Is this a Good Greek Translation Bible

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Peregrinans

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I have a question for those well versed in ancient Greek. About 26 years ago I was given as a gift a bible called “The Christian Bible, Its New Contract Writing Portion, produced by the Christian Bible Society out of Arkansas. It has very few footnotes and they only explain words etc.There is no theological commentary, interpretations or explanations included, which I like.
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  In the introduction it says that “This Bible is the most accurate and literal translation of the “New Testament” into plain English in over 450 years.”  It goes on say that the translators used Koine Greek, ,which was the equivalent to our “plain English.” Anyway, the translators wished to remain anonymous, they all did this privately, on their own time, and using their own money. It took them 16 years to finish.  I like the Bible and its language has helped me understand some things, but I am curious as to why I don’t hear about this Bible very often. A search brings up very little, other then it exists. I don’t know modern Greek, let alone ancient Greek, so I can not tell on my own if these translations are the best ones.
Are any of you, who are knowledgeable of Koine Greek, aware of this Bible? If so, what do you think?

Here is a sample paragraph from the The Christian Bible:

Luke 1: 28-38:

Now the Messenger came to her and said, “Rejoice, favored one! The Master is with you!” Now she was agitated at this word, and she began reasoning what kind of greeting this might be. Then the Messenger said to her, “Stop being afraid, Mary; for you have found favor with God! Now notice, you will conceive in your belly and give birth to a son, and you must call his name ‘Yesu’ Yehweh-Savior]!
He will be great, and will be called ‘Son of the Most High’; and the Master God will give Him the throne of His father David; and He will reign over the house of Jacob for the remaining ages the present age and the Last Age]; and there will be no completion of His Kingdom.” Yet Mary said to the Messenger, “How can this be, since I don’t know a man sexually]? Then in response, the Messenger said to her, “The Pure Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow; and for this reason the Pure One who is conceived will be called ‘the Son of God.’ Now notice, your relative Elizabeth has also conceived a son even though she is elderly; and she who is called barren, is in her sixth month; because nothing will be impossible for the Declaration of God.” Now Mary said, “Notice, the female slave of the Master! May it occur to me according to your declaration!” Then the Messenger went away from her.

Is the above a pretty accurate translation from Koine Greek?
 
Peregrinans said:
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  In the introduction it says that “This Bible is the most accurate and literal translation of the “New Testament” into plain English in over 450 years.”
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Sometimes ‘literal’ and ‘accurate’ don’t go hand in hand, if we lose the sense of the phrases and sentences by translating word-by-word… 😉
It goes on say that the translators used Koine Greek
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Of course; that’s the basis of all contemporary translations!
Are any of you, who are knowledgeable of Koine Greek, aware of this Bible? If so, what do you think?
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Never heard of it before. Looking at the paragraph you supplied, it’s not suprising, though…
Here is a sample paragraph from the The Christian Bible:
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There’s definitely some non-standard stuff going on:
  • ‘Master’, not ‘Lord’, for kyrios
  • the typical Protestant ‘favored one’ for kecharitomene (rather than Jerome’s ‘full of grace’)
  • ‘messenger’, not ‘angel’, for angelos
  • ‘belly’, rather than the intended ‘womb’ for gastri
  • ‘you must call’ (as a command) rather than ‘you will call’ (as simple future tense)
  • ‘Yesu’ – that is, “Yahweh-Savior”, rather than ‘Jesus’ for Iesoun (here, they’re actually interpreting, rather than being literal, if that’s their claim…)
  • ‘the remaining ages’ (and the highly interpretive ‘the present age and the last age’) rather than ‘for ever’ for eis tous aionas
Just going only that far into it, there’s already some room to say that they’re doing something… ummm… unique here.

If I’m reading it right, then, what their claim will be is that since all other Bibles translate differently, then clearly they’re the only ones with a good translation.
Is the above a pretty accurate translation from Koine Greek?
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Is ‘pretty accurate’ good enough… especially when we’re talking about the Bible?
 
Thank you Gorgias. I would like best, most accurate translation. That is why I questioned this particular editions claim, since they do use a lot of words not found in other bibles. So, would you say that this edition was too unique to be truly an accurate rendering of the text?
 
Just my two cents.

I think ‘accurate’ is probably a rather tricky word to use here, because let’s face it: no translation is completely ‘accurate’. Translating something is a very hard job - something is going to be lost in the process of translation. As mentioned, this translation certainly tries to be unique (its non-standard renderings), but if you’re asking if it’s ‘accurate’ - in the sense that it translates the text hyper-literally with no ‘additives’ added, then no, since as shown it does engage in its own interpretation (for example, “Yesu” for Greek Iēsous; “for the remaining ages” for eis tous aionas “to the ages” or idiomatically, “forever;” “Pure Spirit” for pneuma agion “holy Spirit,” etc.)

That’s why I’d recommend being wary when some translation is billed as ‘accurate’: that’s really advertising-ese for “what we think the text says.”

Personally, I’d give the translation plus points for “Messenger” and “female slave,” maybe even “Master” for Kyrios, but otherwise, even if ‘accuracy’ is not the issue here I still think the text reads rather weird.
 
Thank you for your :twocents: Patrick your post was helpful. 🙂
 
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