by Sandy » Thu Jan 23, 2014 6:35 am
Chuck does a good job, and that's the kind of thing that helps people remember stuff. I think it also gets the message across that there is a lot of careful, scholarly work being done in the area of Bible translation.
There is always a bit of commercially motivated temptation that prompts statements from individuals involved with a particular translation to help create a niche to generate sales, such as the notation that the ESV was a good, "conservative" translation, implying that others might not be, or the statement from a Southern Baptist leader about the HCSB being a "Bible translation we can control." In reality, the work done on both of those translations was consistent with the pattern of other English translations. I know students at places as widely divergent as Moody Bible Institute and Princeton who have professors that have endorsed, and use, the HCSB, and the ESV is slowly gaining ground on the NIV and the good ole King Jimmie in popular and church usage. Most Greek professors and theological profs have their own preferences, and their own opinions about word usage, but for the most part, there is wide acceptance of English Bible translations these days.