In 1927 Charles Lindbergh went solo and flew the Atlantic in a single-engined monoplane from west to east. In 1895 Joshua Slocum sailed round the world in his home-made sloop Spray. Both did something that had never been done before. They were solo performances. In the West we can assume that a book has one author. No matter how big (‘Decline and fall’) or how small (‘The Communist Manifesto’) the book, there is one person (actually two in the case of the Manifesto – Marx and Engels) who bears the responsibility of authorship.
The Bible, however, is a horse of a different colour: the Bible translated into English, that is. (Sometimes we have to remind ourselves that Paul did not speak English.) The KJV (King James Version) had multiple linguists revising what was to all intents and purposes the pioneering translation by William Tyndale. That became the standard Bible of the English-speaking people. It also, as it happened, opened the door to many translations, by single translators and groups and by churches that did not exist at all in 1611. We now have to choose which we prefer. It’s like gazing at a child’s paint box. We are spoilt for choice.
One audacious solo translation is ‘The Message’. by Eugene Peterson. To come to his translation from more cautious scholars is to open a bottle of fizzy drink for the first time. Here is Peterson at full flow at the end of Romans 8: ‘… nothing living or dead, angelic or demonic, today or tomorrow, high or low, thinkable or unthinkable – absolutely nothing can get between us and God’s love. because of the way that Jesus our Master has embraced us.’
What could be plainer or more potent? This passage is one of the outstanding points of Paul’s argument. A reader finds himself in the presence of big issues, the huge change of outlook required by a reader familiar with Stoicism or polytheism. Zeno (the founder of Stoicism\) along with Mars, Neptune, Venus and the rest are toppled or robbed of their supremacy by Jesus the Messiah, the crucified one. The world (the Mediterranean world, that is) has a new Originator and Upholder.
We find different translations of the Scriptures appropriate for different purposes. Few can beat the KJV when it comes to public reading. Put it together with the Book of Common Prayer and we have English texts that are sublime. And for studying particular departments of the Scriptures we have a multitude to choose from. If all else fails we can study the Bible in its original languages.
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