The title of this post is just one of many delicious quotes in the article Blessed are the conservative in Bible translation.
Read and enjoy.
HT: My Dad
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Matthew 1:18f “The birth of Jesus Christ happened this way: His mother, Mary, was engaged to Jospeh, but before they were married, she became pregnant with the child of the Divine Guide. Jospeh was a righteous husband and thus did not want to publicly shame her, so he decided to divorce her privately.” [sic]
1:25 “And did not consummate the marriage until she bore her son, who Jospeh named Jesus.”
Truly sloppy. I think I am going to insert the name Stephen Colbert into one of those passages, just because I can.
You can read the Conservative Bible translation here: http://conservapedia.com/Conservative_Bible_Project
File this under, “You have GOT to be kidding…”
File this under, “You have GOT to be kidding…”
When I first read about this project a couple of months ago, I thought it was a spoof about one of the current English versions. But I’ve been reading on their website and I think they are serious.
I suspect most of us can see the flaws in their approach to Bible translation. Let’s be careful in our comments that we don’t question their spirituality or intelligence (see our blogging guidelines).
I have worked with a good number of recent Bible translation teams. I have been personally blessed by the spiritual devotion and theological care that has been evident in the work of the translators I have interacted with. By far, the vast majority of English Bible translators these days are very conservative theologically. They would be shocked to hear that they are being accused of being liberal.
Recent translation teams are so conservative that some mainline churches feel left out of current Bible translation work. They feel a need for Bibles that can be used by a wider spectrum of the Church than conservative evangelicals. They miss see the apochryphal books in their Bibles. And they are concerned with translating New Testament meanings of O.T. quotes back into translation of those O.T. passages, especially concerning messianic issues.
The Conservative Bible Project, with its transparent biases, may serve a real purpose if it reminds us that every translation of the Scriptures is made with an agenda. I have more than 30 English versions of the Bible near at hand and each of them reflects the translation philosophy and theological bent of its translators. It is my observation that even those translations I find least palatable were prepared by people who wanted to render the word of God, as they understood it, into English as accurately as they were able.
In my opinion, the best translations intelligibly render the meaning of the original languages as found in the best critical texts into the target language. I’m one of those mainliners whom Wayne refers to, and I prefer not to see the NT read into the OT.
Oh, there is so much that could be said. On the one hand, all translations have an agenda, both stated and unstated. Whether it is the Vulgate or the KJV, there were various agendas in the translation that had both theological and political ramificaitons. Bart Ehrman’s Orthodox Corruption of Scripture shows that there is a long and rich history of changes to fit particular agendas even if you don’t agree with every case presented by him.
However, this seems to be a case of wanting to make sure the Bible says what we think it should say instead of letting the text stand on its own. My suspicion is that many (probably most) of us go to Church not to have our beliefs challenged, but rather, reaffirmed. Is this translation not just a logical extension of that?
To some extent, we all probably do this in one manner or another. For example, how many of us say “debts” versus “trespasses” when we recite the Lord’s Prayer? In part, we expect it to sound a certain way and recite it accordingly.
Wayne, I apologize if the criticism at the end there was a breach of rules. I said that in haste, forgetting the BBB Decalogue in the process. My statement was, obviously, aimed at their method and not their intelligence or spirituality per se, but please accept my apologies anyway.
Gary, I didn’t consider your comments out of bounds. Thanks for being careful on this matter and for your spirit.
For anyone else reading this, I’m about to board a plane to fly to Alaska. But I want to remind everyone of each part of the blogging guidelines, including the last part. In case any of you don’t see your comments appear on the blog, we have a system of checking comments to see if they follow the guidelines. If we believe they do not, then the comments do not appear.
Have a safe flight! Personally, I don’t know if this is the ideal time to travel to Alaska. Then again, the state bird (mosquito) isn’t a problem in winter…
So true, Gary. I didn’t get a single mosquito bite on the drive from the Anchorage airport to my brother’s house where I’m staying tonight.
So true, Gary. I didn’t get a single mosquito bite on the drive from the Anchorage airport to my brother’s house where I’m staying tonight.
Say hi to Molly for me!
Eric, I missed Molly by a few minutes yesterday. Will try to close that time gap sometime this week. Today was difficult and confusing here at the nursing home where my parents live. One might hope that speaking the same language with the staff would help ensure good communication. Alas, communication is still difficult when we all use the same language. How much more difficult it is to communicate through accurate and clear Bible translation!
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