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PaperclipPerfector  1yr ago (text post)   30382 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of May 8, 2023

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It’s been common ever since it came around, because of its reading level being grade levels lower than more accurate or literary versions. Still, some people prefer it over those versions for whatever reason. My head pastor still uses the NIV1984, and I have to copy verses for the projection screens out of a PDF that’s technically illegal due to the copyright holder pulling the license.

I recommend the HCSB, a novel translation not based on a previous translation. (For example, the ESV is a revised RSV, which updated the ASV, which superseded the British AV, which rewrote the KJV, which cribbed a lot from Tyndale.) The HCSB was written to be a literary work as well as a good translation; it catches things like Jewish poetry forms and formats them accordingly.

Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.

For I was hungry

and you gave Me something to eat;

I was thirsty

and you gave Me something to drink;

I was a stranger and you took Me in;

I was naked and you clothed Me;

I was sick and you took care of Me;

I was in prison and you visited Me.’

“Then the righteous will answer Him, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You something to drink? When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or without clothes and clothe You? When did we see You sick, or in prison, and visit You?’

“And the King will answer them, ‘I assure you: Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of Mine, you did for Me.’

I really haven't taken the opportunity to compare them.

Comparing 1 Peter 1:1-5 on a word-by-word level as a sample, the ASV and NIV both hit my high points, with the ESV and HCSB in the middle, with the LSB and CSB scoring last. Yet I like the flow of the ESV and HCSB better. Ultimately, I feel the LSB is a workmanlike attempt to recapture what the ASV already had and the ESV already did better, whereas the HCSB and CSB take turns being what the NIV was.

And since I spent three hours comparing six translations in Excel, here's my own eclectic translation of 1 Peter 1:1-5:

From: Petros, apostle of Iesou the Anointed

To: the Chosen, migrants of the Diaspora in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia; chosen according to Father God's foreknowledge, chosen through the Breath's cleansing, chosen to be obedient and to be sprinkled with Iesou's blood

A plethora of sweet favor and shalom upon you. May He be spoken well of, the God and Father of Iesou the Anointed our owner and better! In His abundant mercy He has had us born again into living hope (through the rising of Iesou the Anointed out of death), unto an inheritance unrusted, untainted, unfaded, secured for you in Heaven. It is you whom God's power guards through faith toward a deliverance already prepared to be unveiled at the edge of time.

I never see it out of baptist circles.

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