tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11875966.post114545983894723725..comments2023-10-20T07:28:50.948-07:00Comments on Better Bibles Blog: Which translation should I use?Wayne Lemanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18024771201561767893noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11875966.post-1145804778106074222006-04-23T08:06:00.000-07:002006-04-23T08:06:00.000-07:00Good ideas, Mike.I taught a class something like w...Good ideas, Mike.<BR/><BR/>I taught a class something like what you're talking about on Philemon. We read the whole letter every Sunday for five weeks and tried to comprehend it as a whole, eventually bringing in linguistic, historical insights as well as tying it to other books like Colossians and Ephesians. I imagine 1st century AD Bible study was really a matter of reading a single letter in detail and then talking about it.David Kerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13140007604009678479noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11875966.post-1145553605417204372006-04-20T10:20:00.000-07:002006-04-20T10:20:00.000-07:00Ask them, "what do you want to do with the Bible?"...Ask them, "what do you want to <B>do</B> with the Bible?" If they say something along the lines of "in-depth, detailed, analytical study," then recommend two versions, one such as the NASB, NRSV, or ESV. The other version should be one that moves them along the pathway of taking in larger hunks of text, something like the CEV, NLT2, GW. Encourage them that by using this version and working hard they will get the big picture. Tell them that getting the big picture of (say) Philippians is <B>very, very</B> hard with something like the NASB. But what getting the big picture will do for them is that they will be able to disambiguate the many, many choices the more literal translation gives them. In other words, their interpretive and analytic efforts will tend to produce more accurate results.<BR/><BR/>If, however, their response is, "I want to read it." Ask them if their intent is to comprehend what they read much the same as if they were reading a good book. Ask them what other books they read. The idea is to get them focused on the desire to comprehend. Then, suggest something like the (T)NIV, CEV, NLT2, GW, etc.<BR/><BR/>Frankly, what I've found useful is to grab an electronic copy of the NLT2 or NIV and strip out chapter and verse numbers and then paragraph it. The first time I did that was with Ephesians and I was struck with how I started to grasp Paul's overall message.<BR/><BR/>I haven't had the opportunity to teach a Bible Study course, yet. However, if and when I do I'm going to start with the newspaper. The idea is to get them to understand <B>how</B> they comprehend a printed text first. For example, a person doesn't figure out what a newspaper article says by cutting and pasting together two pieces from two different articles from the same newspaper.<BR/><BR/>After that I'll move up to something like Charles Dicken's "A Christmas Carol" and work with understanding and summarizing paragraphs.<BR/><BR/>Once that skill is developed, I'll move to the Bible probably dealing with the range of translations as I pointed out above. The intent here is to get the student to grasp what the interpretive issues are with literal versus dynamic translations.<BR/><BR/>Also, I might do this with the class: give them an unparagraphed copy of Ephesians from the NLT2 with no chapter or verse numbers. I would ask them to paragraph it (without any crutches and no "cheating"). That would strengthen their skill of comprehending and thinking in (and seeing) paragraph level chunks.<BR/><BR/>Hope that's helpful.Mike Sangreyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06436714466682782260noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11875966.post-1145536445258887252006-04-20T05:34:00.000-07:002006-04-20T05:34:00.000-07:00Wonderful response! Thank you.If you don't mind, ...Wonderful response! Thank you.<BR/><BR/>If you don't mind, I would like to include this post in the course I teach called, "How to Study the Bible."<BR/><BR/>I will give appropriate credit.Joehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09693381971064363612noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11875966.post-1145465495183149072006-04-19T09:51:00.000-07:002006-04-19T09:51:00.000-07:00Wayne,I'm glad you made this a post. In my situat...Wayne,<BR/><BR/>I'm glad you made this a post. In my situation the "answers" are:<BR/><BR/>personal study: NIV (I like it)<BR/>family devotions: CEV (Kids understand it)<BR/>at church: NASB (Pastor uses it)David Kerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13140007604009678479noreply@blogger.com