Month: March 2011

Bible Translations and Mistranslations

If not by bread alone then by what?

Matthew 4:4 (also Luke 4:4) is among the most famous Bible quotations: “Man shall not live on bread alone” (NIV2011) or, better, “one does not live on bread alone.” But if not on bread, then what? What’s interesting is that there are two completely different answers.


March 29, 2011 8

Exploring the Bible Videos

I’m thrilled to announce the beta version of my latest project: Exploring the Bible videos. The site is a growing collection of short text-based videos about the Bible, frequently focusing on translation issues. The first three videos (also available on YouTube) are: John 3:16 – What does “God so loved the world” really mean? Quiz:…
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March 28, 2011 17

Where have all the posts gone?

Regular followers of this blog may have noticed that recently there hasn’t been much to regularly follow. In part that’s because I’ve been traveling so much, but mostly it’s because I’ve been working on an exciting new project, as I describe next. The project, like many, obeyed the 90-90 rule: The first 90 percent of…
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March 28, 2011 0

Girl Animals, Boy Animals, and Neuter Animals

CNN’s belief blog has an interesting story about a request by PETA not to call animals “it” in Bible translations: PETA is hoping the [NIV’s] move toward greater gender inclusiveness will continue toward animals as well. “When the Bible moves toward inclusively in one area [human gender -JMH] … it wasn’t much of a stretch…
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March 24, 2011 5

Who are you calling a virgin?

The NAB’s decision to change “virgin” to “young woman” in Isaiah 7:14 has once again brought up the virgin birth, Mary, and the nature of prophesy, as well as the role of translation in accurately conveying the text of the Bible. Most reports I’ve seen recently, though, confuse what are really three separate issues here.…
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March 23, 2011 45

The Ten Commandments Don’t Forbid Coveting

In the original Hebrew, the Ten Commandments don’t address coveting, so common renditions like “do not covet” or “thou shalt not covet” are mistranslations. New! This post is also available as a video, part of the Exploring the Bible Videos series. The Hebrew verb in the 10th commandment (or, for some, the 9th and 10th…
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March 2, 2011 91