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Bible Translation Week: The Schools of Thought

Apr 19, 2010 Print This Post

One of the most common questions I get at Riv is:

“What translation do you guys teach from? It’s so understandable!”

Here’s the quick answer: we have no single translation we teach from.

One of my favorite things about Riverview is our “indy spirit.” While we are a doctrinally conservative church, we are very fluid culturally. That plays itself out in a whole lot of ways, one of which is seen in our variety of weekend service teachers. I’ll do about half of the teaching this year at both venues, with Steve and James doing the rest at our Holt Venue and Mark, Joe, and Free doing the rest at MSU. Each year, the lineup changes a little bit.

And in case you didn’t notice, we all have different styles.

Beyond that, we all use different translations of the Bible for our messages.

This is a positive because each translation has its strengths and weaknesses. By teaching out of a variety of translations, we don’t get stuck in one particular English translation of a Greek or Hebrew phrase.

This week, I am going to do quick summaries of the primary translations I use and why. But first, I figured I’d quickly explain the different schools of thought on Bible translation.

The two primary schools of thought are “Word for Word” and “Thought for Thought”. Here’s a chart courtesy of Zondervan that shows where the different translations fall. (Click on it for a larger image.)

“Word for Word”

The greatest strength of this method is that each word is examined in the Greek and Hebrew, (and occasionally Aramaic) for it’s most accurate meaning. Then, the best possible word in English is chosen and placed into the sentence. This gives you the best picture of the precise / literal meaning of each word.

The greatest weakness is that this method can create for cumbersome sentences that are hard to decipher. It also leaves very little room for interpretations of figures of speech and the “normal” use of different words / phrases to the original hearer. It is possible to be incredibly accurate in word usage, but to miss the point because it’s clouded in abnormal idiom (ever heard of Engrish?)

My favorite Word for Word translation is the English Standard Version (ESV) although I also use the New American Standard (NASB) and I am using the NET Bible (NET) quite a bit lately as well.

“Thought for Thought”

You can basically flip around the strengths and weaknesses of “Word for Word” translations to get the strengths and weaknesses of “Thought for Thought.”

These translations take great care to communicate in English the point or meaning of the original text using contemporary English. While this makes the translation much easier to understand / easier to read, it can create inaccuracy in a a few ways. First, when attention isn’t paid to the precise meaning of words, important points can be lost. Secondly, it leaves more wiggle room for the translators to write into the text their interpretation of a passage instead of the precise meaning.

Studying both of these types of translations together (along with the Greek and Hebrew sources) gives a better understanding of the “normal interpretation” of each passage.

My favorite Thought for Thought translation is the New Living Translation (NLT).

The rest of the week, I am going to review my 3 favorite translations and how I use them.

Tags: bible