Bible Translations: Old & New February 24, 2014 Issue

Study that leads to healing

Kathryn Knox

As a student of English and linguistics, of course I love poetry, parallel structure, obscure words, and historic diction. Even so, for me, the best Bible translation is the one that best illuminates the meaning of a passage and is not obscure or difficult to understand—such as the phrase, “The smoking flax shall he not quench” (Isaiah 42:3). Huh?

Translation goes on continually to translate the language of Spirit into understandable language. In the book The King James Bible: A Short History from Tyndale to Today author David Norton, a professor at Victoria University, notes that the translators of the King James Version of the Bible thought of themselves as revisers, not as creators of a new translation. Their work was to revise the official Bible of the Church of England, the Bishop’s Bible of 1568—which was a revision of the Great Bible (1539, revised 1540).

Sometimes I like to read other translations because they give me an expanded view of an idea through different phrases. I can almost hear our Master, Christ Jesus, talking to a crowd directly in the common language: “Love your enemies. Let them bring out the best in you, not the worst. When someone gives you a hard time, respond with the energies of prayer” (Luke 6:27–30, The Message).