One of the greatest travesties in the history of Anglo-American Christianity has been the Scofield Reference Bible, a nightmare edition of the King James Version that brought Fundamentalism and pre-millennialism within the leather-bound covers of scripture. Long after John Nelson Darby's version of the Bible disappeared into well deserved obscurity (except among the Exclusive Brethren) the Scofield legacy endures in countless Pentecostal and Fundamentalist pulpits and homes.
There have been other repellent Bible versions aplenty - the New World Translation and Fred Coulter's are just two in a sorry line-up - but none could claim the mantle that Scofield appropriated. Next year a new contender (or perhaps pretender) arises: the Lutheran Study Bible.
First, this enterprise is being published by Concordia, the imprint of the Missouri Synod, one of the least enlightened Lutheran bodies on the planet.
Second, the text which will be tortured between its covers is the awful ESV (English Standard Version), perhaps the most dishonest, agenda-driven "mainline" translation on the market. I say "perhaps" because the competition for this honor is truly fierce.
Coming from an originally Lutheran background, I try to keep up with this sort of thing. Some of the best material in Biblical studies comes from Fortress Press, the imprint of the ELCA. Concordia provides a balance: it produces some of the purest dreck known to man (or woman.)
You can read the gushing hyperbole from Concordia's Paul McCain here (best not tackled immediately after eating.)
As the frozen vege ad says (on NZ TV, and probably Australian): Ah McCain, you've done it again!
And yes, I'll probably acquire a copy. It can sit alongside The Message and Ferrar Fenton's translation on the "oddities" end of the bookshelf. A backstop conversation piece when distant relatives drop by.
The Gloucestershire Petition
42 minutes ago
3 comments:
Interested to see your mention of Fred Coulter's translation, Gavin. Are you aware he has now produced an old testament translation too?
Yeah. I gather he bought the rights to somebody else's rehash of the KJV, twiddled with the proof texts a bit, then bunged it together with his NT.
Actually, I think his first translation - the one he used in his original Harmony - was miles better than the second. I acquired a copy of his telephone-book-sized NT via a second hand supplier a while back. Ick! Almost as much Coulter articles and apologetics as NT text.
The Darby translation hasn't quite faded away. BibleGateway.com lets you read it, along with a variety of other translations.
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