It feels great, it's eminently portable, the print is small but still easily readable by me, it has center-column references, it opens perfectly flat, it has two ribbon markers, etc.
I've recommended the NLT to others because of things Bible translators have said, as well as because of some of the passages I've read, so I ALMOST bought this as a briefcase Bible.
But two things stopped me:
1. Though I won a NLT Study Bible (2007) in a drawing from Logos Bible Software, I still mainly work from the Greek text for the New Testament and (as best as I can) my JPS Hebrew-English Tanakh and the Septuagint for the Old Testament.
2. For "fun" I turned to 1 Timothy 2:11-15, and saw that the NLT translates the passage this way:
11Women should learn quietly and submissively. 12I do not let women teach men or have authority over them.[b] Let them listen quietly. 13For God made Adam first, and afterward he made Eve. 14And it was not Adam who was deceived by Satan. The woman was deceived, and sin was the result. 15But women will be saved through childbearing,[c] assuming they continue to live in faith, love, holiness, and modesty.The Greek for the passage is:
b. 1 Timothy 2:12 Or teach men or usurp their authority.
c. 1 Timothy 2:15 Or will be saved by accepting their role as mothers, or will be saved by the birth of the Child.
11 γυνὴ ἐν ἡσυχίᾳ μανθανέτω ἐν πάσῃ ὑποταγῇ: 12 διδάσκειν δὲ γυναικὶ οὐκ ἐπιτρέπω, οὐδὲ αὐθεντεῖν ἀνδρός, ἀλλ' εἶναι ἐν ἡσυχίᾳ. 13 Ἀδὰμ γὰρ πρῶτος ἐπλάσθη, εἶτα Εὕα: 14 καὶ Ἀδὰμ οὐκ ἠπατήθη, ἡ δὲ γυνὴ ἐξαπατηθεῖσα ἐν παραβάσει γέγονεν. 15 σωθήσεται δὲ διὰ τῆς τεκνογονίας, ἐὰν μείνωσιν ἐν πίστει καὶ ἀγάπῃ καὶ ἁγιασμῷ μετὰ σωφροσύνης. (Boldface indicating emphasis is per The Lexham Discourse Greek New Testament)I don't see how the NLT's "The woman was deceived, and sin was the result" is a good translation choice. It
My rough and quick translation: "11 Let a woman learn in silence with all submission. 12 But I do not permit a woman to teach or to assume authority over a man, but to be in silence. 13 For Adam was formed first, then Eve. 14 And Adam was not deceived, but the woman, having been [greatly?] deceived, has come to be in transgression. 15 But she will be saved through childbearing, if they continue in faith and love and holy living with self-control."
- obscures the subordinate participial clause "having been deceived";
- loses the emphasis in the Greek on "in transgression"; and
- severs the connection between the woman's "fallen" state and her (their?) need to be delivered from it per 2:15 by making it appear that "sin" was what happened, not that the woman came to be in a state of (γέγονεν, a perfect verb) transgression.
So I'm sticking with my original language Bibles and, for portability, my other (and cheaper) hand-sized Bibles. Someone else can get this $140 Bible for $25.
More discussion of questionable or curious translations in the NLT can be found in this thread where I first raised the subject of this post.
I'm wondering about the words that your Greek source chose to emphasise in the bold. :(
ReplyDeleteAlso, the footnote to verse 12 is particularly insidious with their use of the pronoun "their". It fully implies/assumes that men have authority and women do not. :(
Marg:
ReplyDeleteSteve Runge explains the words he emphasizes as follows:
3.1. Main clause emphasis
Definition
Describes the movement of the most important element(s) of the main clause on a given propositional level to a position of prominence in order to attract extra attention to it using a change in word order. The scope of the emphasis extends over the main clause on the same level of the discourse outline.
Explanation
Emphasis is placing what is relatively the most important part of a clause in a special position in order to attract extra attention to it. The importance of the information is determined by its contribution to the context, not by its position in the clause. Emphasis is therefore viewed as the writer’s choice to place what is already the most important information in the clause in a special position to attract more attention to it than it would otherwise have received.
These are the words/phrases he so labels:
ἐν ἡσυχίᾳ
ἐπιτρέπω
πρῶτος
ἐν παραβάσει
3.2. Main clause emphasis-Other
Definition
Describes the placement of the most important element(s) of the main clause in a position of prominence to attract extra attention to it based on something besides word order. This kind of prominence can be achieved through the use of a point-counterpoint set. Alternatively, if only one portion of a clause element is fronted for emphasis’ sake, the remainder of this element also receives emphasis by virtue of its grammatical relation to the fronted portion. The scope of the emphasis extends over the main clause on the same level of the discourse outline.
Explanation
Emphasis is ‘placing what is relatively the most important part of a clause in a special position in order to attract extra attention to it’. The importance of the information is determined by its contribution to the context, not by its postion in the clause. Emphasis is therefore viewed as the writer’s choice to place what is already the most important information in the clause in a special position to attract more attention to it than it would have otherwise received.
These are the words/phrases he so labels:
αὐθεντεῖν ἀνδρός
εἶναι ἐν ἡσυχίᾳ
Runge, S. (2008; 2008). The Lexham Discourse Greek New Testament: Introduction. Logos Research Systems, Inc.; Bellingham, WA.