear Theophilus: Many people have done their best to write a report of the things that have taken place among us. They wrote what we have been told by those who saw these things from the beginning and who proclaimed the message. And so, Your Excellency, because I have carefully studied all these matters from their beginning, I thought it would be good to write an orderly account for you.” (Luke 1:1-3)

41. Things that would have been left out (were they not true!) – “embarrassment factor” • Ancient records • Women • The Samaritan woman at the well • The Canaanite woman • The Woman caught in adultery • The Women at the tomb

42. Embarrassment factor • “Why do you call me good?” (Mark 10:18) • “He has a demon…” (Mark 3:22) • Hanging out with tax collectors, prostitutes • “He was not able to perform any miracles there…” (Mark 6:5)

43. “…the Son of Man, who did not come to be served, but to serve…” (Matthew 20:28) • “When his family heard about it, they set out to take charge of him, because people were saying, ‘He’s gone mad!’” (Mark 3:21) • “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me”’

44. The Disciples • Peter • “Jesus turned around and said to Peter, ‘Get away from me, Satan!’” (Matthew 16:23) • Thomas • “Love your enemies” • “Shall we call down fire from heaven on them?”

45. The Disciples • Jesus feeds 5,000 (Mark 6:30); Jesus feeds 4,000 (Mark 8:1) • “Then the wife of Zebedee came to Jesus with her two sons (James and John), bowed before him, and asked him for a favor. ‘What do you want?’ Jesus asked her. She answered, ‘Promise me that these two sons of mine will sit at your right and your left when you are King.’” (Matthew 20:20-21)

46. Details and names • “On the way they met a man named Simon, who was coming into the city from the country, and the soldiers forced him to carry Jesus' cross. (Simon was from Cyrene and was the father of Alexander and Rufus.)” (Mark 15:21) • “Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and the wife of Zebedee.” (Matthew 27:56) • “…a blind beggar named Bartimaeus son of Timaeus…” (Mark 10:46)

47. Details and names • “It was now two days before the Festival of Passover and Unleavened Bread. • The chief priests and the teachers of the Law were looking for a way to arrest Jesus secretly and put him to death… • Jesus was in Bethany • at the house of Simon, • a man who had suffered from a dreaded skin disease. • While Jesus was eating, a woman came in with an alabaster jar full...” (Mark 14:1-3)

48. Details and names • It was the fifteenth year of the rule of Emperor Tiberius; • Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, • Herod was ruler of Galilee, and • his brother Philip was ruler of the territory of Iturea and Trachonitis; • Lysanias was ruler of Abilene, and • Annas and Caiaphas were High Priests. • At that time the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the desert.” (Luke 3:1-2)

49. “What about those eighteen people in Siloam who were killed when the tower fell on them?” (Luke 13:4)

50. Superfluous details • Characteristic of eyewitness account • “They were in their boat getting their nets ready…they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men...” (Mark 1:19, 20) • “The people sat down in rows, in groups of a hundred and groups of fifty.” (Mark 6:40) • “Simon Peter went aboard and dragged the net ashore full of big fish, a hundred and fifty-three in all…” (John 21:11)