I know Jeremiah isn't exactly the most popular book of the bible, but for some reason it really makes sense to me. It's saying an awful lot. anyway, this is what God's been putting on my heart lately, and I wanted to share it.
a bit of the first chapter of Jeremiah, in two different translations.
New King James:
4 Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying:
5 “ Before I formed you in the womb I knew you;
Before you were born I sanctified you;
I ordained you a prophet to the nations.”
6 Then said I:
“ Ah, Lord GOD!
Behold, I cannot speak, for I am a youth.”
7 But the LORD said to me:
“ Do not say, ‘I am a youth,’
For you shall go to all to whom I send you,
And whatever I command you, you shall speak.
8 Do not be afraid of their faces,
For I am with you to deliver you,” says the LORD.
9 Then the LORD put forth His hand and touched my mouth, and the LORD said to me:
“ Behold, I have put My words in your mouth.
10 See, I have this day set you over the nations and over the kingdoms,
To root out and to pull down,
To destroy and to throw down,
To build and to plant.”
The Message:
5 "Before I shaped you in the womb,
I knew all about you.
Before you saw the light of day,
I had holy plans for you:
A prophet to the nations—
that's what I had in mind for you."
6 But I said, "Hold it, Master God! Look at me.
I don't know anything. I'm only a boy!"
7-8 God told me, "Don't say, 'I'm only a boy.'
I'll tell you where to go and you'll go there.
I'll tell you what to say and you'll say it.
Don't be afraid of a soul.
I'll be right there, looking after you."
God's Decree.
9-10 God reached out, touched my mouth, and said,
"Look! I've just put my words in your mouth—hand-delivered!
See what I've done? I've given you a job to do
among nations and governments—a red-letter day!
Your job is to pull up and tear down,
take apart and demolish,
And then start over,
building and planting."
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11 comments:
That is a cool passage.
It's interesting, sometimes, the words those versions like the message choose. I'm not sure I agree with it, it seems so watered down.
But definantly a cool passage. <3
Yes . . . I always prefer the original, but the point is really good.
wow, i thought the message version was a ton better. obviously the translators chose slightly different connotations on the words from the texts. it seems to me like now we would know better what greek and hebrew words mean than 400 years ago when they made the king james. (and then they made the king james into new english, not a new translation)
The problem is that versions like the Message arn't going for the most accurate possible translation of the greek and hebrew- they're going for the simplest and most modern translation. Trying to reach more people and make the Bible seem 'cooler,' it seems. I just prefer the straight translation from the greek and hebrew, personaly.
Me to . . . I can see why making complicated words simplified can be helpfull, but I would rather do it on my own, instead of having a whole Bible that way.
Yes, I totally agree. I have NKJV and also read NIV if I'm having a hard time totally getting something. Sometimes I like the Message because it can help me apply it more to my life and to see how I can live the Bible, but I agree that it can seem like it's trying to be "cool" sometimes. That's one of the reasons we left our old church - sermons shouldn't be so "cool" that they don't let you understand the context of the Bible. I think I have a much better time understanding things like the sacrifice Jesus made for us, etc. if I can read it in its real context.
But reading both together was really cool. It's like reading a book twice - you always catch something you missed. I liked that passage a lot too.
i would argue that it is not necessarily true that the message isn't trying to make it "cool." the king james was in the ordinary language when it came out.
again, this goes back to what i've said a lot about. i think, sometimes, we have this aversion to anything that seems....ordinary, and the same to our lives, about god. because of all our cultural ideals about god and who he is. so new language seems like we're simplifying god or coolifying god, or something. we imagine this old pastor-like guy in our heads.
but that isn't quite it, at all. we try to conform god to OUR ideas of what he should be like. and having a bible with hard to understand (because it's old. not because it's complex) language just contributes to our....our...like, our stereotypes of god.
remember, there's nothing about the king james translation itself that's inspired.
BOTH the message and the king james were BOTH translated from the exact same manuscripts. if anything, we have more extensive scholars and better research than they did 400 years ago....
90% of the time, the pastor just simplifies the words anyway. he says, this is kinda what this means, what god is saying, is this.
how much easier it would be if the bible were a little more accessible...
remember, it's not translating it into modern ideas. it uses the same ideas as the original biblical writers do-the exact same. but it uses phraseology WE identify with, not phraseology 1600 people identify with.
I agree with a lot of that. I just don't like translations of translations of translations of Bibles. then you're getting into how certain people interpret something, not word-for-word translations of the same thing. I read some things in several (pardon the wording, but) 'newer' versions that I totally interpreted differently from other 'older' versions. I'm not saying that I'm against newer versions, in fact sometimes I change my view based on the translations I read the verse in. And I'm not saying that my view is right either way, ha-ha.
And I think a lot of it depends on your maturity as a Christian too. I've been raised in a Christian home my whole life (I think we all have) and I think we're all pretty mature Christians. For me, NKJV isn't at all hard to understand. For a baby Christian, it might be hard. And like I said earlier, I like to read some passages in several translations to help me get a fuller view of how several people saw that passage. But knowing I'm reading one of the earliest English translations of the Bible (of course simplified in language) without anyone else throwing their slant onto it (not saying that any particular one does that) is more comforting to me.
On the other hand, as I said I like the balance of several versions. What do Christians come to if they start dividing over something like what version of the Bible they read! How ridiculous!
I liked what Em said though about the Message trying to reach more people. I still think in a way it is cooler to this generation. it's in their language. and in some ways that's good, but I think in some ways it overlooks some deeper meaning of things because people today might not get it, or might not be interested in something that 'deep'.
Anyway, I don't want to give any offense here to anyone, or point fingers at any versions. I think in the end, I really like a good balance more than anything else, because it's important to get everyone's interpretation so you can better form your own ideas about how you view it. And after all, the Bible is the Bible, no matter who translated it. And we're all Christians striving for unity with each other, right?
Keep up the good work.
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