Dan Wallace just reviewed the updated NIV in four parts:

• Part 1: A Selected History of the English Bible
• Part 2: Praise for the NIV 2011
• Part 3: Weaknesses in the NIV 2011
• Part 4: Conclusion

Wallace is professor of New Testament studies at Dallas Theological Seminary. He’s the author of the popular second-year textbook Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics: An Exegetical Syntax of the New Testament and senior New Testament editor of the NET Bible.

Related:

1. Rod Decker Reviews the Updated NIV
2. The Best All-Around Book on Bible Translation
3. Reproduce the Meaning
4. Translation and the Doctrine of Inspiration
5. Thank God for Good Bible Translators and Translations
6. The Importance of Dignified Translations
7. Correcting Bible Translations Can Seem Like This at Times
8. The Problem of Religious Conservatism
9. How Not to Argue about Which Bible Translation Is Best

Update on 3/31/2017: In my latest attempt to explain how to interpret and apply the Bible, I include a chapter on Bible translation (pp. 50–81).

Translating is complicated because it involves so many factors. One factor is dignity. And that’s not the strength of some translations or paraphrases.

Three examples:

1. 1 Samuel 20:30a

• וַיִּחַר־אַף שָׁאוּל בִּיהוֹנָתָן וַיֹּאמֶר לוֹ בֶּן־נַעֲוַת הַמַּרְדּוּת
• NASB (cf. KJV, NKJV, RSV, NRSV, ESV, HCSB, NIV): Then Saul’s anger burned against Jonathan and he said to him, “You son of a perverse, rebellious woman!”
• NET: Saul became angry with Jonathan and said to him, “You stupid traitor!”
  • Translator’s note: Heb “son of a perverse woman of rebelliousness.” But such an overly literal and domesticated translation of the Hebrew expression fails to capture the force of Saul’s unrestrained reaction. Saul, now incensed and enraged over Jonathan’s liaison with David, is actually hurling very coarse and emotionally charged words at his son. The translation of this phrase suggested by Koehler and Baumgartner is “bastard of a wayward woman” (HALOT 796 s.v. עוה), but this is not an expression commonly used in English. A better English approximation of the sentiments expressed here by the Hebrew phrase would be “You stupid son of a bitch!” However, sensitivity to the various public formats in which the Bible is read aloud has led to a less startling English rendering which focuses on the semantic value of Saul’s utterance (i.e., the behavior of his own son Jonathan, which he viewed as both a personal and a political betrayal [= “traitor”]). But this concession should not obscure the fact that Saul is full of bitterness and frustration. That he would address his son Jonathan with such language, not to mention his apparent readiness even to kill his own son over this friendship with David (v. 33), indicates something of the extreme depth of Saul’s jealousy and hatred of David.
• NLT: Saul boiled with rage at Jonathan. “You stupid son of a whore!” he swore at him.
• The Message: Saul exploded in anger at Jonathan: “You son of a slut!”
• Original Living Bible: Saul boiled with rage. “You son of a bitch!” he yelled at him.

2. Acts 8:20

• Πέτρος δὲ εἶπεν πρὸς αὐτόν· τὸ ἀργύριόν σου σὺν σοὶ εἴη εἰς ἀπώλειαν ὅτι τὴν δωρεὰν τοῦ θεοῦ ἐνόμισας διὰ χρημάτων κτᾶσθαι·
• NASB (cf. RSV, NRSV, ESV, NET): But Peter said to him, “May your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money! [Read more…] about The Importance of Dignified Translations

These two excerpts from Moisés Silva illustrate some ways that Bible translation is complex:

Silva, Moisés. “Are Translators Traitors? Some Personal Reflections,” in The Challenge of Bible Translation: Communicating God’s Word to the World; Understanding the Theory, History, and Practice: Essays in Honor of Ronald F. Youngblood (ed. Glen G. Scorgie, Mark L. Strauss, and Steven M. Voth; Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2003), 37–38 (emphasis added in paragraph 3):

During my student days, while looking over a Spanish theological journal, I happened to notice an article on a topic I knew would be of interest to one of my professors. When I brought it to his attention, he asked me whether I would be willing to translate the essay into English for him. Since Spanish is my mother tongue, he figured I’d be able to come up with a rough translation quite quickly. I thought so, too, but to my surprise, the project became a nightmare. I labored over virtually every sentence and felt burdened that at no point was I communicating in a truly satisfactory manner what I knew to be the “total” meaning of the Spanish. Possibly for the first time I sensed what factors may have motivated the old Italian complaint, Traduttore traditore—“A translator is a traitor.”

This incident was rather puzzling and troubling to me. [Read more…] about Thank God for Good Bible Translators and Translations

That’s the goal of Bible translation. If you speak more than one language, then you can easily think of more examples like the ones below.

Gordon D. Fee and Mark L. Strauss, How to Choose a Translation for All Its Worth: A Guide to Understanding and Using Bible Versions (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2007), 25.

There is a common perception among many Bible readers that the most accurate Bible translation is a “literal” one. By literal they usually mean one that is “word-for-word,” that is, one that reproduces the form of the original Greek or Hebrew text as closely as possible. Yet anyone who has ever studied a foreign language soon learns that this is mistaken. Take, for example, the Spanish sentence, ¿Como se llama? A literal (word-for-word) translation would be, “How yourself call?” Yet any first-year Spanish student knows that is a poor translation. The sentence means (in good idiomatic English) “What’s your name?” The form must be changed to express the meaning.

Consider another example. The German sentence Ich habe Hunger means, literally, “I have hunger.” [Read more…] about Reproduce the Meaning