[The following material is from O Timothy magazine, Volume 12, Issue 5, 1995. David W. Cloud, Editor. This material cannot be stored on BBS or Internet sites without permission from the author. Any articles which are redistributed by e-mail or print must be left intact and nothing must be removed or changed, including these informational headers. All rights are reserved. O Timothy is a monthly magazine. Annual subscription is US$20 FOR THE UNITED STATES. Send to Way of Life Literature, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061, fbns@wayoflife.org. FOR CANADA the subscription is $20 Canadian. Send to Bethel Baptist Church, P.O. Box 9075, London, Ontario N6E 1V0. The Way of Life web site is located at http://www.wayoflife.org/]

ANOTHER PERVERTED BIBLE HITS THE MARKET

World Publishing of Grand Rapids has come out with a new version they call God's Word: Today's Bible Translation that Says What It Means. How many "today's versions" are we going to have? Each new version since 1881 has claimed to be a modern, up-to-date version for today. God's Word claims to be "unique among all Bible translations; its the first--and only--major Bible translation to use the most widely accepted translation method employed around the world today." This is nonsense. The American Bible Society made exactly the same claim in 1991 when they came out with the Contemporary English Version. The translation method employed commonly today is the dynamic equivalency or common language method. The American Bible Society had already employed this methodology in the Today's English Version back in 1966. World Publishing's Today's Bible Translation is not new and it is not God's Word. It is merely another boring exhibit from a long line of inaccurate "translations" of the corrupted Westcott-Hort text that have been spewing forth from the money-hungry Bible publishers for a century.

Consider this butchery of Jude 3: "Dear friends, I had intended to write to you about the salvation we share. But something has come up. It demands that I write to you and encourage you to continue your fight for the Christian faith that was entrusted to God's holy people once for all time."

In spite of the publisher's claim to the contrary, this is nothing but a common paraphrase, and a very poor one at that. The dictionary definition of paraphrase is "a restatement of a text or passage giving the meaning in another form, as for clearness; rewording." The God's Word Today is a paraphrase, and not a good one, because the meaning of the original is changed.

The scholars who have given us the God's Word Today version would mock my critique of their work by claiming that I am unable to distinguish between a "function-equivalent" translation (which is what the Today's English Version and the Contemporary English Version claim to be) and a "closest- natural equivalent translation" (which is what the God's Word Today claims to be).

I could distinguish a difference between these two methodologies if there WERE a difference. The fact is, there isn't. The bottom line is that both methodologies pervert the Word of God. Both methodologies give the translator liberties to change the Holy Scriptures, and no man has such a right. The Bible is God's Book. If He has used the term "grace," no translator has the right to change it to "kindness." If He has used the word "propitiation," no man has the right to change it to "God's full approval." Yet this is precisely what the so-called God's Word Today does.

The God's Word Today advertising blurb claims, "God's Word has a friendly, easy style. It looks like a book and reads like a novel." My friends, not only does it read like a novel; it IS a novel!