Archive for July, 2005

The ESV is becoming increasingly popular among evangelicals, and has been receiving lots of praise on various blogs recently (especially Adrian Warnock’s). I have been reading through it this year, and on the whole have been impressed, but I still think there is room for improvement. (see my comments on this post by Parableman for an example).

Earlier this week I read 2 Chronicles 9, and it highlighted one of my areas of concern. The commitment to literal translation is so strong, that unfamiliar idioms are used even when minor modifications would make the text immediately understandable to a much broader spectrum of readers.

For example, in 2 Chronicles 9:4, we are told that when the Queen of Sheba saw the wisdom and riches of Solomon, “there was no more breath in her”. This is a very awkward phrase, never used in conversational English, but there is actually a perfectly common idiom that expresses exactly the same sentiment – “it took her breath away”. I really can’t understand why the translators do not make this type of change, even if it moves from the strictly literal into the dynamic equivalence realm.

Interestingly, the NIV doesn’t go for this option either, preferring to say “she was overwhelmed”. I’m surprised that they have made this choice, as a number of paraphrases and literal translations have opted for “she was breathless” (NLT, CEV and NASB). HCSB and the Message are the only ones I came across that use what I consider to be the best option – “it took her breath away”.

The same chapter has a second example. In verse 31, it is said that Solomon “slept with his fathers”, meaning of course that he died. Sleeping with someone is a euphemism in English, but it does not mean dying. The NIV’s “rested with his fathers” keeps close to the Hebrew idiom while losing the unhelpful connotations. The commonly found “rest in peace” on gravestones testifies to our association of ‘resting’ with death.

I’m not suggesting that anyone will fail to understand the meaning of these two verses, but I don’t see why the principle of literal translation must be so rigidly adhered to in cases such as these, where similar idioms or euphemisms can be used. As Wink says, it is preferable to “emphasize readability over “literalness”.

The Bible strongly warns Christians against the sins of pride (e.g. Ps 101:5; Prov 16:5; Isa 2:12; Rom 12:16; James 4:6) and envy (e.g. Mark 7:22; Prov 14:30; 1 Cor 13:4; Gal 5:21; James 3:14; 1 Pet 2:1). We detect these sins easily enough in others, but how can we examine our own hearts? Particularly when it comes to our service in the body of Christ, it is possible for these sins to sneak in subtly under false pretences. Although they are rarely listed together in Scripture, I think there is a good deal of overlap between them, and they can be detected if we consider the attitudes we have when we compare other people’s gifting and ministries with our own.

Pride will affect the way we think about others who we consider to have less gifting or are less spiritual than ourselves. Envy will affect the way we think about those who have more recognition, success or status in our own area of gifting.

Pride and envy stop us receiving from other people who minister to us. We won’t be taught or served by them, as we know better (pride), or resent not being in their shoes (envy).

Pride and envy stop us rejoicing with other people as they are used by God in ministry. We don’t want to share the limelight with someone else (pride), or we resent them having opportunity that we would like ourselves (envy).

Pride and envy stop us recognising the gifting other people have for ministry. We begrudge them praise and opportunity because it detracts from the our own status (pride), or we have a critical attitude because we are bitter that they are doing what we want to do while we are not (envy).

What’s the remedy for these obnoxious attitudes? Humility. May the Holy Spirit help us to search our hearts and repent of any pride and envy we find there.

All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” (1 Peter 5:5)

I had the privilege of attending the New Frontiers Brighton leadership conference for the day on Wednesday. I arrived just in time to sneak into Ian Stackhouse’s seminar on preaching. I chose the seminar because I had never heard him before and I was hoping that he might discuss some of the issues in his new book (that I haven’t read) – the Gospel Driven Church. However, the main point of the seminar was that preaching is still relevant and that we should stick to the Biblical text and let it speak. He seemed to disapprove of using lots of illustrations or preaching on topics and current events without explicitly saying that you shouldn’t. I was annoyed I hadn’t chosen Philip Greenslade’s seminar instead.

Anyway, things greatly improved for me when I got to the bookshop. I noticed a man buying 10 volumes of the Word Biblical Commentary series. I knew immediately that this meant it was on special offer and so I ran to make sure I grabbed the 2 volume Hebrews commentary by William Lane. This means I now own my first choice commentary on each book in the New Testament.

The first main session of the day was a sermon by Dave Holden, and as usual he was outstanding. His main point was encouraging those who build churches to build them well. I had lunch with a doctor and two pastors, who discussed how to help people with terminal illnesses (the balance between praying for healing and preparing people for death). It was a subject that I felt way out of my depth on, but for these guys, its part of their job.

The afternoon was a seminar by PJ Smyth, one of New Frontiers up and coming new leaders. His style is very dynamic, and he likes his audience to participate with various noises and actions. My preference is for preachers to be a bit more boring and academic, but I guess I’m in the minority there as lots of people really appreciated his style. His sermon also brought up the interesting issue of how we treat contemporary prophecy as compared to the Bible. Much of the sermon was based around significant prophectic words spoken about New Frontiers. His main point was that New Frontiers needs to be getting into the major world cities and building big (‘juggernaut’) churches from which to plant smaller (‘fiat uno’) churches.

I had dinner with a bunch of Ukranians who didn’t speak any English, but I did also get to speak to someone who has just got back from an extended visit to Zimbabwe. Sounds like things are really bad there – she told us about beheadings of people who voted the wrong way in the recent elections.

The evening was CJ Mahaney. I explained to someone beforehand that CJ was a very dynamic and amusing speaker, and most likely to speak on subjects such as humility, suffering or the cross. I got it exactly right. He did one of his typical extended introductions where he waxes lyrical about his gratefulness, love and admiration for New Frontiers. Finally, he preached a very solemn and passionate sermon on Christ’s gethsemane experience – where he looked into the cup. It was an unashamed advocation of the penal substitution theory of the atonement, which it looks like New Frontiers are underlining their commitment to in light of Steve Chalke’s book, which Dave Holden had subtly alluded to in his talk.

Another great blessing of the conference was that it gave me an opportunity to finally meet Andrew Fountain, who I have been in email contact with for some time now. (In fact we met up just before the conference as well). I’m hoping to get him round to my house to tell me all about New Covenant Theology before he heads back off to Canada.