Bible Translation in the News

Today was the day that, with much fanfare, the new Bible translation by the Netherlands Bible Society (NBV) was presented. In certain respects, I have sympathy for the motives behind a new Bible translation. To name the most important one: the Dutch of the 1951 translation has become quite outdated. Various words and expressions simply no longer belong to this time. This translation brings change in that regard.
Although the question, of course, is: for how long? Because you can bet your life that in a few years the language of the NBV will also have become outdated again.

The issue behind the above-mentioned problem
is that people mostly want to regard the Bible as a (read-aloud) book. At the table, in church, or wherever. But the Bible is not a (read-aloud) book.
We should not so much read the Bible, but study it!
And one thing has by now become quite clear to me: the NBV is even less suitable for Scripture study than the 1951 translation. It is not a translation that aims to render as ‘literally’ as possible what is “written” in the original. Instead, it primarily translates thought-for-thought.
That is, it reflects what one thinks the idea is in Scripture.

As a result, the Bible reader is unnecessarily saddled with the translators’ interpretations instead of with the facts of the original text.
I may return to this again sometime soon.

There is, however, one thing I’m pleased to report: ‘hell’ has disappeared from the NBV!
It has made way for ‘Gehenna’.
Entirely rightly so, because Gehenna is a place name, and names are not to be translated.

What I AM INCREDIBLY enthusiastic about
is the fact that (coincidentally?) this week also saw the completion of the massive interlinear project by my friend Menno Haayman. In addition to the New Testament, which he had already completed earlier, he has now, in about two thousand hours (next to his daily heavy labor!), also finished the interlinear of the Hebrew Bible.

André de Mol (another friend of mine) has, over the years, developed an exceptionally professional Bible program, with very intelligent search options.
On his website scripture4all you can read much more about it and also download the Bible program for the New Testament for free (!).
For the Old Testament, you’ll need to be just a little more patient.

In the meantime, I can testify as an experienced user that the now completed interlinear work is truly the crème de la crème!
Worldwide, the (still rather unknown) program is rightfully making a big impression.
The responses received from all sides bear witness to that.

The amazing thing about this program
is that it largely bridges the language barrier between the ancient Hebrew and Greek on the one hand, and the modern English-speaking reader on the other.
For those who do not know Hebrew or Greek, there simply is no way to come closer to the original text of Scripture.

And the included “concordance search software” also enables the critical researcher to examine exactly how consistent (or ‘biased’) the interlinear rendering is.

I consider this Bible program
a historic milestone for digital ‘Bereans’, who daily want to examine the Scriptures with precision to see “whether these things are so.”
That is a whole different ballgame, if you ask me, than a polished and literary-responsible Bible edition that can be consumed ready-made…

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