I am very confident about the prospects of the new NIV (2011). I know those translators and know they are devout and they are accurate translators. I hope you are praying for them, and I hope you listen carefully to what Doug Moo, the chair of the Committee on Bible Translation, has said about philosophy. But what depresses me about Bible translation debates today is tribalism. Some have raised the bar of this conversation to such heights that variation is tantamount to heresy. I want to do a few posts on translation next week, but today let's have a little fun with the tribalism that does exist, that seems almost inevitable, that does sometimes lead to uncharitable divisiveness, but that can lead us to see ourselves in humorous tones at times. Translations can also be a window to our heart and theology and preferences. So here goes with a sketch of tribalist translation tendencies. Each of these is partially true but not wholly true, so let's not reify but have a little fun...
NRSV for liberals and Shane Claiborne lovers;
ESV for Reformed complementarian Baptists;
HCSB for LifeWay store buying Southern Baptists;
NIV for complementarian evangelicals;
TNIV for egalitarians;
NRSV for liberals and Shane Claiborne lovers;
ESV for Reformed complementarian Baptists;
HCSB for LifeWay store buying Southern Baptists;
NIV for complementarian evangelicals;
TNIV for egalitarians;
NASB for those who want straight Bible, forget the English;
NLT for generic brand evangelicals;
Amplified for folks who have no idea what translation is but know that if you try enough words one of them will hit pay dirt;
NKJV and KJV for Byzantine manuscript-tree huggers;
The Message for evangelicals looking for a breath of fresh air and seeker sensitive, never-read-a-commentary evangelists who find Peterson's prose so catchy.
NLT for generic brand evangelicals;
Amplified for folks who have no idea what translation is but know that if you try enough words one of them will hit pay dirt;
NKJV and KJV for Byzantine manuscript-tree huggers;
The Message for evangelicals looking for a breath of fresh air and seeker sensitive, never-read-a-commentary evangelists who find Peterson's prose so catchy.
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KJV ~ Byzantine manuscript-tree huggers, Now that's funny.
I grew up on this one and as far as translations go it had to be prior to 1960 for it to be of any relavance. I've read other versions, but I'm uesed to the older version.
The NIV and the NLT are decidedly against the New Perspective on Paul. The NIV, following Luther, is inconsistent in how it translates the nomos "law."
Isaiah 7:14 is probably the main reason that the NRSV has branded as liberal. The NRSV is also much more willing to go with the LXX than the Hebrew in the OT. But overall, it is not that much different than the ESV.
Here's another definition for the NASB: For people who like to drink Buckley's cough mixture straight up in a shot glass whether or not they have a cold.
I want to at least share this story about a recent encounter with translation tribalism.
I'm in an Old Testament class that's run by an educational group in our diocese, with degree accreditation from Newman University. All that to say: it's Catholic.
One of the students is a lady who converted something like 30-40 years ago. She had to buy a Bible for the class, so she went to a Catholic bookstore and bought Catholic Women's Devotional Bible. When she brought it to class, she said she was uncomfortable with it because it was copyright (NRSV) by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ.
Even after the instructor tried to explain that the NRSV text is a perfectly good translation, and that all Bibles labeled as Catholic are declared 'nihil obstat' and 'imprimatur' by a panel of Catholic clergy, she still wasn't satisfied and resolved to take it back for a different, "more Catholic" Bible.
Next class, she came with The Ignatius Holy Bible: RSV, Catholic Edition. Ignatius Press is, I think, the largest Catholic publisher in the world. And our teacher explained that this particular Bible is the most-commonly used English Bible in all of Catholic education and study. But she still saw the RSV copyright from the Churches of Christ so she only reluctantly resolved to keep and use it.
In her defense, I could sympathize a bit with a point she made - that many Protestant churches deny any credit or validity of Catholic institutions. (Even though early Catholic Tradition gave us the canon of Scripture in the first place!) But, to use that as justification for a retaliatory attitude just seems like mettlesome tit-for-tat tribalism.
Especially considering that the Protestant traditions are, quite bluntly, far ahead of Catholic institutions in terms of Biblical and Scriptural translation, study, and analysis. We Catholics owe a great deal to the monumental endeavors of Protestant translators over the centuries and we should be eager at the opportunities we have to catch up to them and participate with them in discovering God's Truth in the text of the Bible.
I started off not listening to the Scriptures in our liturgical church which was the RSV. I then progressed to the 1967 New Scofield(with word changes for the reader); back to the RSV for the Harper Study Bible for a few years, while the parish used the NAB. I've been through NAS77, NASBU, NKJ, KJ, NJ, and a few others. When I was laid off last September and was quite frightened, the Lord spoke to me marvellously and wonderfully through the Psalms of the GNT. Since I do not advocate the use of inclusive language, I'm using the KJV, RSV, and the HCSB(which I like very much). I am now(after 30 years!) discovering the NIV also, but really don't trust it that much. IMHO, if the 2011 NIV is a repeat of the TNIV with the inclusive language debacle, I think people will jettison the NIV entirely and move to either the ESV or the HCSB.
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