Or maybe not. In case you are interested in my musings…

I’ve been using the NRSV as my main translation for 2 1/2 years. I’ve come to dislike the archaisms despite its major improvement in that area over the RSV.

I’ve been looking for a Bible that will be all things to me—one I can use for reading, studying, taking notes in etc. I also wanted one that is on the formal/literal end without a lot of the archaisms but uses standard theological terms. The HCSB seems to fit the bill but I am/was waiting for the expected update next year.

However, the more I read the NLT, the more I like it. I’ve been reading the NLT Study Bible, as cumbersome as it is, and recently looked again at the Favorite Verses of the Bible for a second time. For some reason when I looked at them recently I liked them a lot better than I did a few months ago.

So for now, I’ve decided that the NLT will be my reading/devotional Bible, and I will continue to use the NRSV for taking notes, which is where I have a ton of notes and highlighting, and also as a more literal/formal alternative. There is no single translation that is all things. The NRSV a fine translation so why not keep using it? I will continue to use the HCSB for reference, quoting and memorizing when I see fit. I will re-evaluate next year.

I wasn’t raised on the Bible and catechisms so I’m not sure if it would be of benefit to stick with a formal translation for most of my reading, especially when it comes to the Old Testament and the NT use of it. And even many who have been well educated in things Biblicular have espoused the use of a dynamic translation like the NLT.

As far as a Bible for “studying”, I’m not sure if it really matters which one I use, since I will be using other materials like commentaries, word definitions etc. Phrasing Scripture might be best with a more formal translation as far as the grammar goes, but again I don’t think it’s critical as to which one I use if I feel a need to use something other than or in addition to the NRSV.

The thing about the NLT is that even though it fits squarely in the dynamic (previously termed as thought-for-thought) realm, it’s still very “accurate” and is rarely paraphrastic or overly idiomatic. So as far as the NLT, why not use it too? (For you TNIV fans, I have already looked into this and am very familiar with it especially since I used the NIV for 20 years.)

Here is some stuff about the NLT if you’ve managed to even read this far:

Esteban mentioned an interesting article that I didn’t take the time to read until now.
New Living Translation (NLT) Evaluation Committee Report of the Christian Reformed Church in North America

Don’t let the length scare you—those of you with short attention spans—the NLT portion is only six pages long. If you are interested in the NLT it’s a great read for the most part. But for those who don’t want to read the whole thing, here are some quotes.

It [also] avoids words such as ‘justification,’ ‘sanctification,’ and ‘regeneration,’ as carryovers from Latin translations. In their place it uses equivalents such as ‘we are made right with God,’ ‘we are made holy,’ and ‘we are born anew.’

I never knew these were carryovers from Latin translations. But since they are such common theological terms, the main thing that bothers me about the NLT is that they are missing. And where the NLT1 explained propitiation well in Romans 3:25 they truncated it. Oh how I wish they wouldn’t have messed with that. I’m sure they have their reasons.

Some positive examples:

…the NIV reads, ‘The hand of him who is going to betray me is with mine on the table.’ The NLT captures the sense of the original well with the translation ‘But here at this table, sitting among us as a friend, is the man who will betray me.’ In John 13:18, compare ‘turned against me’ (NLT) with ‘has lifted up his heel against me’ (TNIV). In these and many more examples the NLT has provided a very readable translation that is accurate to the intent of the original text.

From Esteban:

I’m glad to note that I’ve been intimately acquainted with the New Living Translation since its release in 1996: I bought a copy hot-off-the-press, and used it in short order as my teaching text for a Bible study on Acts that I lead during my freshman year. I had a rather decent reading knowledge of Greek by then, and I was consistently impressed by how well the NLT rendered St Luke’s narrative—lively, engagingly, idiomatically, and above all, accurately.

–Esteban Vázquez

There may be some “speculative additions” to the Hebrew text in the OT which you can read about in the article but many of them seem somewhat minor. The glaring one I saw was the overly colloquial Psalm 73:7, “These fat cats have everything their hearts could ever wish for!”

But all translations can be nick-picked to death. For now I’ve embraced the NLT.

Comments welcome. I could write more but I’ll stop there. And congratulations if you made it this far.

Psalm 119:31-34
I cling to your laws.
LORD, don’t let me be put to shame!
I will pursue your commands,
for you expand my understanding.
Teach me your decrees, O LORD;
I will keep them to the end.
Give me understanding and I will obey your instructions;
I will put them into practice with all my heart.