The best Bible translation
There is a story about four clergymen who were discussing the merits of the various translations of the Bible. One liked the King James Version best because of its beautiful English. Another liked the American Revised Version best because it is more literal and comes nearer to the original Hebrew and Greek. Still another liked Mofatt’s translation best because of its up-to-date vocabulary.
The fourth minister was silent. When asked to express his opinion, he replied, “I like my mother’s translation best.”
The other three expressed surprise. They did not know his mother had translated the Bible.
“Yes, she did,” he replied. “She translated it into life, and it was the
most convincing translation I ever saw.”
posted by Wayne Leman at 7:46 AM
3 Comments:
Yes-- with so many translations available to Western believers it's easy to get caught up in all these debates about dynamic vs formal equivalnce, blah blah blah.
I mean these can be helpful issues for discussion, but more importantly how are we doing at being the living "letters from Christ" that Paul writes about in 2 Cor 3:2-3?
By the way, great site! I have added a link to it to my list of Bible resources at my blog, Jordan's View.
Blessings,
Alex
Thanks for your comments, Alex. I could not agree more. The translation issues are important, but it is even more important to live out the Scriptures that we do have.
"Still another liked Mofatt’s translation best because of its up-to-date vocabulary." Up-to-date? Moffatt's translation dates back to 1913. So this is rather old story, right? It is still a good one, of course.
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