In a 2002 interview with Christianity Today, influential Bible translator Eugene Nida talked about a conversation he once had with a Japanese translation committee. Challenging the group to seek the greatest clarity in translating the biblical text, he was asked, "If we made the Bible that clear, what would the preachers have to do?"
Nida responded, "They could preach." He went on to explain, "Preaching is not exegeting the Greek or Hebrew text. Preaching is applying that message to life."
If that is the case — and most good preachers I know would agree with Nida — then it requires that the preacher and congregation have access to the best Bible translations available, and it also requires availability of excellent tools for biblical study, so that the preacher can deal accurately with the text in the process of driving home its meaning.
That's why for many years, Preaching magazine has taken time at the end of each year to recognize the Bibles and Bible reference tools that have become available in recent months.
Bibles
The Christian marketplace today is overflowing with Bible translations, from old standards like the New International Version (NIV) and New American Standard Bible (NASB) to newer (and excellent) products like the New Living Translation (NLT) and English Standard Version (ESV). Given the availability of so many translations, one can legitimately question the need for an additional translation today.
That's why the people at Lifeway Christian Resources (which relates to Southern Baptists) have gone to great lengths to explain the value of their new Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB), which has been fully released in the past year.
In an article available at the Lifeway website (www.lifeway.com), Sam Gantt and Greg Webster point out that, "Traditionally, there have been two different approaches to translating the Bible. One, called 'dynamic equivalent,' bases the rendering of Scripture primarily on the meaning of a phrase or verse rather than on the individual words that make up the passage. The other, 'formal equivalence,' places a much higher priority on preserving the actual words of the original writings, but both have their limitations. Dynamic equivalence risks infusing the Scripture text with a translator's interpretation of what a given passage means rather than what the original writer intended. Formal equivalence, on the other hand, struggles to make Scripture readable since the structure of ancient languages in word order, verb tenses, and the like differs so drastically from modern English."
By contrast, they say, the HCSB "uses a third method that combines contemporary wording and grammar with an emphasis on reflecting the original words as closely as possible." Calling this approach "optimal equivalence," they argue that the HCSB seeks to strike a balance in order to provide the most accurate rendering of the passage in its original context.