Choosing a Bible. Understanding Bible Translation Differences.pdf

Choosing a Bible

Understanding Bible

T ranslation Differences

L ELAND

R YKEN

CROSSWAY BOOKS

A PUBLISHING MINISTRY OF

GOOD NEWS PUBLISHERS

WHEATON, ILLINOIS

Choosing a Bible

by Leland Ryken.

Formerly published as Bible Translation Differences

Published by Crossway Books

a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers

1300 Crescent Street

Wheaton, Illinois 60187

stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form by any means,

electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording or otherwise, without

the prior permission of the publisher, except as provided by USA

Cover design: Josh Dennis

First printing, 2005

Printed in the United States of America

All Scripture quotations are taken from Holy Bible: English Standard

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Ryken, Leland.

[Bible translation differences]

Choosing a bible : understanding bible translation differences /

Leland Ryken.

p. cm.

Originally published: Bible translation differences. Wheaton, Ill. :

Crossway Books, 2004.

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN 1-58134-730-8 (tpb)

1. Bible—Translating I. Title.

BS449.R948

2005

220.5'2—dc22

2005009880

CH 14 13 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05

15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

C ONTENTS

C HAPTER O NE

H OW D O B IBLE T RANSLATIONS D IFFER

FROM E ACH O THER ?5

1. The Goal of Bible Translation

2. Thought-for-Thought or Word-for-Word?

C HAPTER T WO

F IVE N EGATIVE E FFECTS OF

D YNAMIC E QUIVALENCE 11

1. Taking Liberties in Translation

2. Destabilization of the Text

3. What the Bible “Means” vs. What the Bible Says

4. Falling Short of What We Should Expect

5. A Logical and Linguistic Impossibility

C HAPTER T HREE

T EN R EASONS W E C AN T RUST E SSENTIALLY

L ITERAL B IBLE T RANSLATIONS 23

1. Transparency to the Original

2. Keeping to the Essential Task of Translation

3. Preserving the Full Interpretive Potential of the Original

4. Not Mixing Commentary with Translation

5. Preserving Theological Precision

6. Not Needing to Correct the Translation in Preaching

7. Preserving What the Biblical Writers Actually Wrote

8. Preserving the Literary Qualities of the Bible

9. Preserving the Dignity and Beauty of the Bible

10. Consistency with the Doctrine of Inspiration

N OTES 31

A PPENDIX : B IBLE T RANSLATIONS C HART 32

H OW D O

B IBLE T RANSLATIONS D IFFER

FROM E ACH O THER ?

I WANT TO BEGIN BY surveying and critiquing what has been

happening in Bible translation for the past fifty years. If I am

right, few laypeople know what really makes various English

Bible translations different from each other (see Appendix: Bible

Translations Chart). When one of my colleagues in the

Bible Department at Wheaton College polls his students

about Bible translations, he ﬁnds that they begin with the prem-

ise that all modern translations are equally accurate as renditions

of the original text, and that the only basis for preferring one

over another is the criterion of readability. In my judgment, this

is a matter for serious concern.

But who am I to sit in judgment on this state of unaware-

ness? When I joined the Translation Oversight Committee of

the English Standard Version of the Bible, at our ﬁrst meeting the

president of the publishing company announced that the ESV

would be an essentially literal translation. I had no idea what

that meant, nor how an essentially literal translation differs from

its implied alternative. Since that moment of embarrassing igno-

rance, I have learned what the issues are, and I have become

alarmed at what happened to Bible translation about four

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