I had this bright idea to put up a post every day while I’m in South Africa. I’m not finding the time to do a proper job on it, but here it is anyhow…
Reading for the day:
- When in doubt, blame the witches (thesouthafricaninsult)
- Dire tuberculosis warning in Kwa Zulu Natal town (Mail & Guardian)
- Quote by Desmond Tutu on ubuntu (Szavanna_blog)
Last evening I was happy to discover a Gideon New Testament in my hotel room. It is a bilingual edition with the Afrikaans 1983 version and the New International Version (UK spelling). This brings up the question:
Why does Gideons in the U.S. continue to distribute KJV Bibles?
This bilingual edition in South Africa is using two contemporary translations. I assume they both have licensing restrictions. Can’t Gideons in the U.S. do the same thing? KJV is not a witness to the lonely traveler. A lonely traveler in need of spiritual guidance is going to only find obstacles to comprehension.
By the way, Henry Neufeld has a nice little rant on KJV here: Why I Hate the KJV.
I mentioned recently the difficulty in translating 1 Timothy 1:14. It seems that the Afrikaans translation has a nice solution:
Ons Here het my oorlaai mer sy genade en met geloof en liefde wat ons deel is in Christus Jesus.
(1 Timoteus 1:14)
(Source: Die Nuwe Testament en Psalms Nuwe vertaling (met herformulerings) 1983-vertaling)
Sorry I can’t gloss that for you but I really do think it is a nice solution 
I know it’s not much better than KJV, but Gideons publish New King James New Testaments.
Mtjeff wrote:
The Gideons do provide a great service, but do seem to be stuck on the KJV. I’ll discuss with a couple Gideon friends and see if they have a reason. I think of the Bibles they give to school kids and wonder if any of them can really figure out what is being said. I know God can and does reveal his word to us through even the KJV, but wouldn’t it be easier if it was in a contemporary version?
Henry Heufeld wrote:
My wife will nearly go ballistic when we visit a church and find the KJV as the pew Bible. “Don’t they want to reach anybody outside the church?” she asks, rhetorically of course, since she knows my view.
But her experience was that she never read the Bible until someone gave her a living Bible, and that got her started. She uses others (NIV and CEV quite regularly). She says she would have never read the Bible had someone presented her with the KJV first.
Nice that Afrikaans; very similar to Dutch (my native language.)
Noah is quite right: the NKJV is also printed by the Gideons, and in fact, most placed Bibles I have seen for some time have been in that translation.
Also, someone handed me once a Gideon New Testament in the NIV!
Esteban
Apologies to Henry Neufeld for once again slaughtering his last name. I think I fixed it in the post but I now see that in a comment I have said Heufeld. Go ahead, Nick, rip away, I deserve it.
Just a general question about translations (I love my NKJV by the way.) I recently picked up a pocket New Testament – “translated from the Latin Vulgate” by Rheims-Douay… It reads very nice. Any information you or your brainiac friends can share on the translation? Thanks!
“Brainac” was meant as a compliment! You know me Lingamish but your friends don’t!
I’ve heard of it but it’s Suzanne and Wayne at Better Bibles Blog that actually know something about it. Maybe ask them.
Is a genius with a twisted mind a “lame braniac?”
Katpie, the Douay-Rheims Bible was the first Roman Catholic translation into English, dating from 1582. It is indeed a translation of the Latin Vulgate. See this Wikipedia article. It was still the main Roman Catholic Bible in English well into the 20th century.
YOU GUYS ARE GREAT! And brainiacs… THANKS! “Lame brainic”? Is that an oxymoron? hahahaha THANKS AGAIN!