by Doy Moyer<\/p>\n
It should go without saying that we want to have accurate Scripture translations. For many, that means wanting a “word for word” (aka literal) translation instead of a more “thought for thought” (aka dynamic) translation. While some translations get closer to doing that than others (e.g., NASB vs NIV), the truth is that no translation can be completely word for word, and even the translations that are said to be more literal have places where they use dynamic equivalence. However, we need to understand that translating one language to another has many nuances that need to be taken into account. It’s rarely just going to be a straight across-the-board word-for-word endeavor. Indeed that would be almost unreadable.<\/p>\n
Let’s consider the way various translations handle Philippians 2:7 and the phrase there (\u1f11\u03b1\u03c5\u03c4\u1f78\u03bd \u1f10\u03ba\u03ad\u03bd\u03c9\u03c3\u03b5\u03bd). It seems to me that the most literal way to translate this is “emptied Himself.<\/em>” And indeed, several translations use exactly that. The NASB, ESV, CSB, and NET all say, “emptied himself<\/em>.”<\/p>\n The NIV, however, says, “he made himself nothing<\/em>.” That’s a little more dynamic than literal. But notice what the KJV and NKJV say there: “made himself of no reputation<\/em>.”<\/p>\n The KJV takes the more dynamic approach among these versions. I have no problem with that, as I think it still captures the idea, but this demonstrates that even the KJV translators took some liberties in the way they translated.<\/p>\n I prefer “emptied himself<\/em>” because I believe it captures the idea best, but I will still reference the KJV as a way to think about it. This illustrates the value of checking various translations to see how they handle difficult phrases.<\/p>\n What we also need to understand is that you cannot completely do translations without some interpretation. “Emptied himself<\/em>” is more literal, but “made himself of no reputation<\/em>” is more interpretive. All translations do this at various points. We just need to be aware of it. We are blessed to have multiple translations to use for study purposes.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Doy Moyer It should go without saying that we want to have accurate Scripture translations. For many, that means wanting a “word for word” (aka literal) translation instead of a more “thought for thought” (aka dynamic) translation. While some translations get closer to doing that than others (e.g., NASB vs NIV), the truth is…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[311],"class_list":["post-68238","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-translations"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":68247,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/are-translations-authorized\/","url_meta":{"origin":68238,"position":0},"title":"Are Translations Authorized?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 4, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"by Doy Moyer Perhaps this seems like an odd question, but it is good to think about this. Since most people are not going to learn Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek, the only way they are going to hear God's word at all will be through translations. But how do we\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8065,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-do-you-think-about-the-new-living-translation\/","url_meta":{"origin":68238,"position":1},"title":"What do you think about the New Living Translation and the Complete Jewish Bible?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 5, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I am of need of some help with Bible translations. What I would like is a list of good translation Bibles and a list of bad Bible translations. I don't like the NIV and I always felt in the spirit that it indeed was not trustworthy. However, I have\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":35233,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-it-sinful-to-make-marks-and-notes-in-your-bible\/","url_meta":{"origin":68238,"position":2},"title":"Is it sinful to make marks and notes in your Bible?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 11, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello brother, We've never met, but I've always appreciated the Q&A section on the LaVista church website and thought I'd bounce this off you since it's a somewhat unique question. What do you say to someone who takes a very literal view of Revelation 22:18-19, and thinks it's sinful\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Bible-with-notes-300x200.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1303,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/which-bible-translations-are-the-best\/","url_meta":{"origin":68238,"position":3},"title":"Which Bible translations are the best?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 6, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Which Bible translations have the highest accuracy? Answer: At one time, Bible translations were an arduous task that took years, if not decades, to complete. Now translations are appearing in rapid succession, and it is becoming difficult to keep up with the many that are available. I'll restrict my\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":21920,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-there-a-great-difference-between-the-nasb-and-the-kjv-can-the-nasb-be-trusted\/","url_meta":{"origin":68238,"position":4},"title":"Is there a great difference between the NASB and the KJV? Can the NASB be trusted?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 7, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Your web site is very informative. I attend a church that only recognizes KJV and no other. I read between NASB and KJV. Is there a great difference between the two? Can the NASB translation be trusted? Thank you for help in this matter. Answer: Both the King James\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":16777,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-are-there-so-many-translations\/","url_meta":{"origin":68238,"position":5},"title":"Why are there so many translations?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 6, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Why are there the KJV, NKJV, ASB, and NASB versions of God's Word? Other than the language changing, I don't get the idea for the different translations. Answer: The primary reason given for doing a new translation is to update the language to match modern terminology. While language shifts,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68238","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68238"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68238\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68238"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68238"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68238"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}