Previous posts in this series: Bible Version Cage-Match Round 1, Bible Version Cage-Match Round 2
I couldn’t do it. I tried to write Round 3 highlighting two of the finest translations of the Bible ever produced in Standard English: Contemporary English Version and New Living Translation. I tried to write it. But I just couldn’t. Because I realized that I was scamming you. I already had it in my head that these were great translations and that I was really trying to make a comment about other translations written in awkward English. But I caught myself fixing the match and here’s how I did it:
1. I picked a passage from a version I don’t like.
2. I showed the same passage in a version I did like.
3. I “proved” how my preferred version is superior.
When I realized that I had been doing this, I started seeing it happen all over the place. If you’re someone who values “faithfulness” to the original, inspired Word of God you show a dynamic translation and then illustrate how it has strayed from the truth.
If you are someone who values clarity, or naturalness or communicability or whatever you want to call it, you find some verse in a “literal” translation and show how it’s awkward English and that nobody talks that way anymore (if they ever did).
For those of us who like to blog on Bible topics, this scam is an endless source of material. A friend of mine just sent me this verse:
Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy. (James 5:11; KJV)
How can you resist blogging on something like that? I could take a swipe at the word “ye,” make a slightly blasphemous reference to the “end of the Lord” and finish up with a few comments on how “pitiful” this translation is.
While we’re taking swipes at translation, check out this one:
Some people walked ahead of Jesus and others followed behind. They were all shouting,
“Hooray for the Son of David!
God bless the one who comes
in the name of the Lord.
Hooray for God
in heaven above!”(Matthew 21:9, CEV)
Hooray?!? What is this a basketball game? My Greek might be a little weak but since when is hooray any kind of proper translation for hosanna?
So you see what I mean? It’s so easy to take cheap shots at Bible translations that you don’t like and make the one you like look like the better Bible.
I’ve made my confession. That’s what I was up to. If you want to read the Bible in something that sounds like an Elizabethan sonnet, go for it. Or if you would rather your Bible sounds like Saturday morning cartoons for the kiddies, that’s great. I’m going to continue to advocate CEV and NLT for English-speakers. They are two versions that children and adults can understand easily. They are well translated and you can be confident that they are accurately conveying the meaning of the original. But I’m not going to “prove” that they’re great translations by taking shots at other versions.
I’ve confessed. Now I await the punishment for my crime.
Oh, confession is good for the soul, they say. But my conscience has been stung a little by your confession because I need to make the same confession. Maybe I’ll feel better after some of the sting goes away. Or maybe the sting *is* the better feeling!
But wait… I thought we were simply comparing the NLT and CEV. I wasn’t out to make other translations look bad. I think you need to say “April Fools” for this post and then let’s go on with the series.
David,
Your scams are better than life sometimes, especially since it seems you always confess up! It’s funny because I was just remembering the round table. It still makes me smile today. Really big.
I could never do a sparring between Bible translations. Because I like certain things a lot about the way different versions say things. NLT is my favorite, but there are places where I have written in the NIV translation, because I like how it sounds. I like to have one more literal translation (ESV is my current favorite) and one more dynamic one (NLT for the past 4 or so years) and then I combine the comparison in a way that makes the most sense to me.
My kids do a really great recitation of Psalm 37, but if you tried to follow along to make sure they were getting it right, you’d have a hard time, because it is a combination of NLT and ESV. For each phrase, I pick the version that seems to make the most sense, be the most accurate and finally, just overall sounds the best. Quite unorthodox, but there’s just no one translation, I think, that really gets it right (meaning, “how I like it
“) on every passage.
My poor kids, though! Life was a lot simpler when you just memorized the King James, so you and everyone else who knew the verse could say it in unison.
Anyway, I think you’ve inspired me to make a list somewhere of my favorite passages, each in the translation I remember it impacting me the most in.
I know I’ve already posted a comment once to this blog entry, but I just want to say that I’m really bothered about all this. I agreed to do this series with David, which he now calls a scam (as a total surprise to me).
However, I want everyone to know that my part in all this was ENTIRELY on the level. There was no hidden agenda in round two, which I wrote. My goal and interest was simply to compare the NLT and CEV which I had a great interest in doing, letting the chips fall where they may regarding what I believe are two very good translations.
On my part, I had no desire to put down other translations, and I don’t feel that my contribution to this was a “scam” on any level whatsoever. I regret that the series that we were supposedly going to cowrite together is ending this way, but again, I want eveyone to know that my part in this was sincere.
Rick,
Round 1 and Round 2 were obviously sincere posts. I was only confessing to the mind-set with which I was approaching Round 3. That unfortunately was interpreted as a comment on the whole series. I apologize for that.
This was not an April Fool’s and I am very interested in going on with the series.
I’ve changed the title of this post. And I am going to start work on Round 3 comparing a passage from 2 Corinthians in CEV and NLT (without slamming any other version, by the way!)
I was about to recommend lashes or walking up stone stairs on your knees but then shamefacedly remembered words that i’ve heard somewhere: “let the person who hasn’t played the translation scam be the first to post a scathing comment.”
[...] secondary purpose was to draw attention to a post by David Ker over at Lingamish. Ker confesses his method, making most transparent his heinous [...]
[...] Version Cage Match series: Bible Version Cage-Match Round 1, Bible Version Cage-Match Round 2, The Scam Is Revealed, Bible Version Cage-Match Round 3 (Rick did you post another after [...]