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b-hebrew - Re: [b-hebrew] Re: paraphrase Bible versions (Peter Kirk)

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  • From: Peter Kirk <peterkirk AT qaya.org>
  • To: bill.rea AT canterbury.ac.nz
  • Cc: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Re: paraphrase Bible versions (Peter Kirk)
  • Date: Thu, 06 Jan 2005 20:45:40 +0000

On 06/01/2005 20:30, Bill Rea wrote:

Peter wrote:-


So I don't think these are what
Bill had in mind when he commented on "the excesses of paraphrases
posing as translations which are striving for originality and novelty in
English".


When I wrote that I was thinking of ``The Message: The Bible in
Contemporary Language'' which is commonly called The Message
Translation. I expect if they titled it ``The Message - A Bible
Paraphrase by Eugene H. Peterson'' its sales would have been
substantially less.


The Message is described on its own cover as a "paraphrasing translation". So it is not claiming to be anything different from what it actually is. The publishers and Peterson are not responsible for what others may call it.

I think we might have a culture clash over this issue. I went to
Amazon and in the reader review of The Message by Jeff Zizz I found
this:-


Perhaps the reason so many of the church attending public are biblically
illiterate is because of the over-emphasis on word for word translations.


In NZ the opposite is the case. Recently I was asked for advice on
purchasing a new Bible by a University student with limited funds.
They had used the TEV while in Sunday School (up to age 12/13) then
switched to the NIV when in youth group (ages 13-19) and felt it was
time for a new version. I used my spectrum model with them, explained
where I thought the TEV and NIV fitted, ...


Perhaps you can explain to me and this group where they fitted, because if you remember you left me very confused about your model and its terminology.

... asked some questions about
their intended use, where they wanted to go on the spectrum, etc, and
after looking at a number of versions they decided to by a NASB. Very much
to my surprize the Christian book store had to order one in. The sales
assistant said they sell so few NASBs that they don't carry it as a
stock item. If you're wanting a word-for-word style translation its
hard to pass up the NASB for something else.


And is this person "biblically illiterate"? I doubt it, after at least 8 years of studying two different Bible versions. So your anecdotal evidence doesn't even support your thesis.

--
Peter Kirk
peter AT qaya.org (personal)
peterkirk AT qaya.org (work)
http://www.qaya.org/



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