I used to proudly and unquestioningly hold to a particular
standard of belief that I now find myself questioning. Some will likely call me a heretic for this.
Heck, back then, I would have called these questions heretical!
The reason for questioning is simple: I live in the 21st
century, among a highly industrialized, aggressively secular global community.
I don’t live among a first century community of farmers in a religiously-dominated
culture, or among a bronze-age nomadic society. I marvel that I didn’t catch
this sooner.
And with this in mind, I’ve found myself concluding that “the
most literal translation” of the Bible won’t actually be helpful to me. So I’ve
abandoned my search for the most literal translation of the Scriptures for
several reasons:
• The original texts of the Bible are full of stories, parables
and metaphors: it wasn’t actually written for literal interpretation. Looking
for “the most literal” translation strikes me as fundamentally contrary to the
writing styles and methods of the Biblical authors.
• In order to have an effective, “literal”, word-for-word
translation of the Bible, we need to have an equivalent English word – and ONLY
one English word – for every Hebrew or Greek or Aramaic word of the original
texts. And we aren’t even close to that. These languages are completely
different from their roots up.
• Literal communication of agrarian metaphors and religious
allusion don’t translate well (if at all) into the Information Age. The ideas
are valuable, but we need to translate the metaphors, either during the
translation to English, or during my reading of the English translation.
Knowledge of grafting grapevines, for example, is not prevalent in my world.
• There really is at least a measure of truth behind the principle
that as years go by, both the skills and the resources for Bible translation
advance. Therefore, all else being equal, there is real reason to expect that
more modern translations will ultimately capture the heart of the Scriptures
better than earlier versions.
• I don’t actually need divine wisdom for dealing with slavery, temple prostitution, arranged marriages, leprosy, and other topics that the Bible did deal with literally. But there are principles that, if I consider them metaphorically, have application to my Facebook interactions and my driving habits.
• My other challenge is that I no longer am as interested in
the (admittedly priceless) words of famous first-century (or much earlier!)
followers of God. I’m actually more interested in hearing the Word of God
Himself speaking to me through their words. [see John 1:1-2, Hebrews 4:12-13]
I still respect (and study and read) the NASB and NRSV and
other word-for-word translations of the Bible. I value those translations, and
I seriously respect their goals!
For the last 50 years or so, I’ve used my paper-and-ink
Bibles very heavily, and worn them out regularly. So I’ve replaced my “primary”
Bible pretty frequently. And curiously, I chose to get a different translation
for my primary study & ministry Bible every few years. (My thinking back
then was that I wanted to get past the mindset of the translators, and hear the
heart of the authors behind the translation.) So I’ve avoided growing up loyal
to any particular translation.
In recent years, there have appeared some fresh translations
that are aspiring to translate the heart of the content, rather than to
shoehorn an English word into being an equivalent for a Greek or Hebrew word
that isn’t even part of our thinking in this century. As a result, these are
fresher to my understanding and more accessible to my emotions than the
shoehorned vocabulary of earlier versions (consider “adjure” or “husbandman” or
“prick against the goads”).
I’ve been listening
to the Bible rather a lot recently, more than reading it (“Faith comes by
hearing….”), and while I own audio versions of four different translations, I
find myself most inspired, most provoked, most comforted by The Message Version.
Not even a little bit of a “word-for-word” version, their goal was to
communicate Scripture into the actual, everyday vernacular that we speak today.
I think it succeeds wonderfully!
I chose it primarily to get out of the normal “religious”
thinking that I’d grown up with listening to KJV and NIV preachers, and it’s worked
for that purpose.
When I’m digging into the Greek & Hebrew, I still use
the older, more traditional translations, particularly the NIV.
So you’re welcome to write me off as a heretic if you feel
the need to. Keep in mind that “heretic” was a word invented during the
Inquisition specifically to accuse those who [gasp!] thought independently of
what the religious government told them to think. Yeah, I aspire to do that.
But you’re also welcome to join me in exploring the riches
of the Word of God as He expresses Himself through the word of God.