Bible translations

In looking at bible translations, Bill Mounce has written an extremely helpful post which can be accessed here. I think it is true to say that many people pontificate about specific bible translations without really having any qualification to do so. Without a fluency in Old Testament Hebrew or New Testament Greek we, all of us, are reliant upon the efforts of those who are able to translate. We may have translations which we prefer for reasons of accessibility or fluency but we must be very careful before pronouncing judgment upon 'lesser' translations if we ourselves are not able to translate the originals.


Reading Bill Mounce's post I think points 2 and 3 are particularly pertinent. I would also endorse his comment that 'I am not convinced that non-academic celebrities should be making pronouncements on translation theory.' In reality, I think this point could extend to all academics and non-academic who are not well versed in translation theory and are not capable of reading the original texts for themselves. Most importantly, however, is his final comment:

Life is too short, and hell is too hot, to not communicate the gospel to our subculture in language they can understand, whatever be that subculture.