Choosing A Bible

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Choosing a Bible
Understanding Bible
Tr a n s l a t i o n D i f f e r e n c e s

L ELAND R YKEN

C R O S S W AY B O O K S
A PUBLISHING MINISTRY OF
GOOD NEWS PUBLISHERS
WHEATON, ILLINOIS

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Choosing a Bible
Copyright © 2005 by Leland Ryken
Adapted from TheWord of God in English, copyright © 2002
by Leland Ryken.
Formerly published as Bible Translation Differences
Published by Crossway Books
a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers
1300 Crescent Street
Wheaton, Illinois 60187
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form by any means,
electronic, mechanical,photocopy, recording or otherwise, without
the prior permission of the publisher, except as provided by USA
copyright law.
Cover design: Josh Dennis
First printing, 2005
Printed in the United States of America
All Scripture quotations are taken from Holy Bible: English Standard
Version, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry
of Good News Publishers. All rights reserved.Used by permission.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Ryken, Leland.
[Bible translation differences]
Choosing a bible : understanding bible translation differences /
Leland Ryken.
p. cm.
Originally published: Bible translation differences. Wheaton, Ill. :
Crossway Books, 2004.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 1-58134-730-8 (tpb)
1. Bible—Translating I. Title.BS449.R948
2005
220.5'2—dc22
2005009880
CH
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CONTENTS
CHAPTER ONE
HOW DO BIBLE TRANSLATIONS DIFFER
FROM EACH OTHER? 5
1. The Goal of Bible Translation
2. Thought-for-Thought or Word-for-Word?

CHAPTERTWO
FIVE NEGATIVE EFFECTS OF
DYNAMIC EQUIVALENCE 11
1. Taking Liberties in Translation
2. Destabilization of the Text
3. What the Bible “Means” vs. What the Bible Says
4. Falling Short of What We Should Expect
5. A Logical and Linguistic Impossibility

CHAPTER THREE
TEN REASONS WE CAN TRUST ESSENTIALLY
LITERAL BIBLE TRANSLATIONS 23
1. Transparency to the Original
2. Keeping to theEssential Task of Translation
3. Preserving the Full Interpretive Potential of the Original
4. Not Mixing Commentary with Translation
5. Preserving Theological Precision
6. Not Needing to Correct the Translation in Preaching
7. Preserving What the Biblical Writers Actually Wrote
8. Preserving the Literary Qualities of the Bible
9. Preserving the Dignity and Beauty of the Bible
10. Consistencywith the Doctrine of Inspiration

NOTES

31

APPENDIX: BIBLE TRANSLATIONS CHART

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1

HOW DO
BIBLE TRANSLATIONS DIFFER
FROM EACH OTHER?

I WANT TO BEGIN BY surveying and critiquing what has been
happening in Bible translation for the past fiftyyears. If I am
right, few laypeople know what really makes various English
Bible translations different from each other (see Appendix: Bible
Translations Chart). When one of my colleagues in the
Bible Department at Wheaton College polls his students
about Bible translations, he finds that they begin with the premise that all modern translations are equally accurate as renditions
of the originaltext, and that the only basis for preferring one
over another is the criterion of readability. In my judgment, this
is a matter for serious concern.
But who am I to sit in judgment on this state of unawareness? When I joined the Translation Oversight Committee of
the English Standard Version of the Bible, at our first meeting the
president of the publishing company announced that the ESV...