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A La Carte (4/17)
- 09/17/10
- 7
Over the past few days I’ve logged into Google Reader to find a strangely large number of unread articles. As I’ve flipped through I’ve found that in each case a certain site is at fault and that this site has refreshed their entire RSS feed. First it was the Sovereign Grace Ministries blog, then Desiring God and, most recently, The Resurgence. This must be some kind of a conspiracy by all of these big ministries. But what does it mean?
New Resurgence - Speaking of The Resurgence, last night they launched a new site design. You may want to head on over and check it out.
Trellis & Vine Workshops - Matthias Media is holding several Trellis & Vine workshops across the US. Check the site for dates and locations. “Our aim is simple: to equip ministry leaders with the biblical foundations, vision and resources to train co-workers in gospel ministry in a local ministry context. The concrete value of the workshop is that participants will leave with at least the first draft of a plan for their training ministry.”
What Constitutes an Accurate Translation? - Mounce is dealing with this question over at the Koinonia blog. “I had a fascinating experience this summer. I spent my first three weeks on the NIV translation committee, the CBT. We were locked away in Whistler, Canada, discussing, agreeing, and sometimes disagreeing on the nuances of the meaning of words and the meaning of biblical passages. It doesn’t get any better than that!”
An Epic Beatdown - I enjoyed this clip of Matt Chandler preaching at a recent 9Marks event. He talks about a passage I just happened to read this morning—the sons of Sceva trying to cast out a demon. (HT)
The grief of repentance is never loss in any way; not to experience this grief, that is loss indeed. —R.C.H. Lenski
I am a follower of Jesus Christ, a husband to Aileen and a father to three young children. I worship and serve as a pastor at 
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Comments (7)
What do you mean about unread articles? Did you find articles that aren’t listed for the public?
Thanks for the link on Accurate Translations. I’m actually going up for my ordination tomorrow. It should serve to bulster my response if questioned.
God bless.
Adam - I clarified in the post. I just meant that the entire RSS feed has refreshed meaning that those sites suddenly offered 20 or 30 unread articles.
Tim - The video clip was awesome, I laughed til I cried -Thanks for the wonderful start to the day.
Hope explaining this weeks tragic events to your children went ok. I have had to do the same for my children as a physician in a small town on a couple of occasions. Still never easy, but what an awesome opportunity to minister to my family. I would bet I have grown through these times far more than they have.
When I took Greek at Wheaton, I had to throw out every ignorant comment I’d ever made about translating the Bible. Greek allows the writer to toss verbs into weird places, has “compound” words that contain great nuances of meaning that even English doesn’t handle well, and on and on. Whenever someone talks to me about “literal” translations, I just laugh. Having translated Romans and 1 John myself, I realize that the quest for a “literal” translation will forever be a pipe dream.
On An Epic Beatdown:
With all due respect to Matt Chandler and at the risk of sounding dour, he is not preaching as much as he is illustrating in a rather entertaining way an event that truly happened in Church history.
What concerns me in his retelling of this account is that we remember the reality of the spirit realm with due respect, understanding the damage that can occur but knowing that God will always use the devil’s devices against him as we see exactly happen at the end of Acts 19:13-20:
“Some Jews who went around driving out evil spirits tried to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who were demon-possessed. They would say, “In the name of Jesus, whom Paul preaches, I command you to come out.” Seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, were doing this. (One day) the evil spirit answered them, “Jesus I know, and I know about Paul, but who are you?” Then the man who had the evil spirit jumped on them and overpowered them all. He gave them such a beating that they ran out of the house naked and bleeding. When this became known to the Jews and Greeks living in Ephesus, they were all seized with fear, and the name of the Lord Jesus was held in high honor. Many of those who believed now came and openly confessed their evil deeds. A number who had practiced sorcery brought their scrolls together and burned them publicly. When they calculated the value of the scrolls, the total came to fifty thousand drachmas. In this way the word of the Lord spread widely and grew in power.”
I suggest reading Leland Ryken’s “The Word of God in English”. You will quickly see from Ryken’s examples that dynamic equivalent translations (non-literal) are all over the place with the words they choose. Much of the NIV and other dynamic equivalent translations are in fact commentary on the text, translated into the text. This should bother any serious student of the Bible.
I recently did a review of this book on my blog, for any that want to know more.
Maybe we cannot have a literal translation from the Greek but I agree with what Dr.James White has said , we can have reliable and accurate translation . No matter what language we translate , it will have nuances and problems but we can at the very least assure the general reading public that the Bible they have in their hands is at least truthful and will not lead them astray even if they do not know Greek , which is 99 % or more . There is no question however that some translations are better . I still prefer the NASB and have enjoyed the ESV . I have begun to study Greek and hope to one day master it .