Pastor Steve's Recent Weekly Letter
Pastor Steve's Weekly Letter for Thursday, February 20, 2020
Today I am at Heritage Theological Seminary near Toronto, Ontario. It’s the second day of a two-day class I’m teaching to a group of pastors. The class is about preaching Old Testament poetic texts, including Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the book of Job. I will fly home tomorrow afternoon. Last week, someone asked me for my thoughts about a new translation of the Bible called The Passion Translation. This question reminded me how important it is to think carefully about the translations we use since the Scriptures are so critical to knowing and obeying God. If our translations are not accurate, they will mislead us about who God is and what he expects from us. Here are three observations.
1. God has marvelously preserved his Word over the years. Although the label “inerrancy” (error-free) applies only to the original manuscripts of the Bible, all the details we have about the transmission and translation of the Bible through the centuries indicate that we have faithful, accurate copies of those original manuscripts. In God’s providence, he did not allow the original manuscripts to be preserved. We don’t know exactly why that is the case, but I have a suspicion. It’s likely that God’s people (including us) would have worshiped them like they did the bronze snake that God told Moses to make as a life-saving measure for his people (see Numbers 21:4-9). However, King Hezekiah wisely smashed it to pieces a few hundred years later because God’s people were treating it as an idol and burning incense to it (see 2 Kings 18:4). God didn’t preserve the original copies of the Bible lest we idolize them. Yet, we can be confident that the copies we have are accurate reflections of the original manuscripts.
2. Almost all the Bible translations believers use today are reliable and accurate. These translations are produced by teams of scholars who work from the oldest Hebrew (Old Testament) and Greek (New Testament) manuscripts we have available. The “best of the best,” in my opinion, are the NIV (New International Version), the CSB (Christian Standard Bible), and the ESV (English Standard Version). I grew up with the NASB (New American Standard Bible), and it’s still a fine choice even if it is a bit too literal at points. This, in fact, is the challenge of translation. Since languages work differently, you can’t simply translate “literally” or word-for-word. Otherwise, you get a clunky translation. For example, here is my literal translation of John 3:16 from the Greek text: “In this way for loved the God the world so that the son, the one and only he gave in order that all the ones believing in him not to perish but may have life eternal.” That’s more literal than the most literal English translations we have (NASB, ESV, KJV). But it doesn’t work because that’s not how we express ideas in English. Some translations lean more towards a thought-for-thought approach. The NLT (New Living Translation) is one example. Others like the NIV and CSB are a combination of both. All of them will lead you to the ideas the Scripture writers conveyed.
3. The Passion Translation (PT) has become popular in some branches of the church, but it really is not a translation. Nor is it a good one. I admit that I have only read selected sections and verses from it. Yet what I have read concerns me. The PT includes ideas and concepts that are simply not found in the oldest and best manuscripts we have available. For example, Philippians 1:1 begins like this: “Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus” (NIV, ESV). The CSB has “slaves,” and the NASB has “bond-servants” instead of “servants.” However, the PT reads, “My name is Paul, and I’m joined by my spiritual son Timothy, both of us passionate servants of Jesus, the Anointed One.” While that sounds fresh and compelling, is it accurate? “Anointed One” instead of Christ is fine, but “spiritual son” and “passionate” are, quite frankly, additions to the Scripture. They are not included or implied in the Greek manuscripts from which we get our English translations. The effort to produce “an expansive, fresh, fiery translation” has resulted in going beyond “what is written” in the Scriptures. So let the reader beware.
This Sunday, February 23, we will wrap up the “story of Jesus” portion of our journey through the Bible’s storyline. I plan to preach Luke 23:26-24:55. The title of the sermon is “Why Jesus’ Death and Resurrection was Necessary.” Finally, my daughter, Erin, recently warned her two preschoolers not to open the front door if the doorbell rings. This was in response to reports of burglaries in the area. To make her kids take her demand seriously, she explained that there could be “bad guys” at the door. However, our grandson, Madden (3) showed no concern over his Mom’s attempt to instill a bit of healthy fear in him. He replied: “It’s okay. Daddy and Mommy will fight the bad guys!” I guess Erin will have to try another line of reasoning. Thanks for reading. I’ll see you on Sunday!