Tag Archive for 'translation'

Good News Proverbs

Published by bcg on 31 March 2009 in Bible. 0 Comments Tags: , .

By this I don't mean Proverbs that necessarily are Good News, but the translation of the Proverbs in the Good News translation of the Bible.  One or two have actually made me laugh out loud, because the language is so blunt and in-your-face.  Here are some examples, in the Good News and ESV:

10.13

Intelligent people talk sense, but stupid people need to be punished. (GNB)
On the lips of him who has understanding, wisdom is found, but a rod is for the back of him who lacks sense. (ESV)

10.21

A good person's words will benefit many people, but you can kill yourself with stupidity. (GNB)
The lips of the righteous feed many, but fools die for lack of sense. (ESV)

11.26

People curse someone who hoards gran, waiting for a higher price, but they praise the one who puts it up for sale. (GNB)
The people curse him who holds back grain, but a blessing is on the head of him who sells it. (ESV)

12.8

If you are intelligent, you will be praised; if you are stupid, people will look down on you. (GNB)
A man is commended according to his good sense, but one of twisted mind is despised. (ESV)

12.15

Stupid people always think they are right.  Wise people listen to advice. (GNB)
The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but a wise man listens to advice. (ESV)

12.25

Worry can rob you of happiness, but kind words will cheer you up. (GNB)
Anxiety in a man's heart weighs him down, but a good word makes him glad. (ESV)

13.16

Sensible people always think before they act, but stupid people advertise their ignorance. (GNB)
In everything the prudent acts with knowledge, but a fool flaunts his folly. (ESV)

14.13

Laughter may hide sadness.  When happiness is gone, sorry is always there. (GNB)
Even in laughter the heart may ache, and the end of joy may be grief. (ESV)

14.29 (one for me)

If you stay calm, you are wise, but if you have a hot temper, you only show how stupid you are. (GNB)
Whoever is slow to anger has great understanding, but he who has a hasty temper exalts folly. (ESV)

15.4

Kind words bring life, but cruel words crush your spirit. (GNB)
A gentle tongue is a tree of life, but perverseness in it breaks the spirit. (ESV)

15.13

When people are happy, they smile, but when they are sad, they look depressed. (GNB)
A glad heart makes a cheerful face, but by sorrow of heart the spirit is crushed. (ESV)

15.17

Better to eat vegetables with people you love than to eat the finest meat where there is hate. (GNB)
Better is a dinner of herbs where love is than a fattened ox and hatred with it. (ESV)

15.19

If you are lazy, you will meet difficulty everywhere, but if you are honest, you will have no trouble. (GNB)
The way of a sluggard is like a hedge of thorns, but the path of the upright is a level highway. (ESV)

16.22

Wisdom is a fountain of life to the wise, but trying to educate stupid people is a waste of time. (GNB)
Good sense is a fountain of life to him who has it, but the instruction of fools is folly. (ESV)

16.24

Kind words are like honey – sweet to the taste and good for your health. (GNB)
Gracious words are like a honeycomb, sweetness to the soul and health to the body. (ESV)

17.10

An intelligent person learns more from one rebuke than a fool learns from being beaten a hundred times. (GNB)
A rebuke goes deeper into a man of understanding than a hundred blows into a fool. (ESV)

17.12

It is better to meet a mother bear with her robbed of her cubs than to meet some fool busy with a stupid project. (GNB)
Let a man meet a she-bear robbed of her cubs rather than a fool in his folly. (ESV)

17.22

Being cheerful keeps you healthy.  It is slow death to be gloomy all the time. (GNB)
A joyful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones. (ESV)

18.2

A fool does not care whether he understands a thing or not; all he wants to do is to show how clever he is. (GNB)
A fool takes no pleasure in understanding, but only in expressing his opinion. (ESV)

18.13

Listen before you answer.  If you don't you are being stupid and insulting. (GNB)
If one gives an answer before he hears, it is his folly and shame. (ESV)

18.20-21

You will have to live with the consequences of everything you say.  What you say can preseve life or destroy it; so you must accept the consequences of your words. (GNB)
From the fruit of a man's mouth his stomach is satisfied; he is satisfied by the yield of his lips. Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruits. (ESV)

That's enough for now – as you can see a lot of the ones I've chosen revolve around the word 'stupid'.  But it does highlight the difference in translation philosophies – the ESV is 'essentially literal', whereas the GNB is 'dynamically equivalent'.  In other words, the ESV simply tries to translate word-for-word, whereas the GNB tries to explain some of the Hebrew / Greek idioms in plain English.

I have to say reading the GNB this year is very refreshing, after reading the ESV last year.  I'm especially enjoying the Proverbs – no doubt more will follow!

ESV Study Bible

Published by bcg on 15 April 2008 in Bible. 0 Comments Tags: , .

Coming soon to a store near you... with over 25,000 notes, over 80,000 cross-references, and over 200 maps.  The layout looks brilliant.  Let's hope the anglicized edition looks as good!

ESV Study Bible

Resurrection Life

Published by bcg on 25 March 2008 in Church and Theology. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , .

On Sunday I preached on the final day of the college mission to Larkhall, Bath.  The text of the sermon can be found here.

Rather than preach directly from a passage, I preached on the meaning of Jesus' bodily resurrection, both for life in the future, and life here and now.

Since working at A Rocha two years ago, I have become more and more aware of how important it is that a) Jesus was incarnated, b) he spent three years preaching and healing the sick, c) he was raised bodily from the dead.

All these things amount to a wholehearted affirmation of God's good creation.  Many evangelicals seem to be drifting to an almost gnostic position, hugely prioritising the 'spiritual' over the 'physical'.

We must remember that when God's kingdom comes, we will not be living in a vacuum, floating on clouds in the sky, but on this earth, transformed.  Heaven comes down to earth, not the other way round.

A further thing I have often wondered is if we should translate 'spiritual' in the New Testament as 'Spiritual', i.e., of the Holy Spirit.  I'm sure someone has thought this before!

The Jesus Storybook Bible

Published by bcg on 21 March 2008 in Bible, Church and Reviews. 1 Comment Tags: , , .

This week I have been on a mission in Bath (I am currently on my day off!).  One of my primary roles has been to go into the Junior School for assemblies and class visits.

For the assemblies we made up some dramas, and read out some stories from the Jesus Storybook Bible, by Sally Lloyd-Jones and illustrated by Jago.  The Amazon page has a couple of critical reviews, but we found the stories really very good, and the illustrations too.

One of the main criticisms of the book on the Amazon page is that it downplays sin and judgement.  I disagree.  The section on the crucifixion (called 'The sun stops shining') tells the real story:

Even though it was midday, a dreadful darkness covered the face of the world.  The sun could not shine.  The earth trembled and quaked.  The great mountains shook.  Rocks split in two.  Until it seemed that the whole world would break.  That creation itself would tear apart.

The full force of the storm of God's fierce anger at sin was coming down.  On his own Son.  Instead of his people.  It was the only way God could destroy sin, and not destroy his children whose hearts were filled with sin.

Now, of course it isn't perfect.  No translation is perfect, and this isn't a translation, or even a paraphrase.  It's a way of telling some of the main stories in the Bible.  It will only 'do much harm' (again, from the Amazon reviewer) if it is used as the only way of telling Bible stories to children.

We used it in our assemblies as the frame for telling the stories.  Some of the phrases are brilliant, like this one:

And Peter told them the wonderful Story of God's Love – God's Never Stopping, Never Giving Up, Unbreaking, Always and Forever Love.

What the book does best of all is show how Jesus is at the centre of the whole Bible, how 'every story whispers its name' (the tagline from the book cover).

I would recommend this book, especially if you do children's work and can use it in assemblies.

Pissing against the wall

Published by bcg on 10 March 2008 in Bible and Church. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

I'm not sure if this is very funny or extremely sad, but I found a video of a Baptist preacher preaching talking about the phrase 'pisseth against the wall' from the King James.

Baptist preaches on KJV "him that pisseth against the wall"

This is the verse he preaches from:

Therefore, behold, I will bring evil upon the house of Jeroboam,
and will cut off from Jeroboam him that pisseth against
the wall, and him that is shut up and left in Israel, and will take
away the remnant of the house of Jeroboam, as a man taketh away dung, till
it be all gone.

1 Kings 14.10 (KJV)

From this verse the preacher's message is that real men (as opposed to 'males') urinate standing up.  The problems in America are caused, it seems, by men urinating sitting down.  How he manages to ignore the fact that in the context of this verse is that urinating standing up is not a good thing: doing it will get you 'cut off' from the people of God.  I don't claim to understand what's going on here, but I'm pretty sure it's not what this guy says!

He also uses manages to rant about how the King James is better than all other translations, for saying 'males', editing out 'Hell' and 'Jehovah' (which is the name of God).  From a bit of research on the internet it seems that this isn't the only strange thing this guy has said.

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