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Sigh. Why I hate the Common English Version reason 642379834: A mini thread. https://t.co/hNdsLYwWXg

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13 responses to “”

  1. Amanda CAARSON
    Amanda CAARSON

    Time to discuss “common sense” in Prov. 2:6 according to this translation. Spoiler alert: I have no idea where they come up with this because it’s flat wrong.

  2. Amanda CAARSON
    Amanda CAARSON

    The operative Hebrew word here is da’at, (transliterating for the Eloquence users in the audience as well as those who don’t have Hebrew fonts on their computers).

  3. Amanda CAARSON
    Amanda CAARSON

    Da’at generally means “knowledge”, and carries a range of meanings from general knowledge to visual/auditory perception, matters of technical skill, and emotional/sexual knowledge, to knowledge of God.

  4. Amanda CAARSON
    Amanda CAARSON

    “Common sense” isn’t just an outlying possiblity, you have to be pretty specific about how you define common sense in order to remotely make it work.

  5. Amanda CAARSON
    Amanda CAARSON

    I get that most people aren’t going to read the Bible in its original languages. But if you can’t, pick a good translation. Some resources follow.

  6. Amanda CAARSON
    Amanda CAARSON

    First, read the preface of whichever translation you pick, because it will tell you what the philosophy is and briefly explain same.

  7. Amanda CAARSON
    Amanda CAARSON

    Be suspicious of anything claiming to be a literal translation, unless it comes with a lot of fine print.

  8. Amanda CAARSON
    Amanda CAARSON

    Keep a few around, compare them, and pick ones that explain their choices, with source citations and explanations.

  9. Amanda CAARSON
    Amanda CAARSON

    Also, be suspicious of claims of “most accurate” ETC., and be aware that no matter who’s doing the translation there’s always interpretation involved as well.

  10. Amanda CAARSON
    Amanda CAARSON

    Paraphrases are fine for easy reading but they’re not translations. See for example The Message, which I think does specifically call itself a paraphrase.

  11. Amanda CAARSON
    Amanda CAARSON

    Keep more than one translation around: One that you’re familiar with and the others that you use to compare/check against.

  12. Amanda CAARSON
    Amanda CAARSON

    If your favorite’s a dynamically equivalent one, (tries to capture phrase-by-phrase instead of word-for-word), keep a more formally equivalent translation around.

  13. Amanda CAARSON
    Amanda CAARSON

    Should probably end the thread because that’s a lot, but it should be a good starting point.