Thinking Anglicans

Opinion – 5 November 2022

Stephen Parsons Surviving Church When a Church becomes Cultic

Keith Elliott Church Times A revolutionary present
“Keith Elliott pleads for the Church to be bolder in talking about death, and life beyond”

Fergus Butler-Gallie Church Times Guy Fawkes reimagined: it was all about tolerance
“Fergus Butler-Gallie goes underground to recreate the Gunpowder Plot”

John Barton Church Times There are two ways to translate the Bible, and both are right
“Accuracy and literalness in biblical translation are not the same, says John Barton”

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Pat ONeill
Pat ONeill
1 year ago

Regarding John Barton’s article:

The problem I find with functional equivalent translations (especially of the Hebrew scriptures) is that they often lose the poetic nature of the originals. OTOH, formal equivalence can lead to real misunderstandings, as in the case of translations that somehow have Jesus entering Jerusalem on Palm Sunday riding on two donkeys at the same time (how is that even possible?)–because they do not understand the Hebrew poetic form of repetition.

W Arthurs
W Arthurs
Reply to  Pat ONeill
1 year ago

I’m currently enjoying re-reading the late Ian Robinson’s entertaining hatchet job on Eugene Nida, Who Killed the Bible? (Edgeways Books, 2006)

John Scrivener
John Scrivener
Reply to  W Arthurs
1 year ago

An excellent read, I agree. It came into my mind too when reading Barton’s article.

Tim Chesterton
1 year ago

I very much enjoyed John Barton’s article. However, I thought his analysis was over-simplistic. Bible translations are on a scale; some of the ‘formal equivalent’ and ‘functional equivalent’ translations are closer to the centre and closer to each other. For instance, the NIV (especially in its 2011 revision) is a functionally equivalent translation that often sticks close to literal renderings. The New Living Translation, the Good News Translation, and the Message are more extreme. Likewise, the NRSV is a formal equivalent translation but is not as literal as, say, the NASB or ESV. In Gordon Fee’s essay on translation in… Read more »

Last edited 1 year ago by Tim Chesterton
Dr Stephen Foster
Dr Stephen Foster
Reply to  Tim Chesterton
1 year ago

Not sure that I agree with Tim that John Bartons article is oversimplistic, but I would agree with him regarding the helpfulness of Gordon Fee’s essay. For me in teaching Biblical Studies I tend to prefer to begin with translations which might be termed ‘formal’ as they almost always fascinate those ‘on the receiving end’ but which often engenders further discussion how they might become more functional to the non scholarly reader.

John Bunyan
John Bunyan
Reply to  Tim Chesterton
1 year ago

I too enjoyed the article but am eagerly awaiting the arrival of Professor Barton’s book, The Word (already here in the shops), upon which it is based (having enjoyed and learnt from many of his earlier books, large and small).

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