Why Lately I've Been Preaching from the New Living Translation (1)

Because I've found it consistently to be exactly what it claims: "The Truth Made CLEAR." When I read the New Living Translation, I "get" it (i.e., I understand what it's saying). Time and again I've studied hard into a literal translation of a verse, and found the NLT accurately rendering the verse in simple, understandable English. That's precisely what I want as a speaker and for those who listen.

Archbishop William Temple was once told that he had made a complex issue very simple. He was hugely delighted, and replied: "Lord, who made me simple, make me simpler yet" (cited in J.I. Packer's, Concise Theology, xii). Bear in mind also that when Martin Luther translated the New Testament into German at the time of the Protestant Reformation, he insisted, "Give us simple words -- not those of the court -- for this book should be famous for its simplicity." He said this because he believed that everyone should be able to read and understand God's word. I believe this too.

Along these lines, I've found the teaching of Dr. Philip Comfort quite helpful:

"The thousands and thousands of papyri that were discovered in Egypt around the turn of the twentieth century displayed a form of Greek called 'koine' Greek. Koine Greek was everyman's Greek; it was the common langauge of almost everyone living in the Greco-Roman world from the second century BC to the thrid century AD ... Koine Greek was not literary Greek (i.e., the kind of Greek written by the Greek poets and tragedians). Instead, it was the kind of Greek used in personal letters, legal documents, and other nonliterary texts."

"After the recovery of so many koine Greek papyri, New Testament scholars began to discover that most of the New Testament was written in koine Greek -- the language of the people. As a result, there began to be a strong prompting for translators to translate the New Testament into the language of the people. Translators began to separate themselves from traditional Elizabethan English, as found in the King James Version ... and to produce fresh renderings of Scripture in the common idiom."

I'll say more about translation in a few days, Lord willing.

Greg

Comments

[TC Robinson]

I came to your blog via the NLT blog, and then decided to offer a response on my blog to your post here: Preaching from the NLT