Bible Translations

[Pete Vecchi]

I didn't know if I should put this post in this category, or in the theology category. But anyway, here it is!

I ran across a Bible translation into Englisg on www.biblegateway.com the other day that I'd never even heard of before, the Holman Christian Standard Version (HCSV). I was working on a message and was looking for a good translation into English of one of those passages where the Greek can make a word-for-word translation difficult, especially when trying to get the syntax of the passage to translate from Greek into English. Through my looking at that passage in many Bible versions, that HCSV seemed to do the best job of translating that particular passage.

Since then, I've read up on how the translation of this version was done, and it sounds overall to have been done in a very sound fashion.

Has anyone else ever heard or read about the HCSV, either positive or negative?

Just curious.

[Rick Boyt]

My Understanding Is That Holman Is From The Southern Baptist Convention.

Rick

[Charles W Christian]

I didn't know if I should put this post in this category, or in the theology category. But anyway, here it is!

I ran across a Bible translation into Englisg on www.biblegateway.com the other day that I'd never even heard of before, the Holman Christian Standard Version (HCSV). I was working on a message and was looking for a good translation into English of one of those passages where the Greek can make a word-for-word translation difficult, especially when trying to get the syntax of the passage to translate from Greek into English. Through my looking at that passage in many Bible versions, that HCSV seemed to do the best job of translating that particular passage.

Since then, I've read up on how the translation of this version was done, and it sounds overall to have been done in a very sound fashion.

Has anyone else ever heard or read about the HCSV, either positive or negative?

Just curious.

I've heard of it. Holman is a Baptist press, and they used some good scholars to produce this text. It is a "word for word" translation like the NASB, RSV, KJV, NKJV, which means it seeks to render the words and tenses of the verbs as accurately as possible while still maintaining some English readability. NIV, TNIV, and NLT (and the like) are "thought for thought" or "dynamic equivalent" translations, which make the "word for word" rendering secondary to conveying the meaning or main idea of a particular passage with an emphasis upon accuracy and readability. The third category would be paraphrases (like the Living Bible, for instance) which do not strive for the kind of accuracy in the first two and seek readability. This third category is more like a commentary in some places, but can be a good way for beginner readers to get acquainted with Scripture.

Anyway, the Holman is a solid translation, but I don't know if ease of reading is always present.

Blessings,
Charles

[Bruce Carriker]

Holman is not necessarily SOUTHERN Baptist, but they do use it. Holman got tired of having to pay royalties to Zondervan to use the NIV in their Sunday School, VBS, Bible Study literature, etc. So they did their own translation.

Some of you are familiar with Calvin Miller. He was part of the translation committee.