" It should be beauty and poetic. People should read it with a sense of awe, see it as literature that evokes and provokes grandeur!" " It needs to be effective literature that is clearly understood and hard to ignore! It is a working book written to convict, to challenge and to change lives!". These are two arguments often raised when the subject is versions of The Bible and translating, well and effectively, The Bible. Quite often, when this subject is broached, one of the Bibles being discussed is the King James Bible!
As a brief example , Here is Matthew 5: 6 as it appears in The King James Version- ' Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness sor they shall be filled". This seems to be beautiful, elegant, stately and yes, divine. One could say that it sounds a bit " other wordly" as a God should write and speak! The author of the book, " Life in the Year One", Scott Korb, restates the verse this way, "Those who hunger and thirst for justice are blessed, since they will feast! " This seems more basic and plainly spokem. It seems easier to explain , to rtead and to teach about!
I love beauty, grandeur and majesty but if you want to live and teach the Bible the more bluntly stated translations of the Bible seem to be, on an on-going basis more useful, practical and, ultimately, more likely to change lives!
- Johnny -
Johnny, happy to see you found LIFE IN YEAR ONE. That translation was done by Patrick Stayer, I should note, and I'm pleased to see it's struck the right chord with you.
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