Bible Translation Press Conference at ICRS 2011

Talking points for the discussion on: “Why all the English translations are needed”.

Let me quote from talk by Dr Michael Burer titled “Why So Many Translations? The Present State of English Bible Translation and Dr Dan Wallace paper Part IV: Why So Many Versions? and the NET Bible preface[1]”
Dan Wallace walks you through Two Great Periods of Bible Translation history he says “There have been two great periods of English Bible translation in history—the sixteenth century and the twentieth century. In many respects, they are mirror images of each other. Each began with a certain kind of translation that was then followed for many generations. The Tyndale was the template for almost all 16th century Bibles; the RV set the pattern for most modern translations.
In the sixteenth century, the predominant concern in Bible translation was beauty; in the twentieth century, it was truth. No single translation at any time has captured all that the original text has to offer.
And this is why there is no simple answer to the question, “What’s the best translation available today?” No translation can capture the full force of the original. The best we can do is to own several different kinds of translations. You may need one for serious study, another for casual reading, and another for memorizing. But don’t shortchange yourself by thinking that one Bible is all you need. The only Bible that can make that claim is the Greek and Hebrew Bible.
What is the best translation for you? The most important translation of the Bible is not from the original languages to English, but from the printed page into your life. If you have never read through a complete book of the Bible, we suggest you begin by reading the Gospel of John. We encourage you to recognize that the Bible is not merely a book. It is God’s message to us all, and God continues to speak through it today. There is, after all, a reason far more Bibles have been produced than any book in history. Read it and see.

Why so many versions today the simple answer is that they mainly comes from the fact that there are different translation philosophies at work.

Formal Equivalence: The translation of one language into another retaining as much as possible the original forms of the first language.
Dynamic equivalence: The translation of one language into another with a goal of translating the meaning of the original without regard to the forms of the first language

Lets look at the translations philosophy of each (Burer’s audio/powerpoints and paper[2] highlight examples of each so it is easy to understand)

A. The Era of Accuracy (or ‘formal equivalence’) (1881-1971)
1. The Revised Version (1881, 1885)
2. The American Standard Version (1901)
3. The Revised Standard Version (1946, 1952)
4. The New American Standard Bible (1963, 1971; revised 1995)
B. The Era of Readability (or ‘functional equivalence’) (1970-1998)
1. The New English Bible (1970; revised 1989)
2. The New International Version (1973, 1978)

C. Other Formal Equivalent Translations Since 1971
1. The New King James Bible (1979, 1983)
2. The New Revised Standard Version (1989)
3. The Holman Christian Standard Version (2000, 2001?)
4. The English Standard Version (2001)

D. A New Era Begins Commitment to Accessibility and available on the web to the world:
1. The NET Bible (1998, 2001) and the NET Bible study environment at www.netbible.org
2. Mobile platforms, eg tablets and cell phones (2010)

A new era in Bible translating began in 1995 when bible.org began putting bible study content quoting modern translations on the internet for free and they ran into copyright problems for quoting more than 500 verses in their web site content.
They attempted to buy the rights so they could continue to quote these modern translations and were refused even though they were willing to pay for those rights. Bible.org was at a crossroads, they could stop writing bible study articles that quoted a modern translation and use the accessible public domain KJV or they could sponsor a new modern translation and make it accessible to every author so they never had to enter this copyright hell.

· They chose the latter and they put their beta drafts on the web and invited comments from scholars and users from around the world. This user feedback and the extensive translators’ notes to display for the reader the decisions and choices between formal/functional equivalence’ helped the NET editors reach their goal for a translation that would capture the best of several worlds: be readable and accurate and elegant all at the same time. In addition they took bible.org’s ministry first attitude and the encouragement to the farmer from Leviticus 23:22 and made the NET Bible free on the Internet for personal study www.netbible.org

What are some others saying?

Here’s what pastor Tony Evans on “The Alternative” ( Radio Broadcast Ministry) says

“The complaint I hear from many Christians is that some of the translations of the Bible are too wooden. They are grammatically correct, but don’t seem to convey the passion of the writer. On the flip side, some paraphrases and translations convey the passion of the writer at the cost of an accurate translation. The NET Bible is the best of both worlds. The notes are helpful to the scholar and the lay person alike. This is the Bible for the next millennium.”

·
Other questions for the panel.
-What makes translations different from each other? [What elements are involved in creating a translation?]
Ans. See above discussion on Formal Equivalence: and Dynamic equivalence:

· =Why are there so many translations?
Ans. See above…

·  What role does the translation play in the selection of a Bible?
Ans. Probably a minor role to marketing.. The translation needs clearly needs to be trustworthy, easy to read and understandable to survive and be successful but marketing is a large part of a bible’s successful launch.

· - How is the English language changing and how does that impact Bible reading?
Ans. One needs to probably plan for a revision at least every 20 years but it isn’t only driven by language change. A shorter update cycle is somewhat of a hardship for some as to what version you commit to memory.

· What are you doing to encourage people to read the Bible?
Ans. We promote it in our monthly newsletters; we make it easy for someone to sign up for daily bible reading programs through email on our bible.org home page and we have a “daily reading tab” on our free bible study environment www.netbible.org

·         What is your main focus for your translation?
1.      Help every English speaking person on the planet (regardless of their ability to pay) understand God’s communication to them through the text and the 60,000+ notes and to see every person actually take it to heart so their life is transformed into the image and love of Christ.
2.      Help every author see that if they use the NET Bible in their life’s work they will not have to worry about copyright problems for quoting God’s word
3.      We hope that people will see the NET Bible as a replacement for the KJV and use it, study it and share it.

·  What demographic is your translation geared to?