Why ANOTHER NT VERSION?
or...
this explanation is so long because the TENT is so radically different
The big question
As a child, ransomed for YHWH by Yeshua the Anointed One, have you ever wished that you could both hear and understand the true stories about Him, told to you by those who walked with Him? That would be the next best thing to actually having been there yourself. Among all of His children most never sat at His feet or looked upon the scene of His execution. It doesn't help that we are as far removed from His culture as we are from those of dynastic Egypt or classical Greece. We hear or read the stories, but only through translations. For centuries men and women of great learning have devoted their lives to scrupulously translating the New Testament. They have analyzed it, endlessly studied the languages in which it was written, approached it from every viewpoint and still we attempt to understand the difficult passages with mixed results. Why are there difficult passages?
The Word of God as information
Bible translations seem to mushroom in number when stimulated by great changes in how people access and spread information. It happened in the ancient world with the development of libraries. It gathered momentum with the invention of parchment and especially with the printing press. Machine printing - what a novelty! That little development has fueled the explosive spread of information for the last five hundred years.
The digital age is now doing its part. There are ways of accessing many ancient writings. Almost anyone can carry a library in a pocket. But how can King James in your pocket compete with streaming media? Unfortunately accessibility does not necessarily translate into interest. So, for publishing businesses the idea is to stimulate interest, make Bibles relevant to, and targeted at, certain groups of people.
Today most 'new' publishing house Bibles are not based on a new translation, but just sport a new gloss, a new design theme, new features. Everything from feminist Bibles to Facebook bibles can be found. It certainly doesn't cost as much money to publish a new theme Bible as it does to form a committee to collate new information on ancient texts, and then to make translation decisions on as many words as needed to merit the description "new translation." That requires much time and money, usually fronted by Christian denominations, academic institutions or publishing businesses. Then these "new translation" Bibles compete in the marketplace for dominance, often through publishers putting out as many theme Bibles based on them as possible. They are, after all, businesses which will fail if they do not make a profit.
What's new in New Testament English translations?
But what is really new in the world of English New Testament versions? Once in a while a new translation based on the vision and energy of an inspired individual is created for family and friends. And even though very few of these find printing success, they are still laudable and praiseworthy one-person translations. Most often however, new translations fall into two types.
Based on previous popular translations, one type includes mostly archaeological, language and style updates and new features or footnotes. This needs to be done from time to time to reflect current language and keep up with research. The other type is the freewheeling paraphrase answerable to no one but its creator for its accuracy, or lack of it. Such a translation may be more relevant to modern language sensibilities, but how much semantic accuracy does it neglect and how does one even measure that?
Questions to ask
Bible translation raises many questions. Who has the time to translate what has already been translated so often with varying balances of accuracy and readability? What person with a smartphone or e-reader is going to buy a paper Bible? What speaks to people? How can you make the translation more transparent? How can readers measure how accurate a version is?
Every reborn Christian looking for a personal copy of God's Word to digest and memorize is easily frustrated by the multitude of offerings, attractive and feature packed. One is struck by a version's readability immediately. Word for word translations are notoriously painful to read and impossible to memorize. This is obvious to anyone who just opens one and starts reading. On the other hand, a beautifully flowing paraphrase is an attractive sensory experience in itself. However, a new believer reading it won't recognize even blatant inaccuracies. It's like taking a medication without knowing the side-effects. It's where the Adversary could lurk, to compromise the weak and the young.
It has been said that accuracy with readability is the "holy grail" of Bible translation. If a version's readability is acceptable, then pay strict attention to its accuracy. The question should usually be, "How inaccurate is it?" Here is the final frontier of Bible translation. Old fragments of scrolls are always being compared and translations revised. Once in a while some scholar may hit on a new idea how to translate a certain word or idiom. Scholarly journals and Bible commentaries are full of their proposed discoveries. This is a noble task because, as F. F. Bruce wrote about words, "We must know what values to attach to them if we are to profit by them."
But how does this translate (excuse the pun) into a new translation? How many discoveries and updates are needed to be able to advertise a "new" translation? How many decisions need to be made, how many biases and compromises are included, how long will it take by committee? No wonder there is precious little that is a real improvement in Bible translating. And how is accuracy really determined anyway? Who says? Who do you trust? Is there an answer to these questions? Lord, HELP!!!!
As a child, ransomed for YHWH by Yeshua the Anointed One, have you ever wished that you could both hear and understand the true stories about Him, told to you by those who walked with Him? That would be the next best thing to actually having been there yourself. Among all of His children most never sat at His feet or looked upon the scene of His execution. It doesn't help that we are as far removed from His culture as we are from those of dynastic Egypt or classical Greece. We hear or read the stories, but only through translations. For centuries men and women of great learning have devoted their lives to scrupulously translating the New Testament. They have analyzed it, endlessly studied the languages in which it was written, approached it from every viewpoint and still we attempt to understand the difficult passages with mixed results. Why are there difficult passages?
The Word of God as information
Bible translations seem to mushroom in number when stimulated by great changes in how people access and spread information. It happened in the ancient world with the development of libraries. It gathered momentum with the invention of parchment and especially with the printing press. Machine printing - what a novelty! That little development has fueled the explosive spread of information for the last five hundred years.
The digital age is now doing its part. There are ways of accessing many ancient writings. Almost anyone can carry a library in a pocket. But how can King James in your pocket compete with streaming media? Unfortunately accessibility does not necessarily translate into interest. So, for publishing businesses the idea is to stimulate interest, make Bibles relevant to, and targeted at, certain groups of people.
Today most 'new' publishing house Bibles are not based on a new translation, but just sport a new gloss, a new design theme, new features. Everything from feminist Bibles to Facebook bibles can be found. It certainly doesn't cost as much money to publish a new theme Bible as it does to form a committee to collate new information on ancient texts, and then to make translation decisions on as many words as needed to merit the description "new translation." That requires much time and money, usually fronted by Christian denominations, academic institutions or publishing businesses. Then these "new translation" Bibles compete in the marketplace for dominance, often through publishers putting out as many theme Bibles based on them as possible. They are, after all, businesses which will fail if they do not make a profit.
What's new in New Testament English translations?
But what is really new in the world of English New Testament versions? Once in a while a new translation based on the vision and energy of an inspired individual is created for family and friends. And even though very few of these find printing success, they are still laudable and praiseworthy one-person translations. Most often however, new translations fall into two types.
Based on previous popular translations, one type includes mostly archaeological, language and style updates and new features or footnotes. This needs to be done from time to time to reflect current language and keep up with research. The other type is the freewheeling paraphrase answerable to no one but its creator for its accuracy, or lack of it. Such a translation may be more relevant to modern language sensibilities, but how much semantic accuracy does it neglect and how does one even measure that?
Questions to ask
Bible translation raises many questions. Who has the time to translate what has already been translated so often with varying balances of accuracy and readability? What person with a smartphone or e-reader is going to buy a paper Bible? What speaks to people? How can you make the translation more transparent? How can readers measure how accurate a version is?
Every reborn Christian looking for a personal copy of God's Word to digest and memorize is easily frustrated by the multitude of offerings, attractive and feature packed. One is struck by a version's readability immediately. Word for word translations are notoriously painful to read and impossible to memorize. This is obvious to anyone who just opens one and starts reading. On the other hand, a beautifully flowing paraphrase is an attractive sensory experience in itself. However, a new believer reading it won't recognize even blatant inaccuracies. It's like taking a medication without knowing the side-effects. It's where the Adversary could lurk, to compromise the weak and the young.
It has been said that accuracy with readability is the "holy grail" of Bible translation. If a version's readability is acceptable, then pay strict attention to its accuracy. The question should usually be, "How inaccurate is it?" Here is the final frontier of Bible translation. Old fragments of scrolls are always being compared and translations revised. Once in a while some scholar may hit on a new idea how to translate a certain word or idiom. Scholarly journals and Bible commentaries are full of their proposed discoveries. This is a noble task because, as F. F. Bruce wrote about words, "We must know what values to attach to them if we are to profit by them."
But how does this translate (excuse the pun) into a new translation? How many discoveries and updates are needed to be able to advertise a "new" translation? How many decisions need to be made, how many biases and compromises are included, how long will it take by committee? No wonder there is precious little that is a real improvement in Bible translating. And how is accuracy really determined anyway? Who says? Who do you trust? Is there an answer to these questions? Lord, HELP!!!!
Who cares? God does! God is especially concerned about the truthfulness of His Word in every language. Where would we be if His Word in translation was to any degree inaccurate and inconsistent? We would be right where we are now - struggling to understand and apply it, facing the secular giants of mockery and ridicule over its apparent inconsistencies and harsh attitudes, craving spiritual power to overcome, wanting the Word of God written in our hearts, hopefully in an accurate translation! But translations vary in accuracy and that is why Bible scholars often recommend reading a variety of Bibles. But is that really a help? How does anyone learn accurate meaning except by accumulating contexts? We get our earliest learning from our parents/caregivers and now, unfortunately, also from media. The Adversary hates loving, patient, long-suffering parents/caregivers who teach their children their native language, interweaving it with ideas of good and bad, right and wrong. Children learn contextually. Nothing is academic for them. They eat and learn naturally. Their brains are wired for language. Even a mother may not take note of the daily digest of words learned by her child until she is one day surprised and pleased to hear a full sentence - a complete thought. It just happens. The brain is constantly comparing and judging, learning what temporary meanings it can trust and which must be thrown out. If only we could understand a new language the same way we learned the first one! Language teachers all agree that an immersive experience is best. But finding a new mother to teach us the target language is usually not possible and we might have to settle for possibly boring classes, or sympathetic friends or acquaintances, or even people in our vacation destination supermarket to help us learn. We can learn vocabulary easily enough this way, but to know the language like a native is another matter. How God made a way In the world of Bible translation, we are all disadvantaged children. We fruitlessly ask if there are any speakers left who speak the biblical languages as they were spoken two thousand years ago. That era's Greek and Hebrew is no longer spoken, heard or understood as it was for a native from that era. Translation of long-unspoken languages is a somewhat risky business, because anyone can think they have a better idea of what it means or how it is pronounced. We may never know exactly how a biblical language was spoken, but it seems that YHWH has preserved for us chunks of those languages large enough to translate accurately the meanings of many words. As time goes on these meanings are refined by people dedicated to that task. A word here - an idiom there, but very slowly. Another problem is that our own living languages change, it seems at an ever increasing rate. The time-honored English Bible versions from over 400 years ago have now become very difficult to understand because we do not recognize the many changes that the English language has gone through since they were first published. Christianity and its writings were originally disseminated over a marvelous update to a common system called "trade routes." That update was the Roman road, linking together the corners of an empire spanning continents. Over time, changes in culture and language ran ahead, but YHWH's Word remained set in stone, in languages only understood by specialists, namely scholars and monks in the ancient church institutions, whose language was usually either Latin or Greek. It came to be that relatively few could read or understand the original biblical languages. The result? Spiritual stagnation and corruption at the highest levels marked the nominally "Christian world" for a millennium and a half. The Church as an organization had accumulated errors, one of which was that the ongoing reality of the giftings from Pure Spirit had largely become dormant or even died out, and were now taught as having been necessary only for the beginning of evangelical history. Also the Roman Catholic Church taught that it alone had been given authority on earth to interpret Scripture, and since that Church's precursors had become more or less antisemitic within two or three hundred years, much of the rich Hebraic tapestry of the NT was left unrecognized or translationally covered over. Another translation error has given rise to the wrong idea that it is necessary for priests to be celibate, not to mention that the separate priesthood has been fulfilled in Yeshua and His Body, the Called-out Gathering. But let's stop there for now. Christianity was reformed only after the Word of YHWH was given into the hands of the people in their mother tongues. And where the Word of YHWH freely goes, the Spirit of YHWH also freely attends. Some Bible-reading Puritan authors believed and wrote about what the Bible foretold. Then it came to be. In the late 1800's the Jews began to return to their homeland to join those few who had never left, the beginnings of a great return prophesied in Scripture over 2,500 years ago. At the same time YHWH began to pour out his Spirit once again, here and there, as also foretold in Scripture. These were biblical signs of last times. Problems and pitfalls Today the earth is staggering under its load of corruption and destruction. If it's not terror and war, it's disaster, epidemics and suffering. Addictive drugs and virtual reality have become dead-end coping mechanisms for frustration, anxiety and fear. Churches adopt business practices in order to stimulate numerical growth while too many Christians are undiscerningly looking for a spiritual power fix for their personal problems, or a political fix for their loss of positive influence in society. They become vulnerable to deception because their discernment has left with the cultural tide, one which has pulled Scripture out of the public sphere. Here is the equation: no scripture in the head = no discernment. If we don't have YHWH's Word rightly understood inside of us, how can we judge the truth of anything? Internet driven global culture has made the Word of YHWH unfashionable, deemed it irrelevant at best. Worldly Christians, defenseless against their own fallen natures, misunderstand the Bible or see it as time-consuming and requiring too much commitment, and for them it is no match for the desires and distractions of the world. The Word of YHWH seems too uncomfortable, demanding, confrontational. They say, "The pastor/priest gives us inspiring and uplifting messages so we can believe that God will use us to further His kingdom. We should build a larger facility so we can reach out to more neighborhoods!" Now that's fine if that is what Yeshua wants them to do. But WWJD (What Would Jesus Do?), that mercifully short-lived mantra from the 80's, should never be what we are asking. Asking one's self what Jesus/Yeshua would do is an invitation to vain imagination. We need to ask instead, "Yeshua, what do you want me to do now?" Are we ready to make sacrifices? So what are we doing about the Adversary's successes against the influence of YHWH's Word? One thing we can do is to make sure we are willing to sacrifice a little readability for a great gain in accuracy. It's not about "easy" or "quick." Those words do not have any meaning in eternity. We shouldn't easily take the easy way, because doing so might become as big a lifestyle mistake as we could ever make. |
Sometimes you don't know what's in a verse even after you read it. You may think you sort of understand it, but there may be something there which you are not even aware of. This can happen when translators succumb to the temptation to over-translate. By this I mean that they may not be satisfied that the literal meaning is precise enough or comfortable enough for the target language readers, and so they then substitute a more target-language-oriented word for the literal meaning when it is not really necessary. If they indiscriminately do this, they may be destroying semantic connections within or even between verses which the authors meant the readers to understand.
Here is an example of this. In John 15:3 Yeshua tells his disciples that they are "clean" through the word he has spoken to them. This is rather vague unless one reads the verse before this more literally, then the connection pops out. Yeshua has just told his disciples that he is the true vine and his Father is the field-worker who prunes the fruit-bearing branches so that they will bear more fruit. See the connection with "clean"? Not really clear is it?
However, if you look at the English word "to prune" in the original Greek, you have the Greek word literally meaning "to clean-up." In this verse, most English Bibles use the word "prune" where the Greek idiom is "clean-up." But if you use the word "prune" even though the word "clean-up" is understandable in the context, the semantic connection with "clean" is destroyed in the next verse.
We are meant to know that the word that makes us "clean" is the Word of YHWH that encourages and empowers us to cooperate in the cutting away of what is hindering or harming the fruit of the Spirit growing in our lives. We are not clean, or "pruned", just by hearing YHWH's word! We need to agree with and receive it, to yield to and cooperate with the field worker's desire to cut out what hinders our fruit production. Over-translating hides this connected meaning along with its implied information.
Don't go for the easy smooth translation, the "devotional quality," the NT that lulls you into thinking that you are getting all the information YHWH wants to impart through His Word. Do a little digging. Find a version in which each word is translated accurately and consistently throughout so that the far-reaching links and comparisons which your brain is built to automatically perform will not be blindsided by some well-meaning translator's "better" phrasing.
Find a translation that does not try to minimize the cultural differences, but rather immerses you in them. The original languages, if accurately translated, are capable of immersing you in the culture, the thought patterns, the feel and smell of being there. Like a science fiction or fantasy novel describing another world enables you to immerse yourself in that world, so the original languages of the Bible, through their idioms and metaphors, can immerse you in another place, another time, another culture, another way of thinking. They can reveal the rhythm and flow of the place where YHWH has chosen to place His Name. They can impart information you might not get elsewhere.
Back to the big question
In answer to the first paragraph's question at the top of this page, "Why are there difficult passages?," and after having used The TENT Lexicon for some years now, I have concluded that although the original language texts of the Greek NT are still as spiritually powerful as when they were authored, many of the "difficult passages" in very much later English translations are victims. They are victims not only of simple translation errors over time, but of ancient philosophical and ecclesiastical corruption, of antisemitism and a crusader spirit, of an unfamiliarity with the reality and mechanics of spiritual warfare, and also of a Dark Ages view of women.
If the King James Version translators had possessed the resources we have today, they might never have translated one Greek NT word with twenty different English words. Although the human brain is a peerless comparing and analyzing device, and the translators' Greek scholarship was at a high level, they were bound to make some mistakes, largely it now seems due to cultural or worldview differences. But mistakes in translating one Greek word can impact the translated meaning of dozens of others, especially those with which it exists in compound words, of which Greek has very many.
The first English translations unavoidably reflected the worldview of their translators, not the Hebraic worldview of the original writers. However, we are now beginning to see evidence for what has happened. As far as translating goes, customizing meanings to the target audience's worldview, though unavoidable in earlier ages through ignorance, is not a good paradigm on which to base an accurate translation today.
A way forward
Find a Bible that honors the Word, one which makes the ability to judge accuracy a transparent process and makes needed contextual information accessible but not intrusive. Does such a version exist? I believe it does exist, like a baby in the womb. The TENT is not only a totally new translation of the NT, but of the Hebraic influenced Greek itself. How is this possible? Through a new translation method based on information theory.
Here is an example of this. In John 15:3 Yeshua tells his disciples that they are "clean" through the word he has spoken to them. This is rather vague unless one reads the verse before this more literally, then the connection pops out. Yeshua has just told his disciples that he is the true vine and his Father is the field-worker who prunes the fruit-bearing branches so that they will bear more fruit. See the connection with "clean"? Not really clear is it?
However, if you look at the English word "to prune" in the original Greek, you have the Greek word literally meaning "to clean-up." In this verse, most English Bibles use the word "prune" where the Greek idiom is "clean-up." But if you use the word "prune" even though the word "clean-up" is understandable in the context, the semantic connection with "clean" is destroyed in the next verse.
We are meant to know that the word that makes us "clean" is the Word of YHWH that encourages and empowers us to cooperate in the cutting away of what is hindering or harming the fruit of the Spirit growing in our lives. We are not clean, or "pruned", just by hearing YHWH's word! We need to agree with and receive it, to yield to and cooperate with the field worker's desire to cut out what hinders our fruit production. Over-translating hides this connected meaning along with its implied information.
Don't go for the easy smooth translation, the "devotional quality," the NT that lulls you into thinking that you are getting all the information YHWH wants to impart through His Word. Do a little digging. Find a version in which each word is translated accurately and consistently throughout so that the far-reaching links and comparisons which your brain is built to automatically perform will not be blindsided by some well-meaning translator's "better" phrasing.
Find a translation that does not try to minimize the cultural differences, but rather immerses you in them. The original languages, if accurately translated, are capable of immersing you in the culture, the thought patterns, the feel and smell of being there. Like a science fiction or fantasy novel describing another world enables you to immerse yourself in that world, so the original languages of the Bible, through their idioms and metaphors, can immerse you in another place, another time, another culture, another way of thinking. They can reveal the rhythm and flow of the place where YHWH has chosen to place His Name. They can impart information you might not get elsewhere.
Back to the big question
In answer to the first paragraph's question at the top of this page, "Why are there difficult passages?," and after having used The TENT Lexicon for some years now, I have concluded that although the original language texts of the Greek NT are still as spiritually powerful as when they were authored, many of the "difficult passages" in very much later English translations are victims. They are victims not only of simple translation errors over time, but of ancient philosophical and ecclesiastical corruption, of antisemitism and a crusader spirit, of an unfamiliarity with the reality and mechanics of spiritual warfare, and also of a Dark Ages view of women.
If the King James Version translators had possessed the resources we have today, they might never have translated one Greek NT word with twenty different English words. Although the human brain is a peerless comparing and analyzing device, and the translators' Greek scholarship was at a high level, they were bound to make some mistakes, largely it now seems due to cultural or worldview differences. But mistakes in translating one Greek word can impact the translated meaning of dozens of others, especially those with which it exists in compound words, of which Greek has very many.
The first English translations unavoidably reflected the worldview of their translators, not the Hebraic worldview of the original writers. However, we are now beginning to see evidence for what has happened. As far as translating goes, customizing meanings to the target audience's worldview, though unavoidable in earlier ages through ignorance, is not a good paradigm on which to base an accurate translation today.
A way forward
Find a Bible that honors the Word, one which makes the ability to judge accuracy a transparent process and makes needed contextual information accessible but not intrusive. Does such a version exist? I believe it does exist, like a baby in the womb. The TENT is not only a totally new translation of the NT, but of the Hebraic influenced Greek itself. How is this possible? Through a new translation method based on information theory.