Bible Translations: Old & New April 21, 2014 Issue

Amplified text can amplify understanding

Janell Fiarman

Different Bible translations are useful for different purposes. It can be interesting, for example, to know that sometimes Jesus was actually quoting from the prophets. The New Oxford Annotated Bible, New Revised Standard Version, is one that provides that kind of information. It has great notes with historical background, which clarify the meaning or the context. And if you just want comfort or inspiration, you might consider The New Testament in Modern English, Revised Edition, by J. B. Phillips. It is clear and also speaks to the heart with warmth, affirmation, inspiration—and without scholarly details.

If you’ve ever tried to translate something, you already know that words can express several ideas at once, so it can be hard to find just the right word to say all those things in another language. This can also be true in translating Bible passages.

The Amplified Bible “amplifies” the text by offering some of those alternative possibilities. It’s also possible to get a lot of the different shades of meaning by looking up the roots of words in Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance, but the Amplified Bible does some of that work for you.