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A La Carte (1/27)
- 01/27/09
- 8
Christianity Today Book Award Winners
Over the course of the week, CT will be releasing the list of their top books of 2008. They've announced the first two winners already...
Equipping the Saints Through Blogging
Yesterday I contributed to a radio program dealing with blogging. You can hear the audio here.
Trial by Fury
The Washington Post has a story on Ted Haggard. He's going to be in the media spotlight a whole lot in the days to come.
Unsold Car Gallery
Here is a sign of the times. The Guardian has put together a gallery of photographs showing the multitudes of unsold cars around the world.
How To Use Greek Properly
Mounce answers the question of how to best use Greek in the pulpit. He has some good things to say! Here's just one: "Do not correct the English Bible. Ever! Never say, "the translators got this wrong." The damage you can do to a person's trust in Scripture is unimaginable."
Being Pro-Life in a Culture of Death
T-Wax interviews Russell Moore on being pro-life in a pro-death culture and on dealing with the specifics challenges brought about by Barack Obama.
Over the course of the week, CT will be releasing the list of their top books of 2008. They've announced the first two winners already...
Equipping the Saints Through Blogging
Yesterday I contributed to a radio program dealing with blogging. You can hear the audio here.
Trial by Fury
The Washington Post has a story on Ted Haggard. He's going to be in the media spotlight a whole lot in the days to come.
Unsold Car Gallery
Here is a sign of the times. The Guardian has put together a gallery of photographs showing the multitudes of unsold cars around the world.
How To Use Greek Properly
Mounce answers the question of how to best use Greek in the pulpit. He has some good things to say! Here's just one: "Do not correct the English Bible. Ever! Never say, "the translators got this wrong." The damage you can do to a person's trust in Scripture is unimaginable."
Being Pro-Life in a Culture of Death
T-Wax interviews Russell Moore on being pro-life in a pro-death culture and on dealing with the specifics challenges brought about by Barack Obama.
I am a follower of Jesus Christ, a husband to Aileen and a father to three young children. I write books and blogs for fun while doing web design and consulting for a living. I worship and serve at 
Published in 2008, this book
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Comments (8)
Does Mounce say we can offer a slightly different translation without knocking the English version we're using?
Jeff - He sure does. Read the article and you'll see some wise counsel there about giving what may be a superior translation without causing the people in the pews to doubt their Bibles.
Seems like he's pussyfooting around the issue. Sure, we should be gracious when offering a view that contradicts someone else's. On the other hand, if you're going to say, "I think X is a better translation than Y, which the ESV translators chose," then you essentially *are* saying that "the translators got it wrong".
I feel like people thinking critically about their English translations, and the issues of translation in general, can only be a good thing. We shouldn't blindly accept that "our English version" exactly matches the original language. Or, for that matter, that an "exact" (i.e. encompassing all nuance of meaning from the original language) is even possible.
It's like he's advocating pastors not let slip the "big secret" that certain versions translate certain verses in a way the listener might disagree with. If having that knowledge destroys someone's belief in the credibility of scripture, then I would suggest that their belief in the credibility of scripture was shaky to begin with in that it was predicated on the false assumption that there exists a "perfect" English translation.
JPH-
There's a difference between having concern for your congregation and pussyfooting around. Yes, offering Translation X instead of Translation Y, which is in the pew Bible, does suggest that Y is wrong. Most people will pick up on the implication.
On the other hand, most people also will not take the time and energy to learn Greek and Hebrew. So, the English translation is all they have. If, week after week, the pastor says, "Your Bible is wrong here, here, and here," then they lose confidence in the Bible in their hands. I doubt that's a desirable outcome and I think that's what the article wants to guard against.
Also, offering corrections to the text can be misunderstood. There are (nearly) endless possibilities to translating a genitive construction. It takes an in-depth knowledge of the related grammar and syntax AND sound interpretation in order to be able to present a good translation. In other words, one can find somewhere to disagree with just about any passage. Unless we pick our battles, we're going to make it look like the Bible in people's hands is no good. And if we're talking about the ESV, or NIV, or NASB, or RSV, or NKJV, or any number of other good translations, they deserve the people's confidence, and I wouldn't want to snatch them out of the people's hands.
I agree it would be a problem if a pastor gave the impression that one of those bibles was wrong "most of the time" or that it was predominantly untrustworthy.
But then I sort of feel like it's a problem if people never understand that no translation gets everything right. Or that "getting it all right" is even an achievable goal when translating from one language (and an ancient one, at that) into another.
Fifteen Pro-Life Truths to Speak: By John Piper January 24, 2003
"You will know the truth and the truth will set you free." - Jesus Christ
1. Existing fetal homicide laws make a man guilty of manslaughter if he kills the baby in a mother's womb (except in the case of abortion).
2. Fetal surgery is performed on babies in the womb to save them while another child the same age is being legally destroyed.
3. Babies can sometimes survive on their own at 23 or 24 weeks, but abortion is legal beyond this limit.
4. Living on its own is not the criterion of human personhood, as we know from the use of respirators and dialysis.
5. Size is irrelevant to human personhood, as we know from the difference between a one-week-old and a six-year-old.
6. Developed reasoning powers are not the criterion of personhood, as we know from the capacities of three-month-old babies.
7. Infants in the womb are human beings scientifically by virtue of their genetic make up.
8. Ultrasound has given a stunning window on the womb that shows the unborn at eight weeks sucking his thumb, recoiling from pricking, responding to sound. All the organs are present, the brain is functioning, the heart is pumping, the liver is making blood cells, the kidneys are cleaning fluids, and there is a fingerprint. Virtually all abortions happen later than this date.
9. Justice dictates that when two legitimate rights conflict, the limitation of rights that does the least harm is the most just. Bearing a child for adoption does less harm than killing him.
10. Justice dictates that when either of two people must be inconvenienced or hurt to alleviate their united predicament, the one who bore the greater responsibility for the predicament should bear more of the inconvenience or hurt to alleviate it.
11. Justice dictates that a person may not coerce harm on another person by threatening voluntary harm on themselves.
12. The outcast and the disadvantaged and exploited are to be cared for in a special way, especially those with no voice of their own.
13. What is happening in the womb is the unique person-nurturing work of God, who alone has the right to give and take life.
14. There are countless clinics that offer life and hope to both mother and child (and father and parents), with care of every kind lovingly provided by people who will meet every need they can.
15.Jesus Christ can forgive all sins, and will give all who trusts him the help they need to do everything that life requires.
I heard this was going to maybe air during the Super Bowl - I hope so! - Angelahttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2CaBR3z85c
I realize I am preaching to the choir here. But here are my thoughts after seeing that youtube clip:President Obama ought to thank GOD and the Supreme Court that when he was in utero, it was against the law of the land to perform abortions. I wonder if his mom would have aborted him if the legal circumstances were different at that time. She was certainly the perfect profile of a pregnant girl who would likely abort given the opportunity. He should be eternally grateful that there was an 'anti choice' culture and Court back then. The 'ignorance and intolerance' of that age gave him the LIFE he has today.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2CaBR3z85cPass it on!