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ekklesia.co.uk/content/news_syndication/article_040623.shtml
Radical new translation makes Bible accessible to unchurched -23/6/04
But in its reporting the new translation, press and radio commentary has focused on translations of the small number of passages that refer to sexual matters. The Times newspaper talks of “St Paul’s notorious condemnations of gay sex” being “deleted and Christians are told to go out and have more sex.”
“Instead of condemning fornicators, adulterers and ‘abusers of themselves with mankind’,” says Ruth Gledhill, the Times Religious Affairs correspondent, “the new version of his first letter to Corinth has St Paul advising Christians not to go without sex for too long in case they get ‘frustrated’.”
The translation is pioneering in its accessibility, and changes the original Greek and Hebrew nomenclature into modern nicknames. St Peter becomes “Rocky”, Mary Magdalen becomes “Maggie”, Aaron becomes “Ron”, Andronicus becomes “Andy” and Barabbas becomes “Barry”.
In other passages the translator John Henson, a retired Baptist minister, renders “demon possession” as “mental illness” and “Son of Man”, the phrase used frequently to refer to Jesus, as “the Complete Person”.
Parables become “riddles” and to baptise, to “dip” in water. Salvation becomes “healing” or “completeness” and Heaven becomes “the world beyond time and space.”
Mr Henson is the translation co-ordinator for ONE, a network of radical Christians that was one of the first organisations in Britain to make the case for “inclusive language”, in a 1981 pamphlet Bad Language in Church.
The Archbishop praises Mr Henson’s translation for screening out “the stale, the technical, the unconsciously exclusive words and policies”.
DIPPING INTO A NEW TRANSLATION (as reported in the Times)
Mark 1:4
Authorised version: “John did baptise in the wilderness, and preach the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins.”
New: “John, nicknamed ‘The Dipper’, was ‘The Voice’. He was in the desert, inviting people to be dipped, to show they were determined to change their ways and wanted to be forgiven.”
Mark 1:10-11
Authorised version: “And straightway coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens opened, and the Spirit like a dove descending upon him. And there came a voice from the heaven saying, Thou are my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”
New: As he was climbing up the bank again, the sun shone through a gap in the clouds. At the same time a pigeon flew down and perched on him. Jesus took this as a sign that God’s spirit was with him. A voice from overhead was heard saying, ‘That’s my boy! You’re doing fine!’ ”
Radical new translation makes Bible accessible to unchurched -23/6/04
But in its reporting the new translation, press and radio commentary has focused on translations of the small number of passages that refer to sexual matters. The Times newspaper talks of “St Paul’s notorious condemnations of gay sex” being “deleted and Christians are told to go out and have more sex.”
“Instead of condemning fornicators, adulterers and ‘abusers of themselves with mankind’,” says Ruth Gledhill, the Times Religious Affairs correspondent, “the new version of his first letter to Corinth has St Paul advising Christians not to go without sex for too long in case they get ‘frustrated’.”
The translation is pioneering in its accessibility, and changes the original Greek and Hebrew nomenclature into modern nicknames. St Peter becomes “Rocky”, Mary Magdalen becomes “Maggie”, Aaron becomes “Ron”, Andronicus becomes “Andy” and Barabbas becomes “Barry”.
In other passages the translator John Henson, a retired Baptist minister, renders “demon possession” as “mental illness” and “Son of Man”, the phrase used frequently to refer to Jesus, as “the Complete Person”.
Parables become “riddles” and to baptise, to “dip” in water. Salvation becomes “healing” or “completeness” and Heaven becomes “the world beyond time and space.”
Mr Henson is the translation co-ordinator for ONE, a network of radical Christians that was one of the first organisations in Britain to make the case for “inclusive language”, in a 1981 pamphlet Bad Language in Church.
The Archbishop praises Mr Henson’s translation for screening out “the stale, the technical, the unconsciously exclusive words and policies”.
DIPPING INTO A NEW TRANSLATION (as reported in the Times)
Mark 1:4
Authorised version: “John did baptise in the wilderness, and preach the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins.”
New: “John, nicknamed ‘The Dipper’, was ‘The Voice’. He was in the desert, inviting people to be dipped, to show they were determined to change their ways and wanted to be forgiven.”
Mark 1:10-11
Authorised version: “And straightway coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens opened, and the Spirit like a dove descending upon him. And there came a voice from the heaven saying, Thou are my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”
New: As he was climbing up the bank again, the sun shone through a gap in the clouds. At the same time a pigeon flew down and perched on him. Jesus took this as a sign that God’s spirit was with him. A voice from overhead was heard saying, ‘That’s my boy! You’re doing fine!’ ”
:banghead: 