During my church’s services, in between worship songs and sermon notes, sometimes I’ve put bible verses on our video screens. Not as part of the service; just as something to have on the screen in between the other stuff. Something other than a blank screen.
A few weeks ago I got asked,
- SHE. “Which translation is ‘
KWL ’? What’s that stand for?” - ME. “Me. K.W. Leslie. I translated it.”
- SHE. “Why’d you use your own translation instead of an official translation?”
- ME. “What do you mean, official translations?”
- SHE. “Well, like the Authorized Version. The
NIV , the New King James…” - ME. “Those aren’t official translations. They were produced by publishers. The bible’s the most popular book in the world; there’s good money to be made by owning your own translation. So publishers hired scholars, and now they have their own translations. But none of them are official.”
(I should clarify: Some churches have made the
- SHE. “Well, they were done by churches.”
- ME. “They were not. They were done by publishers. Who did hire actual scholars to do the translating, so they’re not bad translations. But they weren’t done by any one church; they wanna sell bibles to every church, y’know.”
- SHE. “But why do you do your own translation?”
- ME. “As part of my bible study. When I’m studying a verse, I wanna really understand it, so I read it in the original, and translate it. I’m not trying to produce ‘the
KWL version of the bible’; I’m just trying to understand it better. Sometimes I’ll use different words than other translations. But I’m not too far different than any of the other translations. In fact if I were too far different, it’d mean I’m doing it wrong.” - SHE. “But why use your translation instead of one of the official translations?”
- ME. [letting go the fact she still insists there are official translations] “Certain words I used, which I like better than the words other translations used.”
- SHE. “Well I would be nervous about that. Aren’t you changing the words of the bible to suit yourself?”
- ME. “I’m trying not to do that. I’m trying to stay true to the original language, the original authors’ intent.”
- SHE. “But why do you think you’ve done a better job than the official translations?”
- ME. “Because sometimes I did do a better job. Certain translations bend the meaning to fit how popular Christian culture interprets the bible. The new edition of the Amplified Bible does it all the time. The New Living Translation does it a few times. The New International Version tries to hide
all the bible difficulties. I tend to compare my translation with the King James Version because I’ve found that translation bends it least. But translators aren’t infallible. Everybody makes mistakes. Myself included.” - SHE. “So how can you put your translation up there like it’s authoritative?”
- ME. “’Cause it’s just as ‘authoritative’ as those other translations. Which is to say, don’t take any one translation’s word for it. Compare it with other ones, just in case one of us made a mistake.”
Pretty sure I didn’t convince her, though. When you grow up thinking of certain bible translations as absolute authorities… it kinda bothers you to discover they’re not the work of extra-special anointed creatures, but ordinary women and men. Especially once you personally know any of those ordinary women and men.