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Bible - Translation Accuracy

Piggy said:
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.
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Thanks. I guess I'm halfway there. I've got the NRSV. Now all I need is the New Oxford Annotated Bible, Augmented 3rd Edition bit.

RandFan said:
I read the bible for the articles.
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Unlike Cracked who use the bible to:

  1. Make a list of raunchy bible verses
  2. Make a list of superpowers from the bible that beat Marvel or DC.
  3. Make a list of badass bible verses
 
:) A popular refrain for people who read Playboy is that they read it for the articles. The Bible is porn and pulp fiction, IMHO.
 
Wildy said:
Thanks. I guess I'm halfway there. I've got the NRSV. Now all I need is the New Oxford Annotated Bible, Augmented 3rd Edition bit.
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Well, the thing is, there is no "the NRSV" (back to the articles again).

If you're really interested in accuracy -- that is, having an English version that's as close to the ancient texts as possible -- then a lot depends on how recent your NRSV is.

And if you're also interested in understanding the books in the context of the place and time in which they were written or redacted, then the commentary and scholarship are very important.

A lot of the popular misinterpretation of the Bible -- most, in my experience -- comes from ignorance of what the books meant, or were supposed to mean, in their own time.
 
Piggy said:
And genealogies, and invoices, and jokes, and... oh, man, you name it.
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Oh god yes. It's such a bloody bore most of the time. Isaiah drove me nuts. The only thing I hated more than Isaiah were the blowhards that claimed to love to read Isaiah. Joseph Smith copied and pasted large sections of it into the BOM compounding my torment.
 
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RandFan said:
Oh god yes. It's such a bloody bore most of the time. Isaiah drove me nuts. The only thing I hated more than Isaiah were the blowhards that claimed to love to read Isaiah. Joseph Smith copied and pasted large sections of it into the BOM compounding my torment.
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You hated Isaiah?

Well, OK, he didn't have the freaky flash of Jeremiah or the trippy visuals of Ezekiel, and he's a bit long-winded, but oh man, he knew how to lay down a vivid curse, and there are some great stories in there. Some great lyric poetry, too.
 
Piggy said:
You hated Isaiah?

Well, OK, he didn't have the freaky flash of Jeremiah or the trippy visuals of Ezekiel, and he's a bit long-winded, but oh man, he knew how to lay down a vivid curse, and there are some great stories in there. Some great lyric poetry, too.
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When I couldn't get to sleep at night I used to read Isaiah. I liked Daniel and Psalms and yeah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel were pretty good but I preferred the visuals of Revelations.

And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth.

Maybe I was a bit too quick to call people who liked Isaiah blowhards. :)
 
RandFan said:
When I couldn't get to sleep at night I used to read Isaiah. I liked Daniel and Psalms and yeah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel were pretty good but I preferred the visuals of Revelations.

And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth.

Maybe I was a bit too quick to call people who liked Isaiah blowhards. :)
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Hey, it's not my favorite, I admit. And I also admit I'm a lit wonk and a scripture wonk and a religion wonk. So I'm probably not the best source for what is and isn't interesting reading. I mean, I even read all the decorating instructions in the HGTV section of Exodus.
 
JoeTheJuggler said:
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.
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Nope, sorry. The KJV wasn't published until 1611, at which time nearly all of Shakespeare's had been written. Shakespeare's Biblical allusions come from either the Great Bible of 1539 or the Geneva Bible. If anything, Shakespeare influenced the writing of the KJV, not the other way around.
 
Piggy said:
Hey, it's not my favorite, I admit. And I also admit I'm a lit wonk and a scripture wonk and a religion wonk. So I'm probably not the best source for what is and isn't interesting reading. I mean, I even read all the decorating instructions in the HGTV section of Exodus.
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Actually, Exodus wasn't that bad, at least it had something of a plot. Leviticus and Numbers, now THOSE are insomnia cures.

I always had a thing for Ecclesiastes.
 
kmortis said:
Actually, Exodus wasn't that bad, at least it had something of a plot. Leviticus and Numbers, now THOSE are insomnia cures.

I always had a thing for Ecclesiastes.
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I transcribe poetry I love. Makes me really pay attention and "get it in my fingers". I transcribed all of Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs.

Yeah, Leviticus and Numbers can be a drag. Except some parts of Leviticus are pretty wild.

I love Exodus, except that in some parts where various traditions have been woven together, it's like watching several versions of a movie all interspliced, with each scene repeating itself 2 or more times in a slightly different way.
 
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