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A Strategy for Keeping Your Hebrew
2–3 minutesI’ve always likened studying Biblical Hebrew to having a girlfriend: if you don’t spend time with her, she’ll be very upset with you. On the other hand, treat her kindly and things will go well. The same is true of studying Hebrew to the point that if you’re married and studying Hebrew, your wife may think you have another lover. Well, I’m purposely polygamous in this regard. Regularly reading Hebrew is a struggle for me. It can be so taxing staring at those characters! And that’s even while using my Reader’s Hebrew Bible. But let me tell you, I am…
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Give Wings to the Truth
1–2 minutesA biographer of Johann Gutenberg writes that “He said to himself, from his earliest years that God suffers in the great multitudes whom his sacred word cannot reach. Religious truth is captive in a small number of manuscript books, which guard the common treasure, instead of diffusing it. Let us break the seal which holds the holy things; give wings to the truth, that by means of speech, no longer written at great expense by the hand that wearies itself, but multiplied as the air by an unwearied machine, it may fly to seek every soul born into the world!” The invention of the printing press was but the breaking…
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Design Your Dream Bible
1–2 minutesWhat is your dream Bible? That’s the question be asked and answered over on the Bible Buying Guide blog. What translation would you pick? How about the number and color of ribbons? Skinny margins or wide? Sans serif font? Leather bound? I can’t help but think of the many millions around the world today whose dream Bible would be simply the Bible in their own language. Current estimates suggest around 340 million people speaking 2078 languages may have a need for Bible translation to begin.[1. 2010 Scripture Access Statistics, http://www.thewordislife.net/Stories/tabid/67/Default.aspx?id=1262] That’s millions of people who still dream of a Bible…
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Ephesians 4:11-12 and Every Member Ministry
4–6 minutesA friend emailed over the weekend with a question about the translation of Ephesians 4:11-12 and how it relates to the idea of every member ministry. It’s an interesting discussion to consider. So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, 12 to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up (Eph 4:11-12, NIV 2011). In this translation, the translators–like all translators–have made decisions that smooth over ambiguity in the original. In fact, a reading of the above may leave you wondering where the meat of…