Eugene Nida 1914-2011

Eugene A. Nida (1914-2011)

Eugene Nida, one of the most influential Bible translators and developer of the Dynamic Equivilence translation system died in Brussels on 25th August at the grand old age of 96. His obituary can be found on the United Bible Societies website. His Wikipedia entry is also worth consulting.

Clinton Chisholm on 'After the Sabbath' (Matt. 28.1a)

The following article is now online in PDF:

Clinton Chisholm, "'After the Sabbath' (Matt. 28.1a) - Into the Crux Yet Again," Caribbean Journal of Evangelical Theology 8 (2004): 57-66. Click here to read the article.

Chisholm offers a viable solution to an old problem with the translation on Matthew 28:1a - well worth a read.

Update on Article Translations

Last year I announced that I was looking for volunteers to translate some of the articles hosted on my websites into other languages. Since then progress has been slow, but I know have a few articles available in Filipino, Spanish and Romanian.

Last week I was approached by a retired Baptist missionary who formerly served in Brazil. He has kindly offered to translate around 50 articles into Portuguese to make them more accessible in South America. I have spent the last few days approaching publishers and authors for the neccessary permissions and translation work has already begun. Completed articles will appear on the BiblicalStudies.org.uk website shortly.

A Review of Emergent Church Bible "The Voice" Part 1

I came across this review of the The Voice - which is being promoted by Brian D. Mclaren and others in the emerging church movement. It looks like developing into an interesting series. Well worth a read.

HT: Anton Hein

A Review of "The Green Bible"

Scott Diekmann has a extensive and thought-provoking review of The Green Bible over on his Stand Firm blog. Well worth a read.

F.F. Bruce on Bible Translations

The following article is now available on-line in PDF:

F.F. Bruce, "New Bible Translations: A Short Survey," Inter-Varsity (Autumn 1953): 15-19.

Although the translations dealt with can hardly be thought of as 'new' today, the principles dealt with are certainly still valid.

Five Articles by F.F. Bruce from Eternity Magazine

I have just uploaded the following articles in PDF:

F.F. Bruce, "A British Scholar Looks at the RSV Old Testament," Eternity (May 1954): 12-13, 42-47.

F.F. Bruce, "A Second Look at the Dead Sea Scrolls," Eternity (October 1956): 14-15, 29-30.

F.F. Bruce, "The Apocrypha, Revised and Introduced," Eternity (November 1957): 18-19, 42.

F.F. Bruce, "On Dating the New Testament," Eternity 23 (June 1972): 32-33.

F.F. Bruce, "Are The Gospels Anti-Semitic?" Eternity 24 (November 1973): 16-18.

This last article is as topical now as it was in 1973!

My thanks to Rich Poll of Apologia for kindly providing me with photocopies of these articles.

I am currently working on the previously unpublished Ph.D. Thesis of the OT scholar Edward J. Young. This, and the table of contents of various journals, mean that the number of new articles going on-line may be lower than usual over the next few weeks. Remember to subscribe to my blog feed so as not to miss new items.

J. Harold Greenlee on When you Don't Need to Learn Greek

The following article is now available in PDF:

J. Harold Greenlee, "No, You Don't Have to Know Greek," His 25 (1965): 34-35.

A short but helpful article on the value of learning New Testament Greek.

Bible Translator Vol. 11 - 20 Table of Contents On-line

As I mentioned before The Bible Translator has been on-line for some years. I have created a more search-engine and user-friendly front end for the PDF documents in the form of a HTML table of contents. Here are some of the articles from volumes 11-20 that caught my eye:

J. Harold Greenlee, "'If' in the New Testament," Bible Translator 13.1 (Jan. 1962): 39-43.

Harold Keeling Moulton, "The names and attributes of God," Bible Translator 13.2 (April 1962): 71-80.

J. Clifford Hindley, "The meaning and translation of covenant," Bible Translator 13.2 (April 1962): 90-101.

Harry Mowvley, "The concept and content of "blessing" in the Old Testament," Bible Translator 16.2 (April 1965): 74-80.

Edgar V. McKnight, "Is the New Testament written in 'Holy Ghost' Greek," Bible Translator 16.2 (April 1965): 87-93.

William A. Smalley, "The place of linguistics in Bible translation," Bible Translator 16.3 (July 1965): 105-112.

Peter R Ackroyd & Michael A. Knibb, "Translating the psalms," Bible Translator 17.1 (Jan. 1966): 1-11.

Ronald E. Clements, "Divine titles as a problem of Old Testament translation," Bible Translator 17.2 (April 1966): 81-84.

Charles R. Taber, "Exegesis and linguistics," Bible Translator 20.4 (October 1969): 150-153.

F.F. Bruce on the New English Bible

The following article is now available in PDF:

F.F. Bruce, "The New English Bible," Faith and Thought 92.1 (1961): 47-52.

Professor Bruce gives a cautious welcome to the (then) newly published New English Bible New Testament, concluding that the final test would be whether or not the "man in the street" could hear the "Word of God addressing itself to his heart and meeting his need" though it. I think that this would be a good test of any translation.

The Bible Translator's Table of Contents

The Bible Translator, the journal of the United Bible Societies has been online for some time in the form of scanned images (one per page). I have just completed a HTML table of contents of the first 10 volumes, which I hope will both make this splendid resource more accessible and easier for search engines to catalogue. It will also make it possible for me to insert the relevant articles into my subject listings. I hope to complete the remaining volumes by the end of the year. Here are some useful articles that appeared during the first 10 years of the journal's publication:

J. Harold Greenlee, "The Genitive Case in the New Testament," The Bible Translator 1.2 (April 1950): 68-70.

J. Harold Greenlee, "Kurios 'Lord'," The Bible Translator 1.3 (June 1950): 106-110.

J. Harold Greenlee, "The Greek Definite Article," The Bible Translator 1.4 (October 1950): 162-165.

Erwin Nestle, "How to Use a Greek New Testament," The Bible Translator 2.2 (April 1951): 49-55.

J. Harold Greenlee, "Psuche in the New Testament," The Bible Translator 2.2 (April 1951): 73-75.

J. Harold Greenlee, "Word Suffixes in the Greek New Testament," The Bible Translator 2.4 (October 1951): 159-161.

J. Harold Greenlee, "The Preposition EIS in the New Testament," The Bible Translator 3.1 (January 1952): 12-14.

J. Harold Greenlee, "Verbs in the New Testament," The Bible Translator 3.2 (April 1952): 71-75.

G. Henry Waterman, "What is Koiné Greek?" The Bible Translator 3.3 (June 1952): 127-131.

F.F. Bruce, "The Old Testament in Greek, Part I," The Bible Translator 4.3 (July 1953): 129-134. [An extract from The Books and the Parchments (1952)]

F.F. Bruce, "The Old Testament in Greek, Part II," The Bible Translator 4.3 (October 1953): 156-162. [An extract from The Books and the Parchments (1952)]

J. Harold Greenlee, "New Testament Participles," The Bible Translator 5.3 (July 1954): 98-101.

Dewey M. Beegle, "The Meaning of the Qumran Scrolls for Translators of the Bible," The Bible Translator 8.1 (January 1957): 1-8.

F.W. Gingrich, "Leads from a Lexicon," The Bible Translator 10.1 (January 1959): 35-37.

Nigel Turner, "The Preposition en in the New Testament," The Bible Translator 10.3 (July 1959): 113-120.

David F. Payne on The Servant of the Lord: Language and Interpretation

The following article is now available in PDF:

D.F. Payne, "The Servant of the Lord: Language and Interpretation," Evangelical Quarterly 43.3 (July-Sept. 1971): 131-143.

David Payne looks at the translational issues in Isaiah's Fourth Servant Song.