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Bible - Translation Accuracy

Piggy said:
In fact, Biblical scholarship is quite complicated, and this business of there being "only two different texts from which Bibles are translated" is simply false.
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It's like they are saying the "Textus Receptus" is a single source as opposed to an eclectic text with portions supported by late manuscripts, portions supported by forged manuscripts, and portions supported by no manuscripts at all.
 
Wildy said:
Piggy said:
King James is highly problematic. Lots o' errors
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You don't happen to know a place that documents all the errors though?

My searches have always found biased fundie websites.
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The Skeptics Annotated Bible uses the KJV, but I don't think it has a list of errors that are limited to that version and no other. (e.g. unicorn - Num 23:22, Easter - Act 12:4)

Sometimes the "biased fundie websites" are a worthwhile resource if you sift through the BS. Much like there are many arguments against Christianity to be found on Muslim websites. Do a search for KJV onlyism for lists of errors.
 
Wildy said:
You don't happen to know a place that documents all the errors though?

My searches have always found biased fundie websites.
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Asimov's Guide To The Bible is a great read. I've read it a few times.
 
OnlyTellsTruths said:
It's a bad translation? Solely because it's old? Have you researched this?
Did you suggest an alternative?
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Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

Not yet, but I've asked the OP if he would like me to. He said in an earlier post that he was only asking for a recommendation between the choices of KJV and NRSV.
 
Piggy said:
This is all you have to read from that site to know it's ignorant and useless:

In fact, Biblical scholarship is quite complicated, and this business of there being "only two different texts from which Bibles are translated" is simply false.
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Yeah I have difficulty with the ignorance too.

And I do agree that Bible scholarship is complicated, but I really think that it has very little to do with Christianity, or conversing with someone on the street.

The conversation will go quite differently depending on if a person views the Bible as fiction or non-fiction.
 
Kopji said:
Yeah I have difficulty with the ignorance too.

And I do agree that Bible scholarship is complicated, but I really think that it has very little to do with Christianity, or conversing with someone on the street.

The conversation will go quite differently depending on if a person views the Bible as fiction or non-fiction.
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I'm not sure I catch your meaning here. When you say "it has very little to do with Christianity, or conversing with someone on the street", what is "it"? Bible scholarship?

If that's what you mean, then of course. Legitimate Bible scholarship is aconfessional, it's the study of the text as a document, or as a collection of versions of documents, really.

And I wouldn't attempt to classify the Bible as either "fiction" or "non-fiction". Modern genres don't apply to the Bible, which contains many different genres within it.
 
Piggy said:
Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

Not yet, but I've asked the OP if he would like me to. He said in an earlier post that he was only asking for a recommendation between the choices of KJV and NRSV.
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Will you suggest a more literal translation if anyone asks or must it only be the OP?
 
OnlyTellsTruths said:
Will you suggest a more literal translation if anyone asks or must it only be the OP?
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Oh, sure, no problem.

But it depends on what you mean by "literal".

Translation is not the same as transliteration.

I would prefer to recommend a more "accurate" translation rather than a more "literal" one.

A strictly "literal" translation would, for instance, simply translate idiomatic expressions word for word. In doing so, they would pretty much ensure that a modern audience would not understand what the text meant.

An accurate translation would give a modern idiom in the place of the ancient one, which a modern audience would understand.
 
So what would be a good literal translation?

And what would be a good accurate translation?
 
Wildy said:
So what would be a good literal translation?

And what would be a good accurate translation?
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How about a translation that just cuts straight to the essential troofs?



Boreded Ceiling Cat makinkgz Urf n stuffs.


1 Oh hai. In teh beginnin Ceiling Cat maded teh skiez An da Urfs, but he did not eated dem.

2 Da Urfs no had shapez An haded dark face, An Ceiling Cat rode invisible bike over teh waterz.

3 At start, no has lyte. An Ceiling Cat sayz, i can haz lite? An lite wuz.

4 An Ceiling Cat sawed teh lite, to seez stuffs, An splitted teh lite from dark but taht wuz ok cuz kittehs can see in teh dark An not tripz over nethin.

5 An Ceiling Cat sayed light Day An dark no Day. It were FURST!!!1


http://www.lolcatbible.com/index.php?title=Main_Page
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Wildy said:
So what would be a good literal translation?

And what would be a good accurate translation?
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Interesting conversation.

I'd add that which version is best depends on what you want to use it for. If, for example, you want a reference for allusions in English literature (Shakespeare and Milton), the KJV would be the best.

If you're interested in resolving translation issues and controversies, but you're not interested in learning Greek, then I'd just read commentaries about the Bible where various experts discuss and debate these issues.

The on-line Bible Gateway is nice in that you can search, read and compare a great number of different versions.
 
Wildy said:
So what would be a good literal translation?

And what would be a good accurate translation?
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I don't know if there's a good literal translation out now. I'll check.

It's been a while (several years) since I looked around for a solid annotated Bible with the latest scholarship. Give me a few days and I'll see if I can get hold of Ted Lewis or Mitchell Reddish or one of my other old profs and see what they have to say.

It may take me til sometime next week, but I'll come back and post here when I have something.
 
Btw, Wildy, if you're serious about the Bible, you can't beat the Anchor Bible series. It consists of separate volumes for the various books -- including translation, notes, and commentary -- as well as a Bible dictionary etc.

If you want to understand each book in its time, it's an excellent resource.

But of course, that gets expensive.

I'll get back to you regarding a single annotated English translation.

Btw, I assume you want a Protestant Bible, right?
 
Wildy, it didn’t take me as long as I thought to get word back.

Dr. Reddish recommends the New Oxford Annotated Bible, Augmented 3rd Edition, New Revised Standard Version.

In fact, Oxford Press quoted Dr. Reddish in their announcement materials for the 3rd edition. Pretty cool. :cool:

I used a previous edition of this Bible as a student, and I loved it.

There are several combinations of versions (with or without Apocrypha), styles, and bindings you can get.

The only one I don’t recommend is the College Edition because it does not have a concordance.

You can find the basic hardcover edition at Amazon for under $30.

This one is fine if you’re going to keep it on a desk for occasional reference.

However, if you intend to use this Bible daily/weekly and to carry it around, I recommend the leather-bound edition with thumb indexes, which has a sewn binding, not glue. In fact, I just bought one of these while online because I want this updated printing.

They’ve included in-text maps with this one, which is very convenient, and they had twice as many editors and contributors working on it as they had for the 2nd edition. Plus, the textual scholarship is more current.

Dr. Lewis is a Hebrew Bible scholar, so he has no recommendation for a Christian Bible. But I did find out that he’s currently working on a volume of the Anchor series, so I’m looking forward to reading that.

I hope this helps.
 
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