A Babel of Bibles

Part 3: What’s the point?

I heard a story about a 19th century Bible conference, about prophecy I think. Anyway there were raucous debates and disagreements about various points as each faction argued their view. A newspaper correspondent was covering the conference and remarked to one of the organizers. “You Christians have such disagreements among yourselves, how can you expect anyone to be drawn to your cause?” The man walked to the platform, interrupted the proceedings and said “I ask everyone here who is saved by faith in the risen Christ to join me in the Lord’s Prayer.” After a brief pause as heads bowed and knees bent, they all spoke with one voice, “Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen (Matthew 6:9–13 KJV).”

The story makes the point that what Christians agree about is much more fundamental and much more significant than what they disagree about. Yea and amen. But I relay the story to make a different point. I’m writing about the downside of so many good Bible translations. I’m trying to show what it costs us. What we lose because of them. If such an incident were to take place today there is no way we could spontaneously speak in unison anything, not even the Lord’s prayer. We would have to have one of the dozen or so translations currently in use projected on a screen. Only then could we speak (i.e. read) in unison.

“So what?” You say. “Aren’t we better off with so many translations to choose from?” I don’t think so. Consider Mt. 6:9 from the 10 best-selling translations (in descending order) in the US as of September 2009 (I’ve replaced #9, the Spanish Reina Valera with the NET, see below for full version names).

NIV 9 “This, then, is how you should pray: ” ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name,

KJV 9 After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.

NKJV 9 In this manner, therefore, pray: Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name.

NLT 9 Pray like this: Our Father in heaven, may your name be kept holy.

ESV 9 Pray then like this: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.

HCSB 9 “Therefore, you should pray like this: Our Father in heaven, Your name be honored as holy.

NASB 9 “Pray, then, in this way: ‘Our Father who is in heaven, Hallowed be Your name.

MSG 9 Like this: Our Father in heaven, Reveal who you are.

NET 9 So pray this way: Our Father in heaven, may your name be honored,

NIRV 9 “This is how you should pray. ” ‘Our Father in heaven, may your name be honored.

Having read these, do you have ten times the understanding, ten times the clarity? I think not. How much better it would be to take one translation and recite it ten times. The ‘diversity’ of expression does not deepen our understanding, it erodes it. Matthew 6:9 doesn’t say ten things, it says one thing. Matthew 6:9 doesn’t say one thing ten different ways, it says one thing one way. Now because it says that one thing in Greek (the original language of the New Testament) those of us who don’t speak Greek need a translation. But we don’t need two, or ten. Multiple translations undermine our understanding and appreciation because they take what is, in its original form, a stable, fixed form of expression and fragment it into a variety of expressions which, don’t miss the irony, mean the same thing.

Each translation is different (it has to be). No two of them use exactly the same words, though they’re all translating the same words and should mean the same thing. Though NIV, NKJV and ESV use the same phrasing “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name,” each introduces it with different wording. What is gained? I can’t imagine. You’ll note NLT, HCSB and NIRV avoid ‘hallowed’ and replace it with ‘honored’. Fair enough. ‘Hallowed’ is a word not commonly used. And rather than (God forbid) go to the trouble of learning something, why not use a more common word like ‘honored’? The problem is ‘honored’ doesn’t mean quite the same thing, it lacks the sacred connotation. HCSB accommodates this by adding “as holy,” NLT and NIRV stand pat.

The Message is a paraphrase which purposefully veers off the beaten track to offer a fresh perspective. This is what the New Living Translation did in it’s original incarnation as “The Living Bible (1971)” but it’s ‘evolving’ (progressing or regressing?) into a ‘translation’. But don’t worry about it ‘getting stuck’ anywhere. The New Living Translation (first edition 1996) has already been adjusted (second edition 2004). Stay tuned. But back to the fresh perspective of the Message. Does “Reveal who you are.” mean the same thing as “hallowed/honored as holy be your name”? I don’t think so. If the argument is “That’s what Jesus meant.” then I have to ask, why isn’t it what He said? If it means the same thing, what is the point? And if it means something more or less or other, isn’t it incorrect?

This is the essence of my concern. If two translations mean the same thing and only involve slightly different wording than nothing is gained and something (unity, cohesion, a common language) is lost. If they mean different things then one is better or worse than the other because they are both translating the same thing. And the thing they are translating doesn’t have two (or ten) different meanings. Of course, you want a translation of the Bible from it’s original languages (Hebrew and Greek) into our language (English) which accurately captures its meaning. But you shouldn’t want what we have, which is dozens of translations which relay similar meaning in slightly different wording. That situation erodes memorization, gives followers of Jesus an unnecessary hurdle to unity (“My Bible’s better than your Bible.”) and plays to an immature love of novelty.

Ah, the thrill of novelty. Let’s say you grew up with Bible ‘A’, then you switch to Bible ‘B’. It’s fresh, it’s exciting, it’s stimulating. Oh the joy! You’d be inclined to think it’s because Bible ‘B’ is a better translation than Bible ‘A’. And you’d almost certainly be wrong. What you’re responding to is not superior translation but novelty. Bible ‘A’ is old and familiar. Bible ‘B’ is new and exciting. The problem here is that as you stick with Bible ‘B’ guess what happens? That’s right, it becomes old and familiar. The solution? Bible ‘C’, it’s new and exciting, and so it goes.

Psalm 1 says “Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers (Psalms 1:1–3 NIV).” The law the psalmist meditated on never changed, ever, ever. No upgrades, no second editions, no Law 2.0. Yet the result of his meditation made him “like a tree planted by streams of water,” strong and stable, always drawing from the stream of Scripture on which he meditates day and night. There’s no novelty here, just depth and life.

Therefore what? I have no illusions about English-speaking Christians unifying around a single translation. These eggs will not be unscrambled. The best we can do is realize the cost of multiple translations and pick one to hang our lives on. Meditate on it day and night, you’ll become a tree planted by streams of water. But ‘Bible-hopping’, thrill-seeking, upgrade-craving believers will be like trees transplanted from one stream to another.

This subject has many issues I haven’t touched on, But I’m done posting for now. Though it occurs to me that you might be thinking, “Hey, I like multiple translations because ….” Post a comment and let’s pursue it.

News Flash: While preparing this post I learned that a ‘major revision and update’ of the New International Version has been announced, due out in 2011, I can hardly wait.

NIV New International Version (1978, 1984)

KJV King James Version (1611)

NKJV New King James Version (1982)

NLT New Living Translation (1996, 2004)

ESV English Standard Version (2001)

HCSB Holman Christian Standard Bible (2004)

NASB New American Standard Bible (1971, 1995)

MSG The Message (2002)

NET New English Translation (2005)

NIRV New International Readers Version (1996)