Let’s briefly take a look at one of the knottiest textual problems in the New Testament: 2 Peter 3.10.
For the purposes of this discussion, we’ll set aside issues of canonicity (hotly-contested) and authorship (not Peter) and simply focus on the text of this single verse.
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In a recent article discussing the New Living Translation, Daniel Block argues in favor of dynamic equivalence translation (“thought for thought”) over formal equivalence translation (“word for word”). He claims that Jesus himself favored this translation philosophy, citing the differences between Luke 10.27 and Deuteronomy 6.5 as evidence. Block says: (more…)
I’m not a Red Letter Christian. By this I don’t mean I’m opposed to Tony Campolo’s and Jim Wallis’ Christians-for-social-justice movement. I mean it in a very literal sense: I don’t like red text in my Bible.
Red letter Bibles print the words of Jesus in red, presumably so that we can better focus on his very important teachings . It’s the theological equivalent of underlining important passages in a textbook so that you can go back and quickly study them before an exam. (more…)
From time to time I get asked what the best Bible translation is. This sounds like an innocent enough question, but before answering, it’s important to understand the motivation behind the question. This inquiry generally comes from one of three types of people:
Each of those circumstances merits their own response: (more…)