Posted on 09/02/2009 9:37:35 AM PDT by TaraP
The top-selling Bible in North America will undergo its first revision in 25 years, modernizing the language in some sections and promising to reopen a contentious debate about changing gender terms in the sacred text. The New International Version, the Bible of choice for conservative evangelicals, will be revised to reflect changes in English usage and advances in Biblical scholarship, it was announced Tuesday. The revision is scheduled to be completed late next year and published in 2011.
"We want to reach English speakers across the globe with a Bible that is accurate, accessible and that speaks to its readers in a language they can understand," said Keith Danby, global president and CEO of Biblica, a Colorado Springs, Colo.-based Christian ministry that holds the NIV copyright.
But past attempts to remake the NIV for contemporary audiences in different editions have been plagued by controversies about gender language that have pitted theological conservatives against each other.
The changes did not make all men "people" or remove male references to God, but instead involved dropping gender-specific terms when translators judged that the original text didn't intend it. So in some verses, references to "sons of God" became "children of God," for example.
Supporters say gender-inclusive changes are more accurate and make the Bible more accessible, but critics contend they twist meaning or smack of political correctness.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
You mean you don’t? Is netbible.org blocked by your ISP for some reason?
What ever happened to the King James version I grew up with? It seemed OK to me.
If you read the article, that's exactly what is happening.
Interesting. I tend to prefer ‘more literal’ over ‘more readable,’ but that’s just me.
Heck, I’m still trying to find one that uses the proper names of God rather than the “The Lord, the Lord Almighty” silliness.
And let’s see what does GOD say about His Word and Who will instruct us in understanding.
The Holy Spirit will be the one to transmit the knowledge of God direct to us.
1. “But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.” (1 Corinthians 2:10)
2. “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, HE WILL TEACH YOU ALL THINGS, and bring to your remembrance all things that I have said to you.” (John 14:26)
3. “However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, HE WILL GUIDE YOU INTO ALL TRUTH ...” (JOHN 16:13)
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
I’m sure you know the old story:
A devout Christian heard a flood was coming. A man drove up to his house and said “Get in, I will drive you to safety.” The devout man said “No need, God will save me.” After the waters started to rise a man in a boat came by and said “Get in, I will take you to safety.” The devout man again refused help. The water continuted to rise and the devout man was sitting on the top of his house. A helicopter came by and offered to fly him to safety. The devout man again refused saying “God will save me.” The waters continuted to rise and the man drowned. In Heaven the devout man asked God “Why didn’t you save me?” God replied “I sent a car, a boat, and a helicopter.”
I read a story by at one very fundamentalist preacher that for years felt the same way you do. He avoided dictionaries, concondances, and commentaries because he believed he didn’t need them, only the Holy Spirit. Then he realized that God had provided those things for his use understanding the scriptures. The Holy Spirit had gifted men with the ability to teach scripture for his benefit.
Taken to the extreme, you stance would indicate that we don’t need any translations at all. We should just give people Greek & Hebrew copies of the text and let the Holy Spirit guide them.
When the Bible says the Holy Spirit will guide you in all truth, maybe part of that is guiding you to the right teacher, commentary, or even Bible translation that will help you understand.
God has alwasy shown a strong propensity to work through men. Don’t turn up your nose at help that comes from another man. For all you know, the Holy Spirit is working through that man to help enlighten you.
The Holman Christian Standard Bible transliterates the tetragrammaton occasionally. It was translated at the behest of the Southern Baptist Convention, but it is not explicitly a Baptist translation. It is a fairly new translation, and tends to favor the generic masculine pronoun over gender inclusive language. (It follows the Colorado Springs Guidelines.) The reading level and "flavor" seem to be on par with the NIV, which it was intended to replace in SBC publications.
The New Jerusalem Bible transliterates the name at every occurrence, and also transliterates El-Shaddai. It's a Catholic translation, so includes the Deuterocanon. It's quite readable, but it may go for literary over literal. It's available in a text edition and a study edition with historical-critical notes. The earlier Jerusalem Bible also transliterates the Tetragrammaton, but I have not read from it and cannot comment on it.
Rotherham's Emphasized Bible also transliterates the tetragrammaton, and uses different typefaces to indicate El, Eloah, and Elohim. It's a very literal, one-man translation that uses several curious typographical techniques to indicate which clauses Rotherham thought should be granted emphasis due to untranslatable elements of the original languages. It is only available in a largish, hardcover facsimile. The text is freely available online, but it lacks the typographical emphasis cues. It was translated in the 19th century, so it benefits from scholarship of Westcott and Hort, but predates the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls.
The World English Bible is a one-man revision of the American Standard Version, with Apocryphal books based on the KJV. It transliterates the tetragrammton consistently. It's in the public domain, freely downloadable, and the Psalms+NT are available in hardcopy. I haven't really read it, but the website is informative.
If you consider Jehovah an acceptable transliteration of the tetragrammaton, you might like the American Standard Version. It's the American version of the British Revised Version, a late 19th/early 20th century revision of the KJV. It is literal to a fault, "better at Greek than English." It never really caught on, and the next revision (the RSV) dropped Jehovah and put a greater emphasis on readability. I haven't read it, but it's public domain now if you want to sample it.
Addendum: The World English Bible uses the Majority Text of the NT, which of itself may be interesting to some people. The others I listed use whichever critical text was current at the time of translation.
Never heard of it, thanks for the info!
Yep.
Thank you Tara.
= = =
Eggers’ site
http://www.prayersforthepeople.com/
= = =
Kehrli
http://www.cryfromthewall.com/
= = =
Jeremy Lopez (similar to Bill Somers)
http://www.identitynetwork.net
= = =
David Wilkerson’s site
http://davidwilkersontoday.blogspot.com/
= = =
Joel Rosenberg
http://flashtrafficblog.wordpress.com/
= = =
Blogsite of Dumitru Duduman’s grandson, Michael Boldea
http://www.mikeboldea.blogspot.com/
Grandpa Duduman’s prophecies (column on right)
http://www.handofhelp.com/index.php
= = =
Maurice Sklar
http://www.injesus.com/index.php?module=message&task=list&GroupID=NB006VH2
= = =
Bill Somers’ site
Thanks.
Though I think there’s more of a prophetic thread around here currently somewhere! LOL.
Have you ever visited this site?
= = =
Jeremy Lopez (similar to Bill Somers)
http://www.identitynetwork.net
= = =
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.