As you can see by the menu, the Site Index to This Lamp is back up. I had to take it down while I was using alpha & beta versions of RapidWeaver 3.6, but now everything is out of beta and the SiteMap module from Loghound has been updated as well.

Tags: RapidWeaver

As I've reported over at TNIV Truth, it was announced today that the new TNIV Reference Bible will NOT be a thinline. As an added bonus, we also found out today that the binding will be smyth-sewn. Good news all around.

Tags: TNIV

Most of the time translation committees are reluctant to alter the wording of the KJV's rendering of John 3:16. This is, after all, a near-univerally memorized verse in the Bible. Even many non-believers know John 3:16 and they usually know it in the King's English:

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16 KJV)

Yet the NEB (1961/70) translators were bold enough to make a few minor changes and one significant change in John 3:16, only to have all but one of them removed in the more conservative REB of 1989.

"God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son, that everyone who has faith in him may not die but have eternal life." (John 3:16 NEB)

“God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that everyone who has faith in him may not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16 REB)

Neither "God loved the world so much" (NEB) or "God so loved the world" (REB, also KJV) reflects the meaning of John's Greek here. A much better, but certainly less traditional reading is found in the HCSB: "For God loved the world in this way" or in the NET Bible: "For this is the way God loved the world:" (for a discussion of why these renderings are more accurate, see my review of the HCSB).

But that's not the focus of this post. Rather, I want to call attention to the NEB/REB's use of "has faith" instead of the traditional "believe."

When I first got a copy of the REB, hot off the presses in 1989, the peculiar rendering of has faith got my attention in my initial examination of this version of the Bible. I did not yet have a copy of the NEB, so I did not know that this particular phrase was handed down from its predecessor. I was in college at the time, and I had a couple of significant influences in my life--mentors, if you will. In discussing the REB with one of these individuals, I pointed out the interesting phrasing of John 3:16 to him. He told me he wasn't quite sure how accurate "has faith" was in John's gospel. He had just finished a seminar at Golden Gate Seminary on John, and one of the things pointed out in the class is that the specific word faith (πίστις/pistis) never occurs in the fourth gospel.

And that's technically true. The noun form of of the word never appears in John. But, of course, as referenced in John 3:16, the verb form (πιστεύω/pisteuo) does. In fact, πιστεύω/pisteuo occurs 98 times in John!

From the UBS Greek Dictionary, here are the two words, the noun first and then the verb (which appears in John 3:16):

πίστις, εως f faith, trust, belief; the Christian faith; conviction, good conscience (Ro 14:22,23); perhaps body of faith, doctrine (Jude 1:3,20); assurance, proof (Ac 17:31); promise (1Tm 5:12)

πιστεύω believe (in), have faith (in) (with God or Christ as object); believe, believe in; have confidence (in someone or something), entrust (something to another); ὅς μὲν π. φαγεῖν πάντα one man’s faith allows him to eat anything (Ro 14:2)

I understand why the NEB/REB translators rendered πιστεύω "has faith" instead of believe. In the Greek the relationship between the noun and verb are evident; they have the same root. But in English, there isn't a direct verb form of faith. We don't say, "I faithed in Jesus." So why not just use the traditional believe?

Well, the problem is with our English word. It has two different meanings. Believe can mean to accept something as true. But believe can also mean to hold an opinion. When John speaks of those who believe in Jesus in John 3:16, is he speaking of the same kind of belief when we say, "I believe it will rain tomorrow"? Of course not. Such belief has to be more than opinion. It also has to be more than mental assent. James foresees this as a problem when he writes,

“You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder.” (James 2:19 TNIV)

Believe may simply not be an adequate word for πιστεύω in English. It's awkward, but the Amplified Bible gets the meaning across fairly well with "..so that whoever believes in (trusts in, clings to, relies on) Him shall not perish..." The parenthetical definition for believes in--"trusts in, clings to, relies on"--gets it right. But the Amplified Bible is not really suitable for any kind of use in a group setting (I don't really even recommend the Amplified Bible in general), so how can πιστεύω in John 3:16 best be rendered?

The NEB/REB may indeed have the best solution with has faith. What do you think? Is this good translation or do you think it's not allowed to use faith as a direct object in this verse since technically πίστις never occurs in John? Feel free to offer your opinion in the comments.

As an aside... Last Christmas, I went back to my home church for a worship service. I came across the same individual mentioned above who had been one of my mentors in college. He had just come from teaching a Bible study and was carrying two Bibles. He told me that he likes them both and gave up trying to choose one over the other. He carries them both to any study he leads or participates in. What were they? He was holding a TNIV Study Bible and a Cambridge text edition of the REB.

They say the apple doesn't fall far from the tree...

Tags: REB

In a recent comment, Larry brought to my attention that a NKJV Wide Margin Bible just sold on eBay for $318!

Although I've provided the link above, it won’t remain active after a few weeks, so I’ll include a screenshot below:



It boggles my mind really to think that someone would pay $318 for a wide margin NKJV--and a bonded leather one at that! But Larry summed it up quite well in his comments when he said this:

This must be proof positive that people are passionate about wide margin Bibles. More than $300 for a bonded leather cheapo Bible from Nelson? A NKJV?

And the fact that Nelson allowed this to go out of print while Crossway is publishing multiple note-taking Bibles may perhaps play some role in the NKJV's fall and the ESV's rise. (Certainly, there are other factors, but given the investment that publishers claim to make in new Bibles, why wouldn't they want to make their franchises available in every format that there is demand for?)

I think you put your finger on it a few months ago when you pointed out that while sales of wide margins may appear weak, they are sold to opinion makers -- and thus influence many more sales.

I've had representatives from three different Bible publishers tell me that wide margin Bibles just don't sell well. But it's that last statement made by Larry that I believe most Bible publishers just don't get. But Crossway gets it. They know that the teachers, preachers, and other serious Bible students want wide margin Bibles. And even if these particular buyers don't represent a large market, the fact is that this is the group that influences the purchases made by those sitting under their instruction. The fact that Crossway gets this is evidenced by the fact that they offer four different ESV Bibles with wide margins: The Deluxe Reference Bible, The Journaling Bible, The Single Column Reference Bible, and the Wide Margin Reference Bible.

But where are the decent wide-margin Bibles from the other 21st century translations (NLTse [2004], HCSB [2004], NET [2005], TNIV [2005])? Let's run through that list real quick.

New Living Translation
The original NLT1 (1996) had one of the best wide margin Bibles I've ever seen in terms of the Notemakers Bible. It had a healthy one and a half inches of space in the margins of a single-column text and two inches of lined space at the bottom for journaling. But since sells weren't that great, Tyndale has decided not to release an edition in the NLT second edition.

But why didn't the Notemakers Bible sell? The Living Bible and its inheritor, the New Living Translation have always been a bit of a populist Bible. While scholars put down the original Living Bible, Christians bought them in droves, and many testified that this was the first Bible they ever really understood. But these were probably not the kind of folks--for the most part--who would have been interested in a wide margin edition for their own notes.

The 1996 NLT wasn't that far removed from it's predecessor--especially in the public's eye--in spite now being called a translation rather than a paraphrase. Regardless, the top notch team of Evangelical scholars who produced the 1996 first edition reconvened to tighten up the translation, bringing it closer to the autographs and hopefully bring about the respect the NLT deserved. That resulted in the 2004 NLT second edition, which although quietly introduced was radically different than the first edition.

To gain even greater credibility, Tyndale has begun the Cornerstone Biblical Commentary Series, based solely on the NLTse. From the two volumes I have so far in the series, I can say that it's an excellent evangelical commentary series on the Bible. And I'm not sure it could have been based on the earlier NLT1 (let alone the Living Bible) without a great amount of work. But the NLTse is a different creature! And now that a commentary series is based on it, what would be a better match than an NLTse Bible with wide margins to study along with it and make notes? It seems to only make sense to me.

Holman Christian Standard Bible
There is only one wide margin HCSB Bible available: The HCSB Minister's Bible. So far it has received mixed reviews (see my review here). The main complaints stem from paper that is too thin and wide margins that really aren't that wide. Plus I've had more than one person email me who was not a minister saying they would like to use it simply to have a wide margin HCSB, but have been reluctant to do so because they feel funny carrying around something with that title on the spine. I'm really surprised there aren't more offerings here from Holman considering the HCSB is now the default translation in all of Lifeway's Sunday School curriculum. It would seem to me that a decent wide margin HCSB would be a perfect match.

NET Bible
I'm not totally surprised that the NET Bible has not seen a wide margin edition yet. Certainly with 60,000+ notes, one would wonder what could be added. Plus, the NET is still trying to gain the attention of the larger Evangelical world. Selling through more than merely mail order might help them out some. To me of all these Bible translations listed here that don't have wide-margin editions, the NET is the only one that gets a pass.

Today's New International Version
I would guess that the possibility of a TNIV Wide Margin Bible primarily suffers from the mixed track record of Zondervan's wide margin NIV and NASB Bibles. But if these editions have not sold quite as well as Zondervan would have liked there might be a reason why. Last year when I posted a Survey of Wide Margin Bibles by Version, I counted two other publishers of wide margins NIV's besides Zondervan and and three other NASB offerings. Could it be that the market for NIV and NASB wide margin Bibles is simply flooded? Consider also that most NASB aficionados have been using the classic single-column reference edition since the 1971 NASB. Foundation Press now offers a variety of high quality leather bindings in the classic reference edition, while Zondervan only offers hardback and bonded leather. There is a similar weakness for Zondervan's wide margin NIV: Cambridge offers a variety much higher quality bindings (scroll down to the bottom of the page for the previous link).

I'll come back to this, but one thing I believe that publishers like Cambridge and Crossway might get and Zondervan might not, is that people who buy a Bible for taking notes in want to use this Bible long term. Generally, there's going to be a preference for higher quality bindings. And if there's a choice, quality will trump cost--at least for these buyers.

The TNIV does have a wide margin represented in the "Squared" Bible. However, the TNIV Squared Bible breaks two cardinal rules of wide margin Bibles: (1) It is a thinline Bible, so the paper is not suitable for heavy annotations, and (2), as a two-column text, it does not allow any margin for the inner column. Ultimately, this Bible misses its intended market.

There is a TNIV Reference Bible coming out later this year, and many of the "gatekeepers" will use it as the best option of what's available, but I get emails and comments on this blog every week bemoaning the fact that it's not a wide-margin TNIV Bible. I would hope that eventually Zondervan will offer the TNIV Reference in a wide-margin offering.

Here's what most publishers are missing...
Most publishers don't get two things about wide margin Bibles:

• Despite lower sales, wide margin Bibles are for gatekeepers, and gatekeepers influence the translation choice of others who will buy the more popular editions.
• People who are in the market for a wide margin Bible want a quality Bible: genuine leather or better and a solid stitched binding. A wide-margin Bible is going to be considered by most to be a long term investment.

Finally, there's another little secret that Bible publishers don't realize, and I almost even hate to bring it up. But as evidenced by the sale of a $318 wide margin NKJV on eBay, people who want wide margin Bibles are willing to pay extra for them. It is well known that publishers make limited printings of some Bible editions. Why can't this be done for wide-margin Bibles, too? Heck, I imagine most of us would even be willing to order them straight from the publisher if there's some fear they wouldn't sell in stores. But most of us who would like to use a wide margin Bible would be willing to pay upwards of $100 knowing that it would be a long term investment, knowing that it should be a publication made with the utmost standards in binding and materials.

The wide margin survey that I posted last year remains one of the most popular pages on this blog. It gets hits everyday. There's a market out there. The products just need to match the demand.

Tags: Translations, Crossway, Zondervan, Holman, Tyndale, Wide-Margin

Next week our Quest Bible Study at Simpsonville Baptist Church begins a new quarter of Bible studies. Our class uses Lifeway's Explore the Bible curriculum which essentially goes through the entire Bible in eight year cycles. This quarter, which focuses on selected Minor Prophets of the Old Testament, will complete a cycle. A new cycle will begin in the Fall with studies in the Gospel of Matthew.

Below is our schedule for the summer:

UNIT 1: KNOW GOD
June 3	Appropriate God's Mercy (Joel 1:1 - 3:21)
June 10	Accept God's Lordship (Obad 1-21)
June 17	Affirm God's Justice (Nah 1:1 - 3:19)
June 24	Await God's Timing (Hab 1:1 - 3:19)
UNIT 2: DO WHAT GOD EXPECTS
July 1	Humility (Zeph 1:1 - 3:20)
July 8	Commitment (Hag 1:1 - 2:23)
July 15	Repentance (Zech 1:1 - 3:10)
July 22	Dependence (Zech 4:1 - 6:15)
July 29	Integrity (Zech 7:1 - 8:23)
August 5	Joy (Zech 9:1 - 14:21)
UNIT 3: HONOR GOD
August 12	Love Wholeheartedly (Mal 1:1 - 4:6)
August 19	Live Honorably (Mal 2:1-16)
August 26	Worship Appropriately (Mal 2:17 - 4:6)

By the way, anyone else teaching this series may be interested to know that CBD is running an incredible deal on Thomas E. McKomiskey's three-volume series on the Minor Prophets. These books are harder to find separately, and the set lists for $150. CBD is selling them for $59.99. Here is the description for the series from the CBD page:

Although often overshadowed by the angst of their major counterparts, the Minor Prophets are a vital part of Scripture providing beauty, pathos, humility, and questioning. Based on the NRSV, this authoritative series features nine of the finest evangelical Old Testament scholars, insightful exposition, and meticulous exegesis of the Hebrew text. Each chapter is prefaced by an insightful introduction and provides meticulous exegesis of the Hebrew text. This commentary is a useful tool for both scholars and laypeople.

I've had volume one for a while. Yesterday, I began looking for the best price on vols. 2 & 3. However, this price at CBD is cheaper for the set than what I would pay for vols. 2 & 3 separately. I've got the set on order and I'll sell my duplicate copy of vol. 1 once the others arrive. Here is a list of contributors for this series:

VOLUME 1
Hosea: Thomas McComiskey
Joel: Raymond Dillard
Amos: Jeffrey Niehaus

VOLUME 2
Obadiah: Jeffrey Niehaus
Jonah: Joyce Baldwin
Micah: Bruce Waltke
Nahum: Tremper Longman III
Habakkuk: F. F. Bruce

VOLUME 3:
Zephaniah: J. Alec Motyer
Haggai: J. Alec Motyer
Zechariah: Thomas McComiskey
Malachi: Douglas Stuart

Tags: Bible study

The cover of this quarter's Biblical Illustrator Plus CD shows a terra-cotta model of a war chariot from Cyprus, dated from the 7th century B. C. The back of the CD contains this blurb:

It's just dirt. Some believe that. But what people do with that dirt makes a huge difference. In some large metropolitan cities, land is being sold, not by the acre, but by the square foot. Location does matter.

This issue of Biblical Illustrator Plus looks at dirt and location and what happened at those locations. It looks at the Land of Promise that God gave His people. It looks at events that occurred in specific locations and at people from specific regions. This issue looks at those who built buildings and empires on that dirt--some for worship, some for self-aggrandizement. And we look at how some of those empires rose and waned.

People feel a kinship to the dirt, to the land, to its peoples, and to its cultures and traditions. In the end, though, may we remember that what matters is what we do for God and how we honor Him.

As I've mentioned before, Biblical Illustrator contains background articles for a number of Lifeway's Sunday School curriculums. The class I teach at Simpsonville Baptist Church uses the Explore the Bible curriculum, and this quarter we will take our lessons from the Minor Prophets of the Old Testament. The articles below that are drawn from the Minor Prophets directly relate to the texts I'll be teaching.

Below are the new articles in the Summer 2007 issue of Biblical Illustrator:

Ken Cox	The Promised Land: A Crucial Locale	Deut 1-5
R. Raymond Lloyd	Who Were the Amorites ?	Book of Deuteronomy
Rick W. Byargeon	The Cities of Refuge	Deut 4-5
David L. Jenkins	What Happened at Ebal and Gerizim?	Deut 27-34
C. Alan Woodward	Temple Personnel in the First Century	Acts 2:41-47; 4:1-37
Timothy Trammel	Joppa: Its History and Significance	Acts 9-11
Stephen W. Carlson	Do You Believe in Magic?	Acts 13-14
David E. Lanier	The Synagogue in the First Century	Acts 13-15
Paul E. Kullman	The Synagogue: Its Design and Construction	Acts 13-15
LeBron Matthews	Solomon in All His Splendor	1 Kings 3:1-28
John Traylor	The Allure of Baal	1 Kings 19; 2 Kings 23
Alan Moseley	Locusts!	Joel 1-3
John Mark Terry	The Early and Latter Rains	Joel 1-3
John L. Harris	The Day of the Lord	Books of Joel and Obadiah; Zeph 1-2; Zech 14
Robert C. Dunston	Nahum: Getting His Message Across	Book of Nahum
Wayne VanHorn	The World Situation According to the 7th Century Prophets	Books of Nahum, Habakkuk & Zephaniah
David M. Wallace	Idols in Production and Ritual	Hab 1:1 - 3:19; Deut 4-5
Martha S. Bergen	Zechariah and Haggai: Motivators and Builders	Books of Haggai & Zechariah
Robert A. Street	Zechariah's Visions and Oracles	Zech 1-8
Jeff S. Anderson	The Spritiual Climate at the End of the Old Testament Era	Book of Malachi
Daniel P. Caldwell	Horses in Ancient Warfare	Books of Nahum, Habakkuk, Haggai & Zechariah
Eric A. Mitchell	ARTIFacts: Giants in the Land: Southern Baptists and Biblical Archaeology
D. Larry Craig	Book Review: Kregel Dictionary of the Bible and Theology by Henry W. Holloman

Now, as I've said many times, the best value of Biblical Illustrator lies in the CD: Biblical Illustrator Plus. In addition to the articles above, the CD contains over sixty articles from past issues. Additional articles in the Summer 2007 are listed below.

Bob Simmons	Corinth: A Roman City	1 & 2 Corinthians
Robert Street	Josiah: Rebuilder and Reformer	2 Kings 21:1 - 23:5
Charles W. Draper	Law & Faith	Book of Galatians
Bryan E. Beyer	Evil: the Meaning	Gen 3:1-6; Isa 5:20-21; Mal 2:16
Bryce Sandlin	The Life Situation of Zechariah	Zech 3:1-2, 6-8; 4:1-6, 8-10a
Vernon Elmore	The Life Situation of Obadiah	Obadiah 1-4, 8-10, 8-10, 13-17
Fred Wood	Life Situation in Malachi	Mal 1:6-9; 2:8-9, 13-16
James Travis	Historical Setting of Nahum	Nah 1:1-3a, 7-9, 12-15; 3:5-7
Harold Moseley	Israel and the Nations	Minor Prophets
Larry McGraw	Tanning	Acts 10:34-36, 39-48
Thomas D. Lea	The Sanhedren in the First Century	Acts 4:1-4, 7-12, 31; 5:17-21a, 29-33, 40-42
Bill Tolar	Hellenist and Hebrew Christians	Acts 4:32, 34-35; 6:1-5, 7a
Mark Rathal	The Fear of the Lord	Eph5:21; 2 Cor 5:11
R. Wayne Jones	Ancient Persia	Ezra 1:1
Harry B. Hunt	From Cyrus II to Darius I	Ezra 4-5
Sharon Roberts	Prophetesses in Ancient Israel
Kevin C. Peacock	Pentecost and the Feast of Weeks	Acts 2:1-47
L. Manning Garrett III	What Is Wisdom?	1 Kings 3-4
Claude F. Mariottini	Origins of the Monarchy in Israel	1 Chron 4:9-10; 1 Kings 3:5-15
Julie Nall Knowles	Jezebel Unveiled	1 Kings 19-20
Marsha Ellis Smith	Syria & Israel in 9th Century BC	2 Kings 5:2-6, 9-14
Ray Lloyd	Habakkuk: the Man and His Times	Hab 1:1
Steve Lemke	Mount Carmel	1 Kings 18:20; 2 Kings 5:15
A. O. Collins	Josiah's Reform	2 Kings 22
Claude F. Mariottini	Josiah and His Court	2 Kings 22:1 - 23:30
John D. Duncan	Reconcilliation	2 Cor 5:11 - 6:2
Wayne Van Horn	People Who Built the Temple	Ezra 6:14-22
Donald W. Garner	Zerubbabel's Temple	Ezra 4:1-6; 5:2-3; 6:14
Bryce Sandlin	A History of Darius	Dan 6:1-28
George W. Knight	First Century Antioch of Syria	Acts 11:19-30; 12:24-25
Rick Johnson	God's Jealousy	Deut 5:1-9, 11-13, 16-21
David S. Dockery	Sanctification	2 Thess 2:13
D. C. Martin	Malachi: His Life and Times	Book of Malachi
Julie Nall Knowles	First-Century Cypress	Acts 13:1-52
Waylon Bailey	Ahab: King and Adversary	2 Kings 17:1-24
Elgia "Jay" Wells	Lessons for Race Relations	Acts 10:1-48; 8:26-40
Larry McGraw	Barnabas and Paul's Missionary Journey	Acts 13; 14
Linda Oaks Garrett	Kosher or Not?	Acts 9:32 - 11:18
C. Mack Roark	Controversy and Response	Acts 15:1-35
Harold R. Mosley	Does It Pay to Be Good?	Mal 3:13 - 4:6
Robert A. Street	The Hind	Hab 2-3
Billy E. Simmons	Barnabas and Mark	Acts 12:12, 25; 13:5, 13; 15:37-39; Col 4:10; 2 Tim 4:11
Patrick D. Ward	Beersheba	1 Kings 19:3
Linda M. Bridges	Barnabas: An Early Missionary	Acts 14:12; 15:2
Robert O. Coleman	Repentance in the Old Testament	Mal 3:7
James Travis	Of Dreams and Visions	Joel 2:28; Dan 8:1
A. O. Collins	Locusts	Joel 1:4
Harry B. Hunt Jr.	Attitudes Toward Divorce in Post-Exilic Judaism	Mal 2:13-16; Matt 5:31
Glenn McCoy	Reuben, Gad, and East-Manasseh	Deut 29:8
Eugene Skelton	Darius I Hystaspes	Hag 1:1
Robert A. Weathers	Sexual Purity in the New Testament	Job 31:1-4; Ps 101:3-4; 2 Cor 10:4-5; 1 Thess 4:3, 5-7
James E. Carter	The Chosen	Acts 6:5
Kelvin Moore	The Persian Empire	Books of Ezra, Nehemiah and Esther
R. Raymond Lloyd	The Heart in Old Testament Theology
E. Lebron Matthews	Treaties and Covenants	Book of Deuteronomy
Wayne VanHorn	The Levites	Deut 9:1 - 11:22
James Newell	The Fathers in Israel's History	Book of Deuteronomy
David M. Wallace	The Arabah	Deut 1:1 - 3:29
Rick Byargeon	Memory and History in Israel's Faith	Deut 6:1-25; 7:1 - 8:20
Dorman Laird	A Jealous God	Deut 4:44 - 5:33
Stephen J. Andrews	How the Giants Have Fallen	Deut 1:1 - 4:43; 29:1 - 30:30
Claude Mariottini	Mount Nebo	Deut 31:1-8, 34
Francis X. Kimmitt	From Kadesh Barnea to Jericho	Books of Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy & Joshua
Stephen R. Miller	Tithes & Offerings	Mal 3:6-18

Biblical Illustrator magazine is available for $24.95 a year. Biblical Illustrator Plus CD runs $34.35. I recommend the latter. If you teach Sunday School in a Southern Baptist Church, you may simply want to ask your Minister of Education to order you a copy of the CD with the next curriculum order. And although BI is aimed primarily at teachers, in my opinion, anyone interested in biblical history and backgrounds will benefit from this quarterly publication.

Tags: Biblical Illustrator

Although I got my official welcome letter a month ago, somehow it seems more real now that my name is entered into eCampus:



I've been hired in an adjunct position at SBTS for the fall as "Instructor in New Testament Interpretation" with one teaching assignment: elementary Greek. This will be my first time teaching a masters level course, and I'm really looking forward to it.

My schedule currently has no time for this until at least later next week, but it arrived today:



ALL THREE MOVIES IN 1080p HD:

• The Matrix
• The Matrix Reloaded
• The Matrix Revolution

35 HOURS OF BONUS MATERIAL
Written Introduction by the Wachowski brothers

Commentaries by:

• Philosophers: Dr. Cornel West and Ken Wilber
• Critics: Todd McCarthy, John Powers and David Thomson
• Cast/Crew: Carrie-Anne Moss, Zach Staenberg and John Gaeta for The Matrix
• Composer: Don David with Music-Only Track for The Matrix

Feature-Length Documentary: The Matrix Revisited

Behind The Matrix Documentary Gallery:
83 Total Featurettes with The MTV Movie Awards Reloaded and 3-D Evolutions Stills Gallery

The Music Revisited:
41-Track Audio Selection of Nearly 3 Hours of Music

Music Videos:
Marilyn Manson's "Rock Is Dead" and P.O.D.'s "Sleeping Awake"

Enter The Matrix:
The Game Documentary

Enter The Matrix:
View 23 Live-Action Scenes Shot for the Video Game That Plug into the Action of The Matrix Reloaded

The Animatrix:
9 Short Films from Pioneering Anime Directors Exploring the World of The Matrix, Plus 3 Director Commentaries and 8 Documentaries, Including Scrolls To Screen: The History And Culture Of Anime

The Roots Of The Matrix:
Historical, Philosophical and Technological Inspirations are Explored in Insightful Documentaries

The Burly Man Chronicles:
Probe the Society of Actors, Craftspeople and Filmmakers Who Shaped the Movie Trilogy and the Enter The Matrix Console Game, in a Feature-Length Documentary, Plus 21 Featurettes

The Zion Archive:
Production Assets Developed for the Matrix Universe, Including Concept Art, Storyboards, Drawings, Music Videos, Music Rave Reel, The Matrix Online

Theatrical Trailers and TV Spots

Video:
Widescreen 2.40:1 Color

Screen Resolution:
1080p

Audio:
ENGLISH: Dolby Digital TrueHD [CC]
ENGLISH: Dolby Digital Plus
SPANISH: Dolby Digital Stereo
FRENCH: Dolby Digital 5.1

Subtitles:
English, Spanish, French



Three movies + 35 hours of extras! I should be sick of the Matrix by the time I'm through! No one tell Josh that I used the honorarium from performing his wedding ceremony to purchase this.

Two more things.
1. Andrew's review of the Matrix trilogy.
2. Never forget this.

Tags: Matrix

Question:

Is the upcoming TNIV Reference Bible going to have a standard thickness or is it going to be a thinline?

No one seems to know, but over in my newest post at TNIV Truth, "TNIV Reference Bible: Thick or Thin?" you have an opportunity to make your opinion known.

Tags: TNIV

Well, it took a year--maybe I have blogging ADD--but I finally covered all ten of the Bible versions that I suggested were my "Top Ten." Actually, it took quite a bit of time and effort to create some of these posts. The initial entry date for the last post on the MLB was originally 4/22, but it didn't get posted until 5/21!

In hindsight, I don't know if the "Top Ten" designation was all that accurate because these aren't the ten Bibles I use the most. But in addition to the first few which I actually do use a good bit, I also wanted to introduce a few other translations that have stood out to me over the past couple of decades since I began collecting them. There are a few other Bibles that were contenders for such a list. I thought that I could briefly mention them in this follow up post.

---

King James Version.
I would imagine that if most people put together a top ten list, the KJV would be on it. I almost included it, but it seemed too predictable. Plus, I'm in no position to necessarily write anything new on the KJV (not that my other posts were wholly original either). Nevertheless, the KJV does deserve recognition because no other English translation has held the place of prominence that it has in the history of translations. It is still used today as a primary Bible by millions of Christians, still ranks somewhere in the top three positions of sales in CBA rankings, and even for those who have moved onto something newer, it is still the translation that verses have been memorized in like no other version.

I predict this is the last generation in which the KJV will still receive so much attention, but I have no trouble saying I may be wrong. It's difficult to say that one can be reasonably culturally literate--especially when it comes to the standards of American literature--without a familiarity of the KJV. Nevertheless, I cannot in good judgment recommend the KJV as a primary translation for study or proclamation because its use of language is too far removed from current usage. I don't mean that it's entirely unintelligible--not at all. But a primary Bible should communicate clear and understandable English in keeping with the spirit of the Koiné Greek that the New Testament was written in. I also cannot recommend it as a primary Bible because of the manuscript tradition upon which it rests. There's simply too much that has been added to the text. It was certainly the most accurate Bible in its day, but this is no longer true. My exception to this, however, is that I do find the KJV acceptable for public use with audiences made up primarily of senior citizens since this was exclusively their Bible. And the KJV still seems to be appropriate for use in formal ceremonies including churches and weddings--although I have not recently used it for such.

There is some confusion on what is actually the true King James version. Most do not realize that the average KJV picked up at the local book store is not the 1611 edition, but rather a 1769 fifth edition. And the reality is that there are numerous variations of this out there. For those who want a true and unadulterated KJV, the recently released New Cambridge Paragraph Edition seems to be the one worth getting.

---

The NET Bible.
The NET Bible is one of about four translations (including the ESV, NRSV, and KJV) of which I received the most emails asking why it wasn't included in my top ten. The primary initial reason for the NET Bible's exclusion was simply that I had not spent enough time with it. I made the unfortunate decision to purchase a "2nd beta edition" only a few weeks before the final first edition came out (of which I recently obtained a copy).

Everyone I've heard speak about the NET Bible has high remarks about the 60K+ notes that come with the standard edition. And I can honestly say that these notes have become a regular resource for me when I study a passage. I don't hear as much high praise for the translation itself, though I don't hear anything particularly negative about it either. In general, though, I do recommend the NET Bible. I really like the editions I've seen made available--not just the standard edition, but also the reader's edition, and the Greek/English diglot which I'm very impressed with. The notes in the diglot are a slightly different set than what is in the standard edition. The "ministry first" copyright policy and the ability to download the NET Bible for free from the internet are very commendable on the part of its handlers.

I'd like to see the NET Bible get more attention, and I'd like to see more people introduced to it. I'm not sure it will get the widespread attention it deserves as long as it can only be obtained through Bible.org. In spite of the fact that my top ten series is over, I am going to continue to review translations, and the NET Bible will probably receive my attention next. But we have to spend some quality time together first.

---

The Cotton Patch Version.
I decided not to include a colloquial translation in my top ten, but if I had, the Cotton Patch Version of the New Testament would have held the category. Most colloquial translations are fun, but a bit gimmicky. The Cotton Patch Version rendered from the Greek by Clarence Jordan was anything but gimmicky. During the height of the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960's, Jordan recast the events of the New Testament in the Southern United States. Replacing Jew and Gentile with "white" and "negro," and status quo Judaism with Southern Baptists (of which he was one), Jordan clearly brought the radical message of the New Testament into current contexts. The Cotton Patch Version is certainly fun reading if you are familiar with Bible Belt southern locales, but more importantly, the message is gripping as well.

---

The New Revised Standard Version.
The NRSV is an honorable mention I've added since I first announced the series. Originally, I felt like the NASB represented both the Tyndale tradition and formal equivalent translations well enough, plus at the time my use of the NRSV had become quite rare. Then my little NASB vs. NRSV comparison that I wrote with Larry revived my interest in the NRSV, and I now even have a copy sitting on my desk.

A year ago, I would have thought that the NRSV had seen its last day in the Bible version spotlight--except for academic use, but it seems to have had a bit of a renaissance with new attention and even new editions being published. It is still the translation of choice for the larger biblical academic community, primarily in my opinion because it has the widest selection of deutero-canonical books available of any translation. In its early days the NRSV was also embraced by many in the evangelical community but such enthusiasm seems to have waned. I think than rather than fears of theological bias, evangelical readers simply have too many other versions to choose from since the release of the NRSV.

Yes, the NRSV may be a few shades to the left of evangelical translations, but I've spent enough time with it to state clearly that it is not a liberal Bible. Don't let sponsorship from the National Counsel of Churches drive you away. If that were the only factor in its origin, I'd be skeptical, too, but the fact that Bruce Metzger was the editorial head of the translation committee gives me enough confidence to recommend it--if for nothing else, a translation to be read in parallel with others.

---

Well, is the series done? Not quite yet. I'll come back later this week with a few concluding thoughts about the list and the current state of Bible translations in general.

Tags: Translations, NET, KJV, NRSV

The serpent, wiliest of all the field animals the Lord God had made, said to the woman,
“So, God told you not to eat from any tree in the garden?”
(Gen 3:1, MLB, emphasis added)

Of course, you've already read the title of this post. But pretend for a moment that you had not. What if I told you that in the mid-twentieth century, there was a concern to create a new Bible translation in contemporary language. This translation would not be in the Tyndale tradition, and upon its completion, it would be published by Zondervan Publishers. More than likely, you would guess I was talking about the New International Version. But you’d be wrong.

Quite a few years before the NIV, Zondervan published a new translation of a New Testament called The Berkeley Version. It would later expanded to the entire Bible, and eventually receive a name change: The Modern Language Bible: The New Berkeley Version in Modern English.

However, even beyond a common publisher, there’s still another connection that the MLB has with the NIV. If history had turned out a bit differently, there’s a strong chance that the MLB--and not the NIV--could have risen to become the English-speaking world’s top-selling translation. Who knows? Perhaps instead of the TNIV, we’d have had Today’s Modern Language Bible (the TMLB!) for critics to be upset over.

Background. But I’m getting ahead of myself. Some may be wondering how the MLB came to be. This translation began as audacious dream of Gerrit Verkuyl, a Presbyterian minister and staff member of the Board of Christian Education of the Presbyterian Church, U.S.A. I say that the dream was audacious for two reasons. First, for Verkuyl, English was not a primary language. Nevertheless, this Dutch-born immigrant to the United States desired to create a Bible translation in modern English. Second, the seeds of this dream had been planted in Verkuyl's spirit during his undergraduate studies at Park College in Missouri where a professor instilled in him a love for Greek, and Verkuyl began comparing the Greek New Testament with the King James Version and the Dutch Bible he was most familiar with. Verkuyl determined that his Dutch Bible was more faithful to the Greek than the KJV, and he longed for a modern and accurate version to be made available in his newly adopted tongue, English. Yet, Verkuyl's career got in the way of his idea for a new translation, and work did not actually begin on it until he reached retirement at the age of 65! But if Moses' most important mission didn't begin until he was eighty, Verkuyl was not about to let his age get in the way of his dream.

In 1936 Gerrit Verkuyl began working on his modern language New Testament. A year later he moved to Berkeley, California, and in 1939 he retired from the Board of Christian Education so that he could devote his full energies to his translation. Borrowing the name of his new home, Verkuyl published the first edition of The Berkeley Version of the New Testament in 1945. The publishing rights were eventually transferred to Zondervan where there was interest in creating a complementary Old Testament as well. Such a large project as an Old Testament translation was outside the bounds of Verykuyl's abilities, especially at his advanced age. But a team of nineteen Hebrew scholars was put together who worked under Verkuyl's supervision to create a new translation of the Old Testament using the same principles and guidelines that Verkuyl had followed in translating his New Testament. The entire Bible was finally published in 1959 as The Berkeley Version of the Bible in Modern English. Verkuyl's lifelong dream which began when he was in his twenties, and was not commenced until he was in his sixties, was not fully completed until he was 86 years old!

The staff of Old Testament translators for the 1959 edition reads like a who's who of mid-twentieth century evangelical OT scholarship:

Gleason Archer, Fuller Theological Seminary
John W. Bailey, Berkeley Baptist Divinity School
David E. Culley, Western Theological Seminary
Derward W. Deere, Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary
Clyde T. Francisco, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
Leonard Greenway, Pastor, Bethel Christian Reformed Church
Howard A. Hanke, Asbury College
S. Lewis Johnson, Dallas Theological Seminary
James B. Keefer, Missionary, United Presbyterian Church
William Sanford LaSor, Fuller Theological Seminary
Jacob M. Myers, Lutheran Theological Seminary
J. Barton Payne, Trinity Theological Seminary/Wheaton College
George L. Robinson, McCormick Theological Seminary
Samuel Schultz, Wheaton College
B. Hathaway Struthers, chaplain, U. S. Navy
Merrill F. Unger, Dallas Theological Seminary
Gerard Van Groningen, Reformed Theological College
Gerrit Verkuyl, Presbyterian Board of Education
Leon J. Wood, Grand Rapids Theological Seminary and Bible Institute
Martin J. Wyngaarden, Calvin Theological Seminary

Of the 1959 edition, F. F. Bruce wrote, "The Berkeley Version is the most outstanding among recent translations of both Testaments sponsored by private groups." And although he continued his enthusiasm toward the translation, especially the Old Testament, Bruce went on to point out numerous errors and questionable renderings in in 1961 book, The History of the Bible in English. Although the MLB was generally well received, the criticisms by Bruce and others led to another revision by E. Schuyler English, Frank E. Gaebelein, and G. Henry Waterman. That edition--said to be a revision, not a re-translation in the preface--was published in 1969, after the Verkuyl's death. The 1969 edition also received a new name: The Modern Language Bible: The New Berkeley Version in Modern English. According to the book, House of Zondervan,

the old [name] had become the victim of current events. The university in the city for which the version was named--Berkeley, California--had become a center of student revolt and the Free Speech Movement in the mid to late sixties, and the name Berkeley was a byword for antiestablishment protests.

Of course, the MLB was an antiestablishment protest in a sense. It was a protest against the KJV as the primary Bible used by English speaking Christians of his day.
The NIV Connection. So what's the MLB's relationship to the NIV? Well recently, David Dewey (author of A User's Guide to Bible Translations) and I were discussing the MLB via email correspondence. Dewey reminded me that if history had turned out a little differently, there's a strong possibility that the NIV would have never been and it might have been the MLB that went on to become the English-speaking world's most popular Bible versions. David wrote:

Apparently, when the National Association of Evangelicals inquired into a translation suitable for evangelical and evangelistic purposes, various options were considered before a decision was made to go for an entirely new translation. The options included the NASB, an evangelical edition of the RSV (how ironic we now have the ESV!) and Verkuyl's work

From David Dewey's book, A User's Guide to Bible Translations, in regard to the NIV:

As early as 1953 two separate approaches to inquire if an evangelical edition of the RSV might be permitted were declined. (One was made by the Evangelical Theological Society, the other by Oaks Hills Christian Training School, Minnesota. See Thuesen: In Discordance with the Scriptures, page 134). Separately from this, in 1955, Christian businessman Howard Long asked the Christian Reformed Church, of which he was a member, to consider the need for a Bible suited to evangelistic work. In 1956 the Synod of the CRC appointed a committee to consider the possibility. Independently of this, the National Association of Evangelicals set up a similar inquiry in 1957. A joint committee of the two groups was formed in 1961.

In a two-hour meeting in 1966 with Luther Weigle, chairman of the RSV committee, the option of preparing an evangelical edition of the RSV was again refused, despite a Catholic edition appearing in the same year. Other translations, including the Berkeley Version and the as yet incomplete NASB were also deemed unsuitable for what was in mind. So work on the NIV began in 1967, undertaken by the New York Bible Society (subsequently renamed the International Bible Society and relocated to Colorado Springs).

But who knows? Consider that in his section on The Berkeley Version of 1959, F. F. Bruce wrote the following:

The general format of this version reminds one forcibly of the Revised Standard Version, and it might not be too wide of the mark to describe it as a more conservative counterpart to the RSV

But in reading the rest of Bruce's review, one might understand why the Berkeley Version was passed up in favor of a brand new translation that would become the NIV. In reality, as demonstrated by Bruce, the 1959 still had quite a few rough spots. And Bruce's treatment today is a bit frustrating because although his book was updated in both 1970 and 1978, in neither one does he update his review. The reality is that when one compares Bruce's criticisms of the New Berkeley Version to the 1969 revision reflected in the MLB, the vast majority of them were corrected! Obviously, the revisers took into consideration Bruce's critique clearing up almost 90% of his concerns (but oddly leaving a few glaring ones intact). In the 1978 edition of Bruce's book, he merely adds this disclaimer: "The Berkeley version was revised as The Modern Language Bible, and many of the above-mentioned "stylistic oddities" were happily replaced by acceptable renderings (1969)." In my opinion, a much better survey of the MLB is found in the now out-of-print So Many Versions? (1983 edition) by Sakae Kubo and Walter F. Specht. In fact, these authors devote an entire chapter consisting of nine pages to the MLB--the most complete treatment of this Bible version I've seen yet.

Character and Significance. Gerrit Verkuyl wrote of his Berkeley Version that

I aimed at a translation less interpretive than Moffatt’s, more cultured in language than Goodspeed’s, more American than Weymouth’s, and less like the King James Version than the RSV.

In large part, he succeeded at his goal. He saw a definite need for a Bible translation such as his in the era in which he lived. Admittedly if one were to pick up the MLB for the first time today, it might come across as totally unremarkable in terms of contemporary language. In fact, at this point, it might be a bit dated in places. But this was not so in Verkuyl's day when the vast majority of Christendom still used the King James Version. One cannot even truly grasp the significance of the MLB without realizing that it was primarily created to counter the KJV's dominance in the English-speaking Church. By contrast, we have so many "modern language" Bibles to choose from today, we easily forget that merely a generation ago this was not the case.

Perhaps the fact that English was not Verkuyl's original language allowed him to see the inherent problems with a four-century old translation more easily.

A little girl from a Christian home asked me, “Why do I have to suffer to come to Jesus?” (Matt. 19:14, AV). Upon my reply that Jesus loves children and makes those happy who come to Him, she quoted what she had learned in Sunday School, and what she understood Jesus had said, “Suffer, little children to come to me.” How utterly contrary to our Lord’s intention was this small child’s conclusion! Divine revelation is intended to reveal His thoughts, but to this child the words of the AV failed to convey our Lord’s gracious invitation and no amount of dignity or rhythm can make up for such a failure. That child is entitled to a language in which it thinks and lives, and this is a right all human beings deserve.

Some might wonder where the MLB stands on the scale of translation (literal/formal/median/dynamic/paraphrase). I've never seen this directly addressed in any analysis of the MLB. Nevertheless, in my evaluation, the MLB is still basically a formal equivalent translation, but perhaps not so much as the RSV of its day. I'd probably place it on the scale somewhere between the RSV and the NIV as it does not quite reach the freedom in rendering that the latter does. Nevertheless, Verkuyl does seem to talk of moving away from a strict world-for word method in order to reach the thoughts of God. In the preface to the original Berkeley New Testament, Verkuyl wrote

As thought and action belong together so do religion and life. the language, therefore, that must serve to bring us God's thoughts and ways toward us needs to be the language in which we think and live rather than that of our ancestors who expressed themselves differently.

Certainly this is true and a reality that translators should keep in mind today concerning common use translations.

Verkuyl's vision was to create a Bible that employed contemporary, but not colloquial language. As I mentioned above, many of these renderings today would seem unremarkable to those who are accustomed to modern translations. Nevertheless, the MLB had its own personality, sometimes simply for a rendering such as Gen 3:1 which I quoted at the beginning of this post. While the KJV used "subtil" [sic], and most other translations use "crafty," the MLB describes the serpent in the garden as wily: he was "the wiliest of all the field animals the LORD God had made." Such distinction in word choice gives the MLB a unique flavor of its own. Consider these examples to which I will give emphasis to the MLB's unique rendering:

In Matt 19:25, many translations render ἐκπλήσσω with the word amazed or slightly better astonished. But I've never thought that these words quite capture the meaning of the original. Yet, see how the MLB translates the verse:

When the disciples heard this, they were utterly dumbfounded, and said, "Who then can be saved?" (Matt 19:25)

Some will find the overt legal terminology questionable, but the MBL's rendering of παράκλητος certainly brings out that aspect:

Dear children, I write you these things so you may not sin, and if anyone does sin, we have a counsel for our defense in the Father's presence, Jesus Christ the Righteous One. (1 John 2:1)

While other translations were still translating ἱλασμός as propitiation or expiation, Verkuyl used something more simpler, perhaps even influencing later translations such as the NIV:

He is Himself an atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the whole world. (1 John 2:2)

No "broken pieces" in Mark 8:8. Rather something that is immediately understandable:

So they ate and were satisfied; and they picked up the leftovers, seven baskets full. (Mark 8:8)

The camaraderie that was surely present between Jesus and the disciples is reflected in a verse like this:

Then Jesus said to them, "Boys, have you caught anything?" They answered Him, "No." (John 21:5)

But perhaps at times, the rendering is a bit too modern:

The disciple whom Jesus loved then said to Peter, "It is the Lord!" So Simon Peter, hearing "It is the Lord," wrapped his work jacket around him (for he was stripped) and flung himself into the sea. (John 21:7)

Another unique rendering that demonstrates Verkuyl's sensitivity to the original languages is found in his translation of μέγας in Matt 18:4. I'm not sure what lexicons Verkuyl consulted for his work, but obviously it was not the newest edition of the BDAG. Nevertheless, in my copy (which is the 2000 third edition), μέγας in Matt 4:18 is listed with the meaning "pertaining to be relatively superior in intensity, great." The problem is that this relative aspect is somewhat lost when most translations simply use the word, greatest. Note how the MLB renders the verse remaining true to the relative use of μέγας in this verse:

Whoever then humbles himself like this little child, he excels in the kingdom of heaven. (Matt 18:4)

Although the MLB was in many ways a reaction against the dominance of the KJV, and although Verkuyl did not tie himself to Tyndale-tradition renderings, nevertheless, he was still sensitive to the fact that most of his readers would still be very well acquainted with the KJV. According to Kubo and Specht, Verkuyl based the original Berkeley NT on the 8th edition of Tichendorf's Greek text in consultation with the Nestle text of his day. Knowing that his translation would be read by those more familiar with the KJV, he often included Textus Receptus readings in brackets within the text. So with the Lord's Prayer in Matthew six, Verkuyl adds the phrase "For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen," but does so bracketed. He included such phrases in the actual text because he knew that these were readings that would be made in the church. The MLB was not merely meant to be read alongside the KJV, but to supplant it for as many people willing to do so. In explanation to the verse mentioned above, a footnote appears:

The words enclosed in brackets are not found in the majority of the most reliable ancient manuscripts. They have been added to the text here to make the prayer more appropriate for public worship. Certainly the last sentence is compatible with Scripture. Cf I Chron. 29:11. In Luke's account of the Lord's Prayer, Lk. 11:2-4, this sentence is omitted.

One very nice feature of the MLB is the abundance of footnotes to the text. Verkuyl believed that footnotes to the text could and should be used as frequently as necessary to help the reader bridge that gap between the languages and contexts of the original authors. Some footnotes are textual in nature such as the one quoted above. But many have to do with backgrounds/historical issues or even explanations of Greek or Hebrew words. A few tend to be more applicatory. On the same page as as the footnote quoted above, one finds these explanations:

• For robe and tunic in Matt 5:40-- "A tunic reached to the knees; a robe was a long outside garment which reached almost to the ankles."
• For Matt 5:43, cross-references are offered: "Lev. 19:18; Deut 23:3-6."
• A note of application is given for Matt 5:45-- "We show that we are God's sons by living His principles."
• For Matt 5:48, the word perfect is explained: "'Perfect' is from the Greek teleios meaning complete, mature."
• For 6:12, an interpretive explanation: "Debts [the word Verkuyl uses here in his translation], or trespasses in the sense of falling short of God's requirements."

This one page in the MLN demonstrates the kind of notes offered. Such notes are plentiful throughout both testaments.

Another modern aspect of the MLB was the desire by Verkuyl and the OT translators to give strictly modern equivalents to weights, measures and even currency. Consider these verses from the MLB compared with the most recent of the contemporary translations, the TNIV:

GENESIS 6:15
MLB	TNIV
Construct it after this fashion: The length of the ark 450 feet; its width 75 feet and its depth 45 feet.	This is how you are to build it: The ark is to be three hundred cubits long, fifty cubits wide and thirty cubits high.* *That is, about 450 feet long, 75 feet wide and 45 feet high or about 135 meters long, 22.5 meters wide and 13.5 meters high.
EXODUS 29:40
MLB	TNIV
With the first lamb you shall offer an ample six pints of fine flour mixed with 3 pints of pressed olive oil; and a libation of 3 pints of wine.	With the first lamb offer a tenth of an ephah* of the finest flour mixed with a quarter of a hin** of oil from pressed olives, and a quarter of a hin of wine as a drink offering. *That is, probably about 3 1/2 pounds or about 1 1/2 kilograms **That is, probably about 1 quart or about 0.9 liter.
EXODUS 38:26
MLB	TNIV
was about 12,000 pounds* around 65 cents per man for everyone registered from 20 years up, 603,550** men. *$201,000. ** No money had been coined; it had to be weighed. Actual values of gold and silver can be estimated only approximately. Classically, a talent of gold equaled $30,000 and a talent of silver $2,000; a shekel of gold $10 and a shekel of silver 65 cents. One standard of values remains--a day's wages and what can be bought for it; but monetary wages are not mentioned in our early Scripture.	one beka per person, that is, half a shekel,* according to the sanctuary shekel, from everyone who had crossed over to those counted, twenty years old or more, a total of 603,550 men. *That is, about 1/5 ounce or about 5.7 grams.
MATTHEW 25:15
MLB	TNIV
To one he gave ten thousand dollars;* to another, four thousand; and to a third, two thousand--each according to his own ability; then he went away. *In vss. 15-28 the direct translation from the Greek text reads "five talents [pente talanta]," "two talents" and "one talent," and in vs. 29 "ten talents." A silver talent wouldbe equivalent to about $2000 in mid-twentieth century U.S. currency, so that the figures given in this edition are approximately accurate.	To one he gave five bags of gold, to another two bags, and to another one bag, each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey. *Greek five talents . . . two talents . . . one talent; also throughout this parable; a talent was worth about 20 years of a day laborer’s wage.

The desire to make measures and weights into modern equivalents is admirable. In recent translations, the NLT is probably best at this. Note that in Gen 6:16 quoted above, the original NIV had feet instead of cubits, but this was changed in the TNIV--further evidence of my contention that overall the TNIV is more literal than the NIV. Nevertheless, while an admirable goal for the MLB, surely the greatest challenge would have to do with currency. The TNIV demonstrates contemporary wrestling with this issue in the questionable use of "bags of gold" in Matt 25 (obviously this was done because the average reader confuses monetary talents with "special ability" talents). The MLB's use of "cents" in the OT somehow seems out of place. But the greater problem lies in rising inflation rates. Maybe inflation was not a great issue in the fifties and sixties, but such use today would quickly date a translation. At our current rate of language change, English translations of the Bible only seem to have about a 20 to 25 year life span in my estimation. But adding in current monetary values--especially oddly placed United States monetary values--would date a translation very quickly. Perhaps only the NET Bible with its promised five years for a fixed translation between editions could pull this off, but because of the other factors mentioned here, I would certainly not recommend it.

Like many translations of its day, the MLB uses more formal pronouns (thee, thy, thou) for addressing God in the Old Testament. In earlier editions this practice was continued in the New Testament as well referring to Christ, but only in certain contexts. In the 1969 revision, this practice was removed altogether from the NT, but retained in the OT. The MLB also used capital letters for pronouns referring to deity throughout both testaments. However, like the RSV, the MLB did not follow the KJV's practice of formatting words added for understanding in italics.

A rather odd feature of the original Berkeley Version was the non-use of quotation marks for any words spoken by God or Jesus. The rationale was that all of the Bible is God's Word and Jesus is the Word of God, so why use quotation marks? This practice was done away with in the NT for the 1969 revision, but retained in the OT which received less attention from the revisers. In spite of F. F. Bruce's enthusiasm for the MLB OT in the 1959 edition, I would suggest that in the final product of the 1969 edition, the NT is much more consistent and polished.

The MLB Old Testament is significant because it was one of the first English translations to take advantage of the newly discovered Dead Sea Scrolls. This version used the DSS to "fix" known problems in the Masoretic text. Nearly all modern translations do the same, today. But if I may be so bold as to disagree with "the Bruce," the MLB OT needed at least one more revisers' pass to make it thoroughly ready for widespread use. Part of the problem stemmed from a lack of editorial committees, a practice common in translations today. The OT scholars responsible for translating the OT were primarily left to themselves, having been given the instruction to follow the same "modern language" principles utilized by Verkuyl in his original NT. Then Verkuyl himself acted as a final editor for the OT, a very large task for one man, and one who was aging at that.

The most glaring inconsistency has to do with the use of the divine name, the Tetragrammaton. The MLB generally follows the principle used in most English translations by simply using the word LORD, spelled in all caps to represent God's name. However, like some modern translations, including the HCSB, there are some texts when reference is made to the name that the actual name itself would make more sense. But this name has been spelled differently over the centuries, and oddly enough, two different spellings show up in the MLB:

"Jehovah"

God said further to Moses, You tell the Israelites: Jehovah, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac and of Jacob has sent me to you. This is My name forever and by this I am to be remembered through all generations. (Ex 3:15)

O Jehovah, our LORD, how glorious is Thy name in all the earth! (Psalm 8:1/9)

"Yahweh"

the LORD, the God of hosts, YAHWEH His name. (Hos 12:5)

And then one text where the reader might expect to see the name spelled out, it is not:

Seek Him who makes the Pleiades and Orion, who turns blackness to morning and darkens day to night; Him who calls the waters of the sea and pours them out on the face of the earth--the LORD is His name. (Amos 5:8)

Well, this is sloppy for more than just the inconsistency regarding the divine name. There are other problems in these texts. In Psalm 8:1/9 above, if Jehovah is used, LORD should not be in all caps because the second occurrence is adonai, not YHWH. And Hos 12:5 above is not a typo on my part. The text would read better with a verb added: "YAHWEH is His name."

One doesn't really wonder why the 1959 edition was passed over as a suitable translation to be used in evangelical and evangelistic purposes. The translation, especially the OT, was still a bit rough. But these very errors mentioned immediately above were noted by F. F. Bruce, so it's surprising they weren't corrected in the 1969 revision because other issues certainly were changed. Nevertheless, the MLB retains a significant place in 20th century translations, but was eclipsed by later translations, especially the NIV.

What's Available and Concluding Thoughts.I picked up my first copy of the MLB sometime in the late eighties--a green paperback Zondervan edition with California grapes on the cover. Technically, this translation was past its prime by the time I came to the party, but for whatever reason I clicked with it. Many nights at church, since I wasn't teaching, I left my NASB at home and carried my MLB. In fact, in many ways, in those pre-computer days, it was one of my most used secondary Bibles.

When I first put together this list of top ten Bibles, I tried to make clear that although some of them really were translations I used a good bit, others were not--but were primarily "best of" a certain category of Bible. To me, the MLB--specifically the NT--stands as one of the best (and most consistent) single-translator Bible versions ever produced in the 20th century. These days, committees produce most of our English translations. But we should be careful to remember that individuals have been responsible for quite a few translations that are worthy of our attention. This includes Bible versions such as those produced by Tyndale, Moffatt, Goodspeed, Beck, Phillips, Taylor, certainly Verkuyl, and a host of others.

To be honest, I don't use the MLB all that much anymore. Frankly, I'd use it more if I had an electronic edition in Accordance, but I can't find electronic editions anywhere except one made for PDA's. That means it is available in an electronic edition, just not a practical one (for my purposes). However, to its credit, the MLB has not yet gone out of print in its 60 years of publication. In 1990, after a near-exclusive history with Zondervan, the rights were transferred to Hendirickson Publishers. When Hendrickson took over, they released a nice hardback edition which I promptly bought and gave away my green Zondervan paperback to a minister friend. Currently, that hardback edition is no longer in print, but Hendrickson does make available a copy of the MLB in paperback (ISBN 1565639316). If you consider yourself an enthusiast of Bible translations, your collection is nowhere near complete without the MLB.

Whether or not the MLB (or the earlier Berkeley Version) was ever published in leather, I have no idea. Every copy I've ever seen, even of the original editions were hardback. If someone knows differently, let us know in the comments.

The MLB is definitely past its prime. I don't see the MLB getting any attention on the copyright pages of Christian books anymore. But it certainly did for a while. It was widely used in evangelical publishing--usually as a secondary translation, but there were also a handful of books based primarily on it. Billy Graham even gave away copies of the NT at his crusades, I've been told as recently as the early nineties. Certainly more than a footnote in Bible history, the MLB at least was an important chapter as English-speaking Christians gradually began to move away from the KJV. If the MLB was a "conservative RSV," it was eventually replaced by others translations which were even more so, including the NASB and the NIV which ultimately eclipsed it. But it almost was the NIV. Would history have turned out differently if the equivalent of the 1969 edition had already been released when the search was on for a modern English translation to use for evangelistic purposes?

The MLB seems to be a translation that could have been much more. In truth, it needed one more revision that never came. Within less than ten years of its final edition, its publisher Zondervan began marketing the first edition of a new translation, the New International Version--which finally did unseat the KJV as the most used English translation. While the NIV really was a better translation overall, the MLB had a bit of personality that I'm not sure was present in the NIV. I mean, you don't see clever renderings like wiliest in Gen 3:15 in the NIV (although check out NIV Job 5:18). There may be a word of warning here, too. Even a good translation can fall into disuse if neglected in favor of another by a publisher simply because one will bring in more money. I would like to continue to encourage Zondervan to transition itself away from the NIV as a base translation to its successor the TNIV, something that has been slow to take place. I'd hate to see the TNIV sitting beside the MLB one day as another victim of the NIV's success.

---

Sources used:
F. F. Bruce, The History of the Bible in English
David Dewey, A User's Guide to Bible Translations
Sakae Kubo and Walter F. Specht, So Many Versions? 20th Century English Versions of the Bible (out of print, but used copies are still available)
James E. Ruark, The House of Zondervan
Gerrit Verkuyl, "The Berkeley Version of the