Tag Archive for 'translation'

Marketing Slogans for the TNIV Translation

TNIV – the bad boy Bible. Hated by Piper, Sproul and MacArthur enough for them to mention it in their sermons!

TNIV – not your father’s Bible

TNIV – we like chicks

TNIV – the best Bible you’ve never heard of

TNIV – Christianity’s best kept secret

TNIV – we catch the flack so the NLT doesn’t have to

The NIV is yesterday’s Bible; use the TNIV

TNIV marketing: work smarter, not harder

Any others?

Blind Translation Comparisons 1 – Romans 3:25a

This is Romans 3:25(a). As mentioned many times before, I like retaining the word propitiation, and the translation of the underlying Greek word is the subject of the comparisons. It’s a tricky subject in many ways. Here are wide variety of examples.

Interestingly, mercy seat is used in a recent translation shown below.

1. Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood,

2. God put forward as an expiation by his blood, to be received by faith.

3. whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith.

4. whom God put forward as a sacrifice of atonement by his blood, effective through faith.

5. God publicly displayed him at his death as the mercy seat accessible through faith.

6. whom God offered as a place where atonement by the Messiah’s blood would occur through faith.

7. For God sent Jesus to take the punishment for our sins and to satisfy God’s anger against us.

8. For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin.

Strong
ἱλαστήριον
hilastērion
hil-as-tay’-ree-on
Neuter of a derivative of G2433; an expiatory (place or thing), that is, (concretely) an atoning victim, or (specifically) the lid of the Ark (in the Temple): – mercyseat, propitiation.

Thayer
1) relating to an appeasing or expiating, having placating or expiating force, expiatory; a means of appeasing or expiating, a propitiation

1a) used of the cover of the ark of the covenant in the Holy of Holies, which was sprinkled with the blood of the expiatory victim on the annual day of atonement (this rite signifying that the life of the people, the loss of which they had merited by their sins, was offered to God in the blood as the life of the victim, and that God by this ceremony was appeased and their sins expiated); hence the lid of expiation, the propitiatory
1b) an expiatory sacrifice
1c) a expiatory victim

Other Blogs: Bible Translation Posts

Demystifying Bible Translation and Where Our Culture Is with Inclusive Language — by Craig Blomberg

Bible Translation Matters — by Esteban Vázquez

Bible Translation by Committee — by Keith Williams on the NLT Blog

Neglect by design: the Hebrew Scriptures in modern Christian translations — Iyov

The last three mention the first.

“The Source” Bible Translation

This is a new one for me. I found out about it at Theo Geek which is a blog I do not endorse. But for those of you who like to collect translations and didn’t know about this one, I thought I would mention it. You can find the NT as a PDF file here. I notice it has a lot of exclamation marks!

I thought I’d post a quick sample:

Romans 12:9-21 The Source
9-13 Your love must not be overly critical. Strongly detest evil! Cling to good! Your love for the fellow believers is to be affectionate and warm. Honor one another above yourselves. Do not hesitate to be eager. Be spiritually boiling hot as a slave servant to the Lord!

Be joyful when you hope, have endurance when you are oppressed,
persist obstinately when you pray! Be in partnership with the needs of the
people devoted to God! Go after opportunities to be hospitable!

14-21 Bless those who persecute you! Bless them and do not call down
curses upon them! Rejoice with those who rejoice, and cry with those who
cry! Think along the same lines as each other! Do not be high minded!

Rather, associate with those of low social standing. Do not become
conceited.

Do not repay bad with bad. Have a concern beforehand about what is
favorable in the sight of all people.

If possible on your part, live at peace with all people.

Do not take revenge, my dearly loved ones, but leave room for God’s
anger, as the Scriptures say: “’Vengeance is mine, I indeed will repay,’
says the Lord.”

On the contrary, “If your enemy is hungry, feed them! If they’re
hungry, give them a drink! For by doing this, you will heap coals of fire
on their head!”

Do not conquer by doing bad things, but conquer bad things by doing
good things!

Blogs Devoted to Bible Translations – New NLT Blog

Various people have been letting us know about the new NLT Blog (New Living Translation). Editor and contributor Keith Williams has posted on other blogs when translation issues come up and also has a blog called the NLT Study Bible Blog.

Other blogs that I know of are the ESV Bible Blog and TNIV Truth, an independent blog.

Updated:
NLT Study Bible Blog
NET Bible Revolution

Any others?

HCSB Bible Translation Web Sites

If you are interested in this translation here are some links for you:

Updated: 1/25/10

What’s so great about the ESV

There is plenty to be found on the Web about the ESV translation itself. This post is about all the other things that Crossway does with the translation. I can’t think of a Bible translation/publisher that offers anywhere near what’s available with the ESV.

I wish this blog had a wider readership and all Bible publishers would read it and follow suit to some degree.

If you’re unfamiliar with all it has to offer…

  • Audio by Max Mclean which can also help with memorization as illustrated here by the Irish Calvinist
  • A variety of Bible Reading Plans
  • Clean, fast, easy to read Bible web site – Genesis 1
  • Devotions
  • All sorts of RSS Feeds
  • Blog – which let’s you know when new editions are out
  • Complete list of Bible editions with all kinds of information on each one and includes a PDF file of sample pages for each edition. This lets you see the typeface, size and how the pages are laid out. I’m assuming that if you print out these PDF files they will look just as they would in the Bible itself.
  • Metal Bibles, Rubber Bibles and they used to have a glow-in-the-dark Bible (this is to say they have a wide variety of editions)
  • API for web developers
  • Best of all, it’s available for free in many Bible software packages including the free e-Sword program

Regarding that last point–I know other Bible publishers probably have good reasons for doing what they do but I’m very thankful to have a good, modern translation of the whole Bible available without having to pay for it, especially when I already bought one that’s in book form and when it’s freely available on the Web. I think this model helps the publisher much more than hurts.

Psalm 119:92 with a surprise ending

Most translations of Psalm 119:92 go something like this:

If your law had not been my delight,
I would have perished in my affliction. (TNIV)

To me the word perish means to pass away, die a physical death, be destroyed etc.

Matthew Henry says:

He was in affliction, and ready to perish in his affliction, not likely to die, so much as likely to despair; he was ready to give up all for gone, and to look upon himself as cut off from God’s sight; he therefore admires the goodness of God to him, that he had not perished, that he kept the possession of his own soul, and was not driven out of his wits by his troubles, but especially that he was enabled to keep close to his God and was not driven off from his religion by them.

John Gill says:

must have perished, not eternally, but as to his comforts: his heart would have fainted in him, and he would have sunk under the weight of the affliction, had it not been for the relief he had from the word of God, the doctrines and promises of it;

So what is the only translation I found that conveys the meaning of this verse to me?

If your revelation hadn’t delighted me so,
I would have given up when the hard times came.
Psalm 119:92 The Message

I’ll just say that I don’t like The Message a lot, to put it in my vernacular. I’ve never seen a single verse or passage quoted that I liked until now. This is the only translation I found that conveys the meaning to me. Let’s just keep this between you and me. I know as of now there are about 6.7 trillion people who don’t read this blog.

For more reading:
C.H. Spurgeons’s The Treasury of David