Translation

(Photo note: Myrtle Beach, 2005. I'm tired of the winter pictures, so here's the beach. Enjoy. S and I are looking at the calendar now to set our vacation, so we're thinking of the beach.)

There seems to be some discussion going on in the world of theology concerning two relatively new translations of the Bible -- Today's New International Version (TNIV) and the English Standard Version (ESV).

I must first say that I have no knowledge or basis to make any comments regarding these two translations. My bookshelf has Bibles in Revised Standard, New Revised Standard, New International, King James, Good News, The Message (I actually like it better now that it has verse numbers), and The Jerusalem Bible. Truthfully, when I am preparing a Sunday school lesson, I usually grab which ever version is closest to me.

I do use certain versions for certain purposes:

• My King James Version was a gift from my father when I was young. I rarely read it, but this is the Bible that holds all of my "funeral handouts" -- I don't know what they are called, but they are those little fold-over memorial cards that you get at a visitation or funeral. I don't know why I keep them in this particular Bible, but I do.
• The Bible I'm reading each day is NIV. This is only because I'm reading out of the Bible in 90 Days book, which is NIV. Actually, I own four NIV Bibles. Two study Bibles -- one a hardback I bought, and one a leather-bound one that S bought for me (they are identical except for the cover). I also have a very small (4 x 9?) NIV that is in my briefcase (another gift from S).
• I carry a thinline New Revised Standard with me to church. I use this one at church for two reasons -- it is THIN, which is nice, and it is usually the version from which the ministers read in the service. Pet peeve of mine -- I can't follow along in a Bible when someone is reading unless they are the same translation. Sideline note -- We bought J and G bibles a year or so ago. J carried his to church and tried to follow the minister, but we bought them NIV, and the minister reads NRSV. They didn't match. J closed his bible, looked a the cover, and said, "I thought he was reading from the Holy Bible."
• I have an old red hardback Revised Standard that I LOVE. I love it because this is the Bible that I used when I took the Bethel Bible teacher's class, and the one I used when I taught the Bethel series. It's marked all over and kind of worn looking. I lost the paper jacket a while back. When I hold it, I think of Bethel -- the first time I actually studied the Bible in depth. I think of Chuck Echols, my teacher for that class. I think of my own Bethel class. It is a study Bible, so sometimes I pull it out when I'm preparing a lesson (to use the annotations).
• When I teach, I sometimes read to the class from The Message. It is a very readable translation. Most people haven't heard familiar scriptures from it, so they have a new life when read from this version.
• I never look at the Jerusalem Bible -- I bought it when I took a humanities course in college -- it was the version they asked us to have. When I look at it, I remember that class, which looked at religion as myth. Not very inspiring.
• I have a Good News New Testament that was a gift from the Presbytarian church we attended when I was in elementary school. I was asked to read John 3:1-16 as a child from this Bible, and the minister gave it to me to keep. Isn't that a great idea? I wish we did that at our church.

Well, this is not what this post was supposed to be about. I meant to examine the role of inclusive language in Bible translations, but I'll do that tomorrow. Maybe.