Posts tagged “Translation”

Readability Chronicles: 2 Peter 1:18

Posted on January 23rd, 2010

Second in an occasional series comparing the readability of NKJ and ESV. The Epistle for tomorrow (Transfiguration) is 2 Peter 1:16-21. Verse 18 ESV seemed awkward, so I compared it to NKJ. ESV: We ourselves heard this very voice borne from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain. NKJ: And we heard this voice which came from heaven when we were with Him on the holy mountain. The most difficult part in either version is “borne” – that’s not a word most people use regularly. When listening instead of reading, “borne” is easily confused with “born.” NKJ’s “came from” is much more natural. The only other significant difference is in the transition to the second part of the verse, after the…

Categories: Theology

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Schmücke Dich, o liebe Seele (or, The enduring legacy of Lutheran Book of Worship)

Posted on December 17th, 2009

Rev. Charles McClean recently pointed out to me that the version of Soul, Adorn Yourself with Gladness which appears in Lutheran Service Book (#636) has some disconcerting anomalies. LSB’s stanzas 5 and 6 are simply two different translations of Johann Franck’s original stanza 7 – the first is from the paraphrase in Lutheran Book of Worship (#224, stanza 4), and the second is Catherine Winkworth’s translation. LSB has simply followed Lutheran Worship (#239, stanzas 4 and 5) in this regard. What this means is that something has been omitted, and in this case, some great treasures are being lost.* Try this exercise: open up LW #239. See all that nice room at the bottom of the page, beneath stanzas 5-6? Why is that left…

Categories: Theology

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Readability Chronicles: Zechariah 9:9

Posted on November 30th, 2009

I’ve received, at long last, The Lutheran Study Bible, which employs the English Standard Version (ESV). We’ve been switching gradually to ESV at Immanuel. For the last year or so, we’ve read the Old Testament and the Epistle from the ESV, while continuing to read the Gospel from the New King James version (NKJ). I had my catechism students purchase the ESV for class this year, and next year I’m planning on switching our parochial school over – the 7th and 8th grade students I teach do just fine with the NKJ, but my 3rd and 4th graders have trouble with it. I’m planning to do a Bible study on Sunday mornings on textual differences between the ESV and the NKJ, and I’m going to…

Categories: Theology

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Pour in oil and cleansing wine

Posted on September 2nd, 2009

This Sunday is the Parable of the Good Samaritan (Trinity 13), and I was thinking about having Immanuel sing “Jesus, Grant That Balm and Healing” (LSB 421). I was looking at it out of LSB and couldn’t find the lines that made it in the past a must-sing for this Sunday. Here’s the line from Lutheran Worship (#421): “Where the wound is and the hurting, Pour in oil and cleansing wine.” I’ve always loved how that interprets the Good Samaritan parable Christologically. So I was initially disappointed to learn that Lutheran Service Book alters the text: “Every wound that pains or grieves me By Your wounds, Lord, is made whole.” However, that is a better translation of Johann Heermann’s original: “Gib für alles, was…

Categories: Theology

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"Prepare a sacrifice"?

Posted on July 9th, 2008

Why does the ESV have in Ps. 5.3 (5.4 Heb.) “in the morning I prepare a sacrifice for you and watch”? The Hebrew is ‘arak, which HALOT has as “to lay out, set in rows”; it can also mean to set up a battle formation; but the kicker is this: it is a legal term meaning to present a case (before a judge, I presume). The meaning of laying out/setting in rows is used for sacrificial meat [e.g., Lev. 1.8] and for the showbread [e.g., Lev. 24.8] – but that is certainly not the only use – and doesn’t fit the context of the Psalm, which doesn’t seem centered on priestly activity in the Holy Place. The LXX renders it with parastesomai (“to be…

Categories: Theology

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