Chesapeake
Meanderings (formerly The Fisherfolk Philosopher)
Vol. 1, No. 4 -- November 29, 2003
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November:
National Bible Month
The Bible we have with us always . . . and in
styles and editions for everyone . . . well, not quite for everyone.
By Allan Roy Andrews
In a matter of hours, National Bible Month will have passed for another year.
Not that it was particularly
notable. As a month of celebration, National Bible Month hangs in there
with National Poetry Month, National Hospice Month or National Avocado
Month. Besides, for us Bibles have become almost commonplace.
There might be someone out there, however, who decided during the month of November to go into a bookstore and purchase a copy of the Bible, and, of course, there’s still December.
With Thanksgiving passed, there are now fewer than 25 shopping days until Christmas (does anyone remember when Sundays were not considered "shopping days"); Bibles still make nice gifts at Christmas.
The purchase of a Bible, however, has become for many a daunting task. It used to be that one simply went with whatever version one’s church recommended. Protestants in general purchased a King James Version or a Revised Standard Version, Roman Catholics selected a Douay-Rheims version, and that was that. More often than not, the volume became shelf ware or coffee table ware.
In the past three decades, though, ostensibly to encourage wider reading of the ancient text, there has been a literal explosion of translations of the Bible. For the first time in recorded history (well, at least since 1611), in fact, the New International Version--a modern English translation from the Hebrew and Greek--has overtaken and passed the King James Version as the "best-seller."
(I use the phrase "best-seller" with caution. As many have observed, the Bible may be the best selling but most unread book of all time. One wise advisor, asked which was the "best version" of the Bible, answered: "The one that you read!")
To compound the dilemma, several translations now appear in a variety of editions, and the major publisher of Bibles, Zondervan, has become a leading publisher of multiple styles of Bibles. Most of Zondervan’s offerings are of the NIV or its recent update the TNIV. These letters refer to the translation; in this case, the New International Version (or its updated Today’s New International Version).
The Zondervan Web site lists 86 types of Bible it sells divided into the following categories: Study Bibles, Devotional Bibles, Reference or Pew Bibles, Youth Bibles, Children’s Bibles, Award and Witness Bibles, Pulpit and Family Bibles, Audio Bibles, e-Bibles, and an assortment of New Testaments and Selections from the Bible. Among the titles in this listing are: The Sports Devotional Bible, the Backpack Bible, the Pastor’s Bible, True Images: The Teen Girls’ Bible, the Women of Faith Study Bible, and the Serendipity Bible for Study Groups. Some have facetiously labeled the Zondervan NIV lineup as an offering of "designer" Bibles. What must be noted carefully, is that almost all of Zondervan’s 86 types of Bible are of a single translation, the NIV.
The NIV, while the most popular and widespread translation, is not the only translation, to be sure, but often the only Bible readers who recognize the various translations are Bible scholars. Here’s a mini-list of the more widely known Bible translations in the English language1 and the year in which they were released:
Translations generally fall into two broad categories. The first, meant to be as close to the Hebrew and Greek words used in the original, is called a literal translation. Readers of this form of English translation often find the syntax and style plodding and incomprehensible in places. The second category, the one into which most modern translations fall, is known as dynamic equivalence. This means that the translators sought the English words and phrases that may not be literal but best communicate the sense and ideas of the ancient languages. Readers should recognize that this form of translation involves much interpretation.
As a result, each of the above-listed translations is favored by particular groups of readers. The NEB and REB are translations from the British Isles and retain a distinctive British flavor; the NJB is an English translation of an original French translation; the NAB is favored by Roman Catholic Confraternity groups; the GNB/TEV, with its line-drawing illustrations, is considered by many to be the easiest to read; the CEB is a deliberate attempt by the American Bible Society to produce a version that can be read by persons with an elementary school education; the NASB is considered by many to be more accurate than others (i.e., more literal); the NLB is a scholarly attempt to translate with American English paraphrasing in mind; many readers remain faithful to the KJV, which they consider to be more literate than modern versions; the heavily marketed NIV and TNIV are the most popular.
The purchaser of a Bible must recognize that every edition is a stylized version of a particular translation. Zondervan sells most of its editions as NIV translations. Oxford and Cambridge sell multiple editions of the NRSV or the REB. Almost all publishers sell some edition of the KJV.
So for the English-speaking world it’s safe to say we have a glut of Bibles with a style and edition to suit everyone. Everyone, that is, who speaks our language!
The renowned Wycliffe Bible Translators organization, whose aim is to translate a portion of the Bible into every language on the globe, claims there are persons in more than 3000 language groups that do not have any printed version of the Bible in their language. This represents close to 200 million people, Wycliffe’s literature claims,2 and at the present rate of translation, it will take up to 150 years to put a portion of the Bible into the languages spoken and read by those billions.
As Christmas approaches and National Bible Month fades, perhaps we who are overwhelmed with NIVs, KJVs, CEBs, and NRSVs should think less about purchasing Bibles as Christmas gifts and more about paying to have the Bible translated into everyone’s language.3
Endnotes:
1- Readers can find a detailed
“Chronology of the English Bible” at the Bible Researcher
Web site http://www.bible-researcher.com/history2.html
maintained by freelance writer
Michael D. Marlowe. Zondervan also provides some interesting
historical comment about several
translations that it publishes
separately from the NIV http://www.zondervanbibles.com/home.asp.
2 - The Wycliffe appeal statistics can be found at
its Web site at http://www.wycliffe.org/About/Statistics.aspx
3 - Anyone interested in pursuing the
translation of the Bible into English in greater depth should see Bruce
Metzger's The Bible in Translation:
Ancient and English Versions. Grand Rapids, MI:
Baker Book House, 2001. Another good guide is Philip Comfort's Essential Guide to Bible
Translations. Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House, 1996.
Allan Roy Andrews can be contacted at aroyandrews@gmail.com