Church Voices

Dr. James Smith is a professor at Cincinnati Bible College. I’ve been in more than a few of his classes. Judging by some of his comments we disagree mightily in matters of economics. But one place we agree is on the economics of Biblical translation. The reason translations are created is to generate money. Oh yes, although I’m sure some translations are pursued out of virtuous motivations the fact is that without a profit there would not be any translations. This also means that decisions about translations, from the philosophy of translation down to the way specific words are translated, are made with an eye on sales figures. For example, when Dr. Foster was on the translation committee for Luke and Acts for the NIV he pointed out that the word “baptism” should be translated as immersion. And he was right. The word “baptism” isn’t an english word, it was transliterated from the Greed word baptizo. And there is no other way to translate the word. It means “immersion”. However, there was no way that the NIV would ever be released with baptism translated as immersion. Why not? Because that would immediately reduce the potential number of buyers to a very small number. Which brings me to my point. It is essential to understand the philosophies behind the translation you are using. Translations are tools to help you understand the scriptures. And if you don’t know how a tool works there’s no way you can use it properly. If you can’t tell me the differences between the NIV (New International Version), the NASB (New American Standard) and the NLT (New Living Translation) then you need to go to Bible Shop Class and learn what your Bible does well, and what your Bible does not do well. Until you do that you’re not going to be able to properly use it.