Liquid Scripture by Jeffrey S. Siker

Author:Jeffrey S. Siker [Jeffrey S. Siker]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781506407876
Publisher: Fortress Press

Noticeably absent from the list are the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, and its updated form, the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible. Also absent are the New Jerusalem Bible, the New English Bible, the Revised English Bible, the Inclusive Bible, the International Standard Version, and An American Translation. Most of these translations are not included because of copyright issues. But still, that is a huge number of available English versions![38]

The sheer multitude of translations cuts against the grain of what one or another individual translation appears to claim. The plethora of versions pushes against any particular authoritative version. There is no longer anything “standard” about the Revised “Standard” Version of the Bible, let alone the New Revised “Standard” Version. Similarly, there is nothing International about the New International Version of the Bible, nor anything distinctly “American” about the New American Bible. The Common English Bible may or may not be particularly Common. And so on. The claim to universality is belied by the sheer multitude of translations.

The most popular version of the English Bible remains the King James Version, an English translation that has held sway since it was first published in 1611, over 400 years ago. The 2015 Barna Group survey of The State of the Bible 2015, conducted on behalf of the American Bible Society, reported that 39 percent of respondents listed the King James Version as the overall preferred version (though this differed somewhat for various groups), with the New International Version coming in second at 13 percent, followed by the New King James Version at 10 percent. And truth be told, there’s nothing really very “new” about the New King James Version, as it relies upon the same manuscript traditions as the original King James Version. The New Revised Standard Version (a staple of courses on the Bible in colleges and universities), intended to be the successor Bible to the King James Version, came in at a paltry 3 percent.[39] See Fig. 6.3G.

Although the King James Version remains the most popular English version of the Bible, it is certainly not based on the oldest and best manuscripts. Despite the anonymous claim that “If the King James Version is good enough for God, it’s good enough for me!,” it is an outdated translation, notwithstanding its eloquence, its incredible influence on the subsequent English language (along with Shakespeare), and the clear scholarship it represented in 1611.[40] But it should be retired now that we know more about earlier manuscript traditions, let alone the importance of keeping translations current as languages change and develop. The New King James Version makes improvements by modernizing the English, but the editors chose to use the same underlying Greek and Hebrew manuscript tradition as had been used in 1611. Thus, when the New Testament of the NKJV was first published in 1979, it was already outdated by the newly discovered and superior Greek manuscript traditions that formed the basis of the Nestle-Aland Novum Testamentum Graece.[41]

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