Part 1: The Paradox of Choice
Many people are excited about the variety of Bible translations available. A major new translation every few years, a niche publication of an existing translation every few months, the thrills keep coming. Many factors go in to the translation of the Bible. This isn’t about those factors. There are a couple, or a half dozen, or a dozen (depends on who’s counting) ‘good’ translations of the Bible in modern English. This isn’t about which one is best or why one is better than another. This is about the cost, the downside, the harm of having so many ‘good’ translations.
What could possibly be wrong with it? I’m glad you asked.
To begin with, there is the cost of choice. We’re used to choices. We like them, assuming the more the better. 32 flavors of ice cream, 500 cable channels, let the good times roll. Unappreciated amongst all this choice is the psychological toll of choosing, and it’s huge. A friend from the mission field was home on furlough. She went to the store to get some yogurt, she left empty-handed and deeply frustrated. Why? All she wanted was yogurt. Where she lives, you go to the corner shop and ask for yogurt. They give you yogurt. You pay for it. You eat it. All is well. What she encountered in an American supermarket was a wall of yogurts: low-fat yogurt; low-cal yogurt; high-calcium yogurt; low-sodium yogurt; Organic yogurt; fair-trade yogurt; live culture yogurt … different brands with different flavors in different sizes at different prices. The unexpected burden of identifying the ‘best’ yogurt, the right kind, the right flavor, the right price, was too much. The downside of making choices is the weight of making the ‘right’ choice and the nagging fear, after deciding, that you could have chosen better. If it sounds trivial think outside the yogurt. Your shoes, your house, your job, your spouse, your time, your toys, your car, your church – they’re all choices. Did you make the best choice? Is it still the best?
Have you chosen the right Bible? Certainly a weightier question than the right yogurt. We’re talking about God and the devil, life and death, heaven and hell. Woe to those who walk away from the wall of Bibles empty-handed. Now you may say, “Well they’re all good so it doesn’t matter.” I’ll talk about the significance of conflicting meaning in another post. For the moment consider, if it doesn’t matter, why do they exist?! Surely one is (or purports to be) better, truer(?), clearer, more accurate, more accessible than another. Since we don’t live on bread alone but on every WORD that comes from the mouth of God (Mt. 6:4) we’d better find the best, truest, most accurate, most accessible words (BTW the Greek term translated ‘word’ there is rhema, which means specific literal words, not meaning in general).
You’d better choose the right Bible. But just choosing the right Bible isn’t good enough. You must keep choosing it. Perhaps you chose the best Bible in 1999. Congratulations. That Word of God you chose was a lamp to your feet and a light for your path (Psa. 119:105). But as you ambled down that path time passed and you know what that means — new translations appear. Although you chose the best Bible in 1999, is it still the best Bible in 2009? Four major translations have appeared in the meantime (ESV 2001, HCSB 2004, NET 2005, TNIV 2005). If they’re not improvements, why do they exist? And if they are improvements, shouldn’t you upgrade to them? Or more precisely, one of them. But which one? Why, the best one of course! Just pick the best one and let it be a lamp to your feet and a light for your path … until a new, improved version arrives. Then choose it, onward and upward ad infinitum.
The unprecedented number of choices we face are a double-edged sword. On one hand they offer the opportunity for expressing individuality, finding fulfillment and experiencing excellence. On the other hand, consciously or unconsciously they exact a psychic tax – the burden of wondering if we made the right choice and the angst of deciding, moment by moment, whether to stick with our choice or choose again. Barry Schwartz’s “The Paradox of Choice: How the culture of abundance robs us of satisfaction” is a great read on this problem as a whole.
The significance of the problem as it relates to any aspect of our lives is in proportion to the significance of that aspect. Yogurt – not very important. The Word of God – of utmost importance. It is eternal (Psa. 119:89), life (Phil. 2:16), truth (John 17:17), like fire and like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces (Jer. 23:29), living and active, sharper than a double-edged sword (Heb. 4:12). It is more essential to our lives than food (Mt. 6:4). So what to do? I have no illusions about fixing the problem. The genie is out of the bottle, the eggs will not be unscrambled. What we can do is be aware of the problem and conduct ourselves in a way which minimizes the downsides rather than amplifying them.
Personally and practically it means choosing one Bible translation and sticking with it. Hanging your life on that particular expression of the Word of God. Which translation should it be? I think the act of primarily using one translation is more important than which translation you use. As Napoleon put it “One bad general is better than two good ones.” The point being it’s better to follow one consistent source of direction (even if inferior) than to waver between two ‘good’ ones. Sort of like “No man can serve two masters…” But someone will object “They’re both translations of the Bible, there’s no real difference.” If there’s no real difference do you really benefit? But they are different. And the degree to which they are different is the degree to which the problem festers. To some it may seem like I’m making a mountain out of a molehill. But the more the cultural whirlwind of information, choice and fragmentation increases, the more desperately we need a consistent, unchanging point of reference.
We don’t need a new or better Bible translation. We need to submit ourselves to the eternal power of His unchanging Word. I’ve written here about just one of the downsides of multiple translations: the cost of choosing. In an upcoming post I’ll consider how it erodes the practice of hiding His Word in our hearts (Psa. 119:11).