The Message – God Didn't Say That

How Does Your Bible Translation Measure Up?

I just had an interesting conversation with the AP’s Travis Loller about the new(ish) Bible translation The Voice. (Read her article: “New Bible Translation Has Screenplay Format.”) As we were talking, she asked me whether the new translation is better than the King James Version. I think it’s a fascinating question. The background is that…
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JoelMHoffman July 30, 2012 14

Translating Mistakes in the Text

From time to time, we have what seem to be mistakes in the traditional text of the Bible, frequently the results of apparent errors on the part of a scribe. How should these be translated? Here are three examples. Leviticus 20:10 (dittography) In Leviticus 20:10, we find the phrase “a man who commits adultery with…
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JoelMHoffman June 22, 2011 14

The Value of a Paraphrase instead of a Translation

Paraphrases like The Message and the NLT are regularly among the best Bible editions sold in the U.S. What is their merit? Just the title of this post shows you where I stand based on training an experience. A paraphrase is not the same as a translation. (I could have written “the value of a…
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JoelMHoffman June 1, 2011 16

What Goes Wrong when we Translate the Words

It makes intuitive sense that a translation should preserve the meaning of each word. But in this case, our intuition leads us astray, which is why I’m not a fan of so-called “literal,” “essentially literal,” or “formal equivalence” translations. Here’s an example that will make clear what goes wrong. There’s a German verb blaumachen. Though…
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JoelMHoffman April 22, 2011 13

Why Chiasmus Matters in Proverbs 14:31

Jeff (at Scripture Zealot) wonders about Proverbs 14:31: Whoever oppresses a poor man insults his Maker, but he who is generous to the needy honors him. (ESV) Jeff’s question is whether “his” in the first half of the verse is “the oppressor’s” or “the poor man’s.” As it happens, about a decade of linguistics research…
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JoelMHoffman February 15, 2011 2

The Microcosm of Bible Translation: Amos 5:15

[This is the first in what I hope will become an occasional series about the details of actual translation: methods, decisions that have to be made, compromises, etc.] Amos 15:5 The first part of Amos 15:5 reads (NRSV), “Hate evil and love good, and establish justice in the gate;” What goes in to that translation?…
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JoelMHoffman July 1, 2010 7

Growing Old and Fat in God’s Courtyard

Psalm 92:12 begins a series of verses that compare the righteous to trees: the people, like Palm trees, will blossom and flourish. They will be planted in God’s courtyard. And they will grow old and fat. What’s going on is this: In antiquity, most people didn’t get enough calories to live. Today (in the U.S.…
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JoelMHoffman May 7, 2010 8

The Problem with Forever

Ancient Hebrew divided “forever” into two parts: forever in the past, and forever in the future. Hebrew used the preposition “from” (mi-) to indicate the former, and “to” (l’-) for the latter. So Hebrew has three words. “Eternity” is olam. “From the beginning of time up to now” is mei-olam. And “from now to the…
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JoelMHoffman April 23, 2010 4

Gazelles, Stags, and Other Romantic Images

This final line of Song of Solomon, reprising a phrase that appears twice earlier, references two animals which the female heroine tells her male hero to be like as he leaves. The most common translation of these animals is “gazelle” and “young stag,” as in the NRSV “Make haste, my beloved, and be like a…
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JoelMHoffman March 31, 2010 5

John 3:17 and a Translation That Might Work

I think John 3:17 (like John 3:16) shows us three things: potential traps in translation, typical patterns of some of the common Bible translations, and the importance of paying attention to detail. The point of John 3:17 is pretty simple (even if the theology is deep): God didn’t send Jesus into the world in order…
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JoelMHoffman February 25, 2010 15

Tag: The Message