Category Archives: Bibles

Common English Bible and the NIV — Long Term Strategies

I’ve probably shared this video before, but it deals with the CEB’s use of “Human One.”

As I continue to use both the CEB and the NIV, I continue to think about how fast we think we need to change up translations. One interview I heard with a CEB official was a bit disappointing, but it’s probably fact for our modern world. He said the CEB would probably be revised in 10 years just to keep up with language.

This brings up a question for long-term strategy and pastoring. I truly like both translations, but do I stay with the NIV as my main translation (and the one we use for public reading) because it may go longer without some revision? And, as one friend pointed out to me, does the somewhat familiar language of the NIV lend itself a bit better to public reading because the “churchy” language is familiar to us. It’s comfortable in a way that is probably good.

Just mulling over thoughts as I continue on my journey.

Can You Say THAT in the Bible?

Here’s a good verse in the Apocrypha, which is probably why it’s not in the Protestant Bible. ;)

People who are afraid to act 
are like clumps of cow manure; 
   those who pick it up 
   will shake off their hand. (Sirach 22:2, CEB)

A good mental picture that is hard to forget.

Learn to get moving! Don’t be caught in paralysis by analysis!

Nuggets of Wisdom We Miss When We Avoid the Apocrypha

The Common English Bible is incredibly helpful to me when reading the Deuterocanonical Books. The fresh translation helps me with unfamiliar territory. This is the place where I understand more fully the need for “dynamic equivalent” translations for people unfamiliar with the biblical text. Smoother language draws us in. The beauty of the Common English Bible is that it is truly a translation. There are places I check from time to time with the NRSV and the wording is very similar. This translation continues to impress me.

Like the Proverbs, Sirach in the Apocrypha is a book that dispenses wisdom. There are things here that just make sense. Reading Sirach and reading Proverbs demonstrate great wisdom.

Here are some great nuggets:

1 Don’t fight with powerful people, 
   or you might fall into their hands. 
2 Don’t argue with rich people, 
   since they might outmatch 
   your resources; 
      for gold has destroyed many, 
      and it has turned aside 
      the hearts of kings. 
3 Don’t fight with talkative people, 
   adding fuel to their fire. (Sirach 8:1-3, CEB)

Just good common sense.

We don’t listen all the time, which is why we are often more frustrated with life than we need to be.

Take a look at these great nuggets of truth sometime. Common English Bible is available online at Biblegateway.

Lifeway Bookstores and the NIV2011

Last year the Southern Baptist Convention passed a resolution asking Lifeway Bookstores to quit selling the NIV2011. (Something about liberal commie pinkos or something like that.)

Thankfully, Lifeway has decided to keep the NIV2011.

I won’t shop at Lifeway any more than I already do (which is never), but I’m glad to hear they have a bit more sense than a declaration from the convention floor of the SBC.

Is He Indignant or Moved by Compassion?

I am a confessed translation junkie. As I read the Common English Bible and the NIV, I come across different ways certain phrases are turned.

Mark 1:41 is a good example. The leper comes to Christ and says, “If you are willing you can make me clean.”

The response is so interesting.

CEB:

41 Incensed,[a] Jesus reached out his hand, touched him, and said, “I do want to. Be clean.”

NIV:

41 Jesus was indignant.[a] He reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!”

ESV:

41 Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand and touched him and said to him, “I will; be clean.” (And no textual note. Probably because they know they are right.) Winking smile

The text note of the NET Bible indicates most manuscripts use the Greek word for “moved with compassion.”

Yet, some other texts would use the word for “indignation.” Those texts don’t seem to carry the “numbers” as the other manuscripts.

So… why did the CEB and the NIV go with a “minority” view on this point?

End of the Line

I have been part of the Common English Blog Tour for about two months now. They began the tour before Advent and I think today is the last day of cycle.

For over two months I have gone through the exercise of building devotional thoughts while reading the Common English Bible. I have also used the CEB a bit in the college classes I teach. From time to time I have used it in leading our adult Bible study on Wednesday night.

I have continued to have our public reading in our church use the NIV. I have used the NIV as my main text to prepare my sermons.

At the end of the day I truly enjoy both translations. There may be a day when “Human One” for “Son of Man” may finally settle in. Perhaps there may be a day when the translation team for the CEB may say, “You know what, it’s not worth this headache. Let’s switch it back.”

They probably won’t. Just like the NIV should do one or two editions with the Apocrypha, but they won’t.

I deeply appreciate the CEB team. When I have had questions on choice of wording on passages they have responded. Translation in a digital age is an interesting process. It could lead to much quicker translation turnaround (which the CEB has already shown to be true).

I think their marketing and their social networking is far superior to the NIV. I mean, I got a new CEB with apocrypha out of this deal! ;)

The CEB is probably the best translation for new believers, or those just not used to older language, like the KJV. In my adult Bible study, when I use the CEB, people will stop and listen. They will say, “Read that again! That was interesting!”

It does help freshen up our Bible reading.

While it is clearly more to the “dynamic equivalent” side, I like it far more than the New Living Translation. It is evident that translators didn’t just want modern idioms. They still wanted to communicate truth in a very clear way.

Moving forward I will probably stay with my NIV and the CEB. (I actually pulled out my TNIV with the Renaissance Leather cover again so I can have a Bible where I can jot notes from time to time.) But the CEB, in my opinion, should be considered by all believers as a viable translation for use in reading and study.

From Sorcerer to Magic Arts to Drug Users

The end of Revelation is one of my favorite places to camp. I honestly love the entire Book of Revelation if I can read through it without the voices in my head. (You know: Tim LaHaye, Jack VanImpe, Hal Lindsey, etc.)

In Rev. 22:15 I noticed different ways translations have tackled the Greek word pharmakos over the years. Last night I was reading the passage out of the Common English Bible, which is why I noticed.

In the ESV, which followed the King James, the word is “sorcerer.”

In the NIV it is “those who practice magic arts.”

In the CEB it is “the drug users and spell-casters.”

It is obviously a difficult word to translate, so newer translations are using phrases rather than trying to wrap it up in one word.

I think of the line out of the movie Super 8 where the kid is saying, “Drugs are bad. Very, very bad!” (You would have to know the scene for it to be funny, I guess.)

At any rate, yet another interesting phrase brought to you by the Common English Bible.