A friend of mine asked if his pastor was making a good decision by changing the “standard” Bible translation that they used in their church. This is part of my response to him.
Bible translation is one of those topics that is both important and distracting :)
I took a class on Bible interpretation, and the instructor said something that stuck with me - “Reading the Bible through a translation is like kissing your bride through a veil.” The only way to read what the original authors really wrote is to read it in the original language. For those of us who don’t know Greek and Hebrew, we have to settle for the translation.
In any translation you are relying on the translators to make good judgement calls. Unless you are going to get into evaluating the different translators, you have to assume that they are all approaching their work faithfully and honestly. If they weren’t, they would not be taken seriously. At least that’s how I look at it.
That being said, there are a few different aspects of translation that need to be weighed
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what words were used
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what point was being conveyed
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what cultural context was assumed
For example, if I was going to translate Spanish to English it could have 3 different translations depending on what is being said, and how it’s being translated.
In Spanish there is a saying:
No vendas la piel del oso antes de cazarlo.
In English the word-for-word translation would be:
“No you sell the skin of the bear before to hunt him.”
That’s literally what the Spanish says, but it’s not very digestible in English.
The thought-for-thought translation might be:
“Do not sell the bear’s skin before hunting it.”
That’s a bit different than the “literal” translation, but makes more sense as an English sentence. However, since it’s not a common saying in English it might still throw people off.
And the idea-for-idea translation might be:
“Don’t count your chickens before they hatch.”
That is not what the original text says literally, but that’s the most relatable way to translate it into American English.
On the spectrum of translations, the NIV is considered to be the center (Thought-for-thought), with the NASB representing the most word-for-word, and the Message representing the most Idea-for-idea.
OK. All of that being said - what is the point of reading the Bible?
If you are trying to understand what the original authors meant, then you want the thought-for-thought camp.
If you are trying to study what words the original authors used, then you want the word-for-word camp.
If you just want to read it how it might have been written today, then you want the idea-for-idea camp.
Most of us are trying to understand what message the original authors were trying to convey, so we want the thought-for-thought.
There’s an assumption that word-for-word is the best, but is it really the best if you can’t understand what is being said?
There’s also an assumption that idea-for-idea is the worst - but, again, that depends on what the reader is looking for.
I think the thought-for-thought camp is where 80% of all churches, and believers, should focus their reading. 15% will make good use of the other two camps, and 5% will be able to properly handle the original languages. …roughly speaking.
Personally, I’ve read the whole way through the NASB, ESV, and KJV, and probably the NIV. I’ve learned a lot from them, but I was assuming that word-for-word was the only “true” way to go. Around Thanksgiving I finished a read through of the NASB and was looking for a new translation. I looked at the NLT that I bought for my son - because it was “easier” for him to understand - and asked myself - if it’s easier for my son to understand, won’t it be easier for me to understand too? And sure enough, it is! I started reading the NLT in December and I keep thinking to myself how much clearer the message is, and wishing I would have started using it a long time ago.
I’m not trying to sell you on the NLT, but I certainly would not hesitate to use any of the thought-for-thought translations. My goal is to understand what the original authors meant, and I trust that the NLT, CSB, and NIV translators will get me most of the way there. None of them are 100% accurate, because that’s the nature of translation - things get lost - but until I learn Greek and Hebrew those are well within the camp of Bibles I will be reading.
I will still use the NASB for word studies and technical studies, and I have no problem carrying my old ESV around to Bible studies and things like that, but for my daily reading I want to read what I can understand the easiest, and what doesn’t immediately send my mind wandering to other things.