I have never been a big fan of modern mass-produced Bibles as they seem to cater to a mostly conservative Evangelical audience. This audience wants their Bible to reflect their beliefs. While many feel that a committee translation is freer of theological bias, it has been my experience that committee translations are more subject to compromise. Some of the most interesting and creative translations come from individuals. Smith & Goodspeed's An American Translation. James Moffatt's translation, The Holy Bible in Modern English by Ferrar Fenton, Andy Gaus' Unvarnished New Testament, Hugh Schonfield's Original New Testament, heck, even Rodolphus Dickinson created more interesting translations of the Bible than the New International Version.
Sure, interesting anomalies can creep into the text, like "Once upon a time" at Genesis 11:1 or "I shall remain at Ephesus until Whitsuntide" (1Cor. 16:8)...oh wait, that's actually the New English Bible...a committee translation.
Besides some obvious and superior differences (like John 1:1 and John 8:58) in individual translations, there are also advantages when it comes to beauty and clarity.
Let's compare some of these:
Song of Solomon 4:8: "You are altogether beautiful, my love; there is no flaw in you." ESV - Now compare this to Ronald Knox's Bible, "Fair in every part, my true love, no fault in all thy fashioning!"
1 Peter 4:8: "Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins." ESV
- Now compare this to Weymouth's New Testament: "Above all continue to love one another fervently, for love throws a veil over a multitude of faults.
Genesis 1:1: "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters." ESV
- Now compare The Bible in Modern English by Ferrar Fenton "BY Periods God created that which produced the Solar Systems; then that which produced the Earth. But the Earth was unorganised and empty; and darkness covered its convulsed surface; while the breath of God rocked the surface of its waters."
1 Timothy 2: "But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of stress. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, inhuman, implacable, slanderers, profligates, fierce, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding the form of religion but denying the power of it. Avoid such people." RSV
- Now compare Rodolphus Dickinson's New Testament: "Further, know this, that in the last days, difficult periods will arrive. For men will be selfish, avaricious, arrogant, ostentatious, impious, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, without natural affection, perfidious, calumniators, licentious, fierce, despisers of those who are good, treacherous, rash, frivolously aspiring, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God; having a form of holiness, but discarding its power: from such also turn away."
Wordy? Perhaps. But can you imagine Sir John Gielgud narrating an audio version of this New Testament? That would be delicious.
Colossians 2:8: "See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ." NIV
- Now compare James Moffatt's Bible: "Beware of anyone getting hold of you by means of a theosophy which is specious make-believe, on the lines of human tradition, corresponding to the Elemental spirits of the world and not to Christ."
1 Timothy 6:20: "O Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to you, avoiding worldly and empty chatter and the opposing arguments of what is falsely called “knowledge”— which some have professed and thus gone astray from the faith."
-Now compare Richmond Lattimore's New Testament: "Oh Timothy, guard this which has been entrusted to you, putting aside the profane babblings and antitheses of what is falsely called knowledge; which some have professed, and thus failed in their faith."
Hebrews 2:9: "But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man. For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. For both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one: for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren, Saying, I will declare thy name unto my brethren, in the midst of the church will I sing praise unto thee. And again, I will put my trust in him. And again, Behold I and the children which God hath given me." KJV
-Now compare The Epistles of Paul in Modern English, A Paraphrase by George Barker Stevens: "Now the temporary humiliation of Christ below the angels is no argument against his real supremacy over them. It was a necessary condition of his accomplishing his saving work for man that he should pass through a career of suffering. For both Saviour and saved have a common Father, — God; hence the Saviour does not scruple to address men as his brothers, expressing, in common with them, his trustful dependence on Jehovah, and naming himself as the elder brother of the children of God."
Matthew 6:24: "Ye cannot serve God and mammon." ASV
-Now compare The Unvarnished New Testament: "You can't serve God and the Almighty Dollar."
1 Corinthians 6:20: Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? NASB
- Now compare Richmond Lattimore's New Testament: "Where is the sage? where is the scholar? Where is the student of this age? Did not God turn the wisdom of the world to folly?
Romans 6:24: "In the same way the Spirit also joins to help in our weakness, because we do not know what to pray for as we should" HCSB
-Now compare Hugh Schonfield's Original New Testament: "Likewise the Spirit comes to the assistance or our limitations; for we do not know how to express ourselves adequately in prayer."
Sure, many of the above may not be great for study, but I would rather listen to an audiobook of the Goodspeed or Williams New Testament than I would the ESV. Aside from the cherry-picked extreme examples one can find in "Liberal," Catholic or translations made by individuals, they can give you a fresh perspective on the Biblical text. "Standard" Evangelical/Fundamentalist/Conservative Bibles bow to a strict theological adherence and the pressure of public expectations, especially when it comes to favorite passages like John 1:1.
There is also a financial motive.
Edwin H. Palmer, Th.D., Executive Secretary for the NIV's committee wrote about failing to include the Divine Name:
"Here is why we did not: You are right that Jehovah is a distinctive name for God and ideally we should have used it. But we put 2 1/4 million dollars into this translation and a sure way of throwing that down the drain is to translate, for example, Psalm 23 as, 'Yahweh is my shepherd.' Immediately, we would have translated for nothing. Nobody would have used it. Oh, maybe you and a handful [of] others. But a Christian has to be also wise and practical. We are the victims of 350 years of the King James tradition. It is far better to get two million to read it—that is how many have bought it to date—and to follow the King James, than to have two thousand buy it and have the correct translation of Yahweh. . . . It was a hard decision, and many of our translators agree with you."
At least that was a kind answer. The publisher of the International Standard Version was not quite that friendly when I wrote to them in the late 1990's:
"In regards to your puerile insistence on the 'Divine Name' -- I have news for you. The ISV is in English, not Hebrew. If you want to use the "Divine Name" -- whatever you may think that it is (how DO you pronouce JHWH, or is the Divine Name KYRIOS, or is it Lord, lord, LORD, L-rd, L-RD, God, G-d, G-D?) -- go right ahead and spend two million dollars to prepare your own English language base translation of the Bible like we did. You can call God anything you want to, mistranslate 'anthropoi' to fit your own uninformed prejudices, and do whatever you want to do with the text, all with your own petty baseless religious superstitions and prejudices, but with no real substantive scholarship behind it, just some silly superstitious religious nonsense which you presume to be more spiritual than our work. Your ridiculous letter has earned a place of hallowed presence in the Learn Foundation's "tartarus" page at http://isv.org/tartarus.htm (where all the baseless comments are posted). I shall request that your letter be posted there, together with our response. I'm tired of people like you (and people like the woefully ignorant "King James Only" and "Textus Receptus" crowd) taking pot shots at our work. Please do not buy the ISV or any of our publications. Just shut up and leave us alone and don't bother to waste my time with any more email messages."
Charles Welty, Publisher
ISV New Testament
Wow!
There are also advantages to having an older individual translation in contrast to a newer one. Check out Psalms 100:3 in the Message Bible: "Know this: GOD is God, and God, GOD." This is perhaps one of the stupidest things I have ever read. I would much rather have Julia Smith's Bible where it reads: "Know ye that Jehovah he is God."
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