Bible Translations & My Brothers
Rick Warren's tendency to bounce between various translations of the Bible in his book The Purpose Driven Life (PDL) and my desire to buy a Bible for my brother Craig has made me think about which translation is best for various uses. So I stopped into a local Christian book store hoping to make some comparisons but failed miserably.
My goal was to look at getting a "The Message" translation for its everyday language approach. Sticker shock over the one edition they carried had my scurrying back to the comfort of the New International Version (NIV) aisle to pick up a translation that I was familiar with and knew would have a variety of publication types to choose from. Thusly I purchased a thin-line style with concordance and the words of Christ in red (pretty standard fare). Zondervan makes a good product so there isn't really much to complain about in that respect, though I should have been extra generous and sprung the extra few dollars for a study version.*
But I also picked up three pocket-sized copies of The Gospel of John in The Message (TM) translation because (a) they were cheap and (b) it seemed like a convenient way to get a feel for that translation. If it works out well I might have to (a) go buy several more copies and give them out as super-tracts and (b) invest in a complete book copy in this translation. Even with the NIV (or even the King James [KJV] and New King James [NKJV] editions that I have) I find myself reading passages over and over without comprehension.
In looking at a couple comparisons of translations (Zondervan and International Bible Society) I find that going with the NIV might not have been a bad choice after all. My brother is a fairly literate sort so the grade 4-5 level of TM's translation might be a bit too simplistic for him. The NIV, on the other hand, is still readable at about grade 8-9, the level on which a good newspaper is written. These numbers aren't my own as I haven't done my own readability tests, but this seems to be accurate after a quick glance or two.
Besides, I don't want to insult Craig's intelligence when *I'm trying to do him a favor. Recently he sent Maxwell Maltz's Psycho-Cybernetics to me (and one to Mom) stating that it had done him a world of good. Typical of the multitudinous self-help books in the Napoleon Hill Think and Grow Rich vein, it teaches the reader to rely upon the power of the self and ability within. Even before I was a follower of Christ I found such works to be puerile in respect to my needs.
Only through reading of the Word have I found a source that truly helps me in my daily struggle as a human. Its funny to recall that when I was in high school I mentioned to Craig that a problem I was dealing with at the time could have been solved if I had some sort of instruction book for life. Having read Hill's book, Og Mandino's works, and other such fare not typical for a person of my age at the time I still had a hunger. It wasn't until I started reading the Bible many years later did I begin to feel sated. Maybe BIBLE is an acronym for Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth.
If only to be polite I'll give Maltz a good college-skim but I am likely to approach it with a bias. The God-shaped hole in my heart is being filled with each reading of scripture and books like Rick Warren's. It took me long enough, but I now understand by living my life for Christ I can achieve the promises of any self-help book and more. So I'm going to send a copy of Rick Warren's book and a Bible to Craig and get another copy of PDL for my mother. I should probably get a the same books for my brother Dana, but I'm not sure which translation would be best for him. I'll have to look for one aimed at bright gear-head grease-monkey auto mechanics.
My goal was to look at getting a "The Message" translation for its everyday language approach. Sticker shock over the one edition they carried had my scurrying back to the comfort of the New International Version (NIV) aisle to pick up a translation that I was familiar with and knew would have a variety of publication types to choose from. Thusly I purchased a thin-line style with concordance and the words of Christ in red (pretty standard fare). Zondervan makes a good product so there isn't really much to complain about in that respect, though I should have been extra generous and sprung the extra few dollars for a study version.*But I also picked up three pocket-sized copies of The Gospel of John in The Message (TM) translation because (a) they were cheap and (b) it seemed like a convenient way to get a feel for that translation. If it works out well I might have to (a) go buy several more copies and give them out as super-tracts and (b) invest in a complete book copy in this translation. Even with the NIV (or even the King James [KJV] and New King James [NKJV] editions that I have) I find myself reading passages over and over without comprehension.
In looking at a couple comparisons of translations (Zondervan and International Bible Society) I find that going with the NIV might not have been a bad choice after all. My brother is a fairly literate sort so the grade 4-5 level of TM's translation might be a bit too simplistic for him. The NIV, on the other hand, is still readable at about grade 8-9, the level on which a good newspaper is written. These numbers aren't my own as I haven't done my own readability tests, but this seems to be accurate after a quick glance or two.
Besides, I don't want to insult Craig's intelligence when *I'm trying to do him a favor. Recently he sent Maxwell Maltz's Psycho-Cybernetics to me (and one to Mom) stating that it had done him a world of good. Typical of the multitudinous self-help books in the Napoleon Hill Think and Grow Rich vein, it teaches the reader to rely upon the power of the self and ability within. Even before I was a follower of Christ I found such works to be puerile in respect to my needs.
Only through reading of the Word have I found a source that truly helps me in my daily struggle as a human. Its funny to recall that when I was in high school I mentioned to Craig that a problem I was dealing with at the time could have been solved if I had some sort of instruction book for life. Having read Hill's book, Og Mandino's works, and other such fare not typical for a person of my age at the time I still had a hunger. It wasn't until I started reading the Bible many years later did I begin to feel sated. Maybe BIBLE is an acronym for Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth.
If only to be polite I'll give Maltz a good college-skim but I am likely to approach it with a bias. The God-shaped hole in my heart is being filled with each reading of scripture and books like Rick Warren's. It took me long enough, but I now understand by living my life for Christ I can achieve the promises of any self-help book and more. So I'm going to send a copy of Rick Warren's book and a Bible to Craig and get another copy of PDL for my mother. I should probably get a the same books for my brother Dana, but I'm not sure which translation would be best for him. I'll have to look for one aimed at bright gear-head grease-monkey auto mechanics.
posted by CC Hunt | 8:20 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home