Book Review: Choosing a Bible by Leland Ryken

Choosing a Bible: Understanding Bible Translation Differences, by Leland Ryken, Wheaton, Illinois, Crossway Books: 2005.

I have not studied the issue of Bible translation methods or theories before. I have always sought out the more learned opinions of pastors or theologians whom I know and respect when I decide whether or not to lay down my money for a new translation. Now Leland Ryken, a Professor of English at Wheaton College and the author or editor of several books on the literature of the Bible and on the literature of the Puritans, has authored a thirty page defense of essentially literal translations of the Bible as opposed to the dynamic equivalence method that has been used in several Bible translations in the the last fifty years. He outlines several negative effects of dynamic equivalency translations and reasons why an essentially literal translation can be trusted.

In Choosing a Bible: Understanding Bible Translation Differences, Ryken defines the dynamic equivalence philosophy as translating the text thought-for-thought, rather than word-for-word, as essentially literal translators do. However, he asserts that in order to do this, the translator must become an interpreter, determining not what the author said, but what he meant when he said it. If a passage has several possible interpretations, only one is presented. If there is a richness and depth in the text with layers of meaning, only one layer is available to the reader. Says Ryken:

"Here is my concern: Most readers of dynamic equivalent translations do not have any understanding as to the liberties that have been taken with the words of the original text. What dynamic equivalent translators give us is a translation plus a commentary, but we have no way of knowing where translation ends and the translation committee's commentary begins."
(Ryken, p. 8)

To drive home the extent of the liberties that dynamic equivalence translators take with the text, Ryken asks his readers to imagine that we have labored over a piece of writing to get it just right. Then he asks how we would feel if an editor did the following, all of which, according to Ryken, are liberties that dynamic equivalent translators take:

* changed words that were deemed old-fashioned or difficult into more contemporary and colloquial language;
* changed a metaphor to a direct statement because of an assumption that your audience could not handle figurative language;
* changed a statement that the editor feared would not be immediately understood to match what the editor believed that you intended with your statement;
* eliminated a word that the editor regarded as a technical term and replaced it with a plain, non-technical term;
* consistently turned your carefully crafted, longer sentences into short, choppy sentences because the editor assumed that your audience could not handle a sentence as long as you had written;
* reduced the level of vocabulary to a seventh-grade level;
* changed your gender references to match the editor's ideas on gender language.
(Ryken, p. 12)

As a writer-type myself, I cringed as I read this list of editorial liberties. I suppose a similar reaction would be wrought in an artist who thought about someone taking a paintbrush to his or her work and changing the colors to those that "better express what the artist meant to say." Then it struck me that the Author of Scriptures was not a fallible human being whose words might actually be improved by a skilled editor. The Author of Scriptures is the Holy Spirit Himself, working by infallible inspiration through men. Any editor who takes it upon himself to improve the words of divine inspiration, takes on a lofty task indeed. Says Ryken:

"Throughout the Bible, Scripture is referred to as the word of God, not the thought(s) of God. Jesus himself said that 'the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life' (John 6:63, ESV; italics added), leading Luther to note that 'Christ did not say of His thoughts, but of His words, that they are spirit and life.' "
(Ryken, p. 30; Martin Luther as quoted in Rene Pache, The Inspiration and Authority of Scripture, trans. Helen I. Needham, Chicago, Moody Press: 1969, p. 75)

Ryken's book is replete with examples that illustrate his assertions. In a text that can be read in one quick sitting, he fully explains his concerns with dynamic equivalency translations in a way that is very helpful to folks like me who have been naive to this important distinction. Available at about four dollars a copy, this booklet would make a worthy contribution to a church book table or as a give-away to new Christians or others inquiring about which Bible to buy for themselves.

N.B.:
Bible translations that Ryken lists as using the essentially literal translation method are: NASB (New American Standard Bible), ESV (English Standard Version), KJV/NKJV (Old and New King James Versions), and the RSV/NSRV (Old and New Revised Standard Versions).

Translations using the less literal dynamic equivalency method are: NIV (New International Version), TNIV (Today's NIV), NLT, (New Living Translation), CEV (Contemporary English Version), GNB (Good News Bible).

Translations employing an even less literal paraphrase are: NTME (New Testament in Modern English), TLB (The Living Bible), TM (The Message), and the TSB (The Street Bible).

This review is a part of the Diet of Bookworms project. More reviews of this book can be found here.

Comments

[My Boaz's Ruth]

FYI: At the bottom of the article (N.B. on) the text gets too small to read. I had to copy/paste it out to Word to change the font size and read it.

From Dory: Thanks for letting me know. The problem has been corrected. Sorry to put you to so much trouble!

[Morgan Farmer]

The Message???? Wow so thats why that book by Rick Warren did not make any sense to me. I could not for the ife of me figure out WHAT he was quoting from. It was not even comparing to my NKJV...I got half way through the first chapter and threw the book in the trash.

[Kevin]

Interesting...

Less of a problem for me as the Orthodox Church accepts only the Septuagint for the OT and has a similar set of approved texts for the NT. Makes it easier althro that does mean we are limited to the King James OT in English until the new translation gets done.

[Wayne Leman]

Dr. Ryken's book is also available as a free pdf download from the Crossway website.

[Tom Bewick]

The "free" booklet from crossway is not free it is now $3, but from the ESV website you can get the whole book that the booklet is only a small part of for free!
Go figure, that's the internet.
Here is the link;
http://www.esv.org/translation/woge