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Wednesday, 20 April 2011

A Moral Dilemma

Moral choices - call them ethical decisions if you like - are not always straightforward. Blessed are those whose view of the world is in monochrome; it's a starker choice. It's just that I don't want those folk anywhere near me when it comes to important issues, and the Eternal forbid that such a one ascends to high political office.

Okay, my moral dilemma of the day is of microbial size compared to the biggies, but lord knows I am torn both this way and t'other.

The news is out on the blogosphere that a certain scholar-bishop-apologist of the Church of England is to release his own translation of the New Testament this year. Grabbing firmly onto the coat-tails of the quatercentenary of ye olde KJV, the good bishop is marketing his work as The King's Version. Exactly what he means by that is currently unclear.

Now, I have built up a reasonably impressive collection of scripture translations over the years, from Ferrar Fenton to Norman Beck. I mean, Norman Beck! This is a New Testament so obscure it's never, to my knowledge, been cited anywhere... ever. (If you were to read it, you'd know why almost immediately.)

So do I swallow my scruples and acquire King Tom's translation? For the sake of continuing to maintain a library of impressively unfamiliar bibles? Or do I cry aloud, "get thee behind me Tom!"

And WWJWD?

Of course, for the those who have joined the choir of bah-humbug atheism, this will all be a bit of a mystery. But then, one suspects that they're probably secret monochromists as well...
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5 comments:

  1. Paul D.20 April 2011 at 12:55

    I don't agree with everything NT Wright says, but he seems to have a deeper insight and understanding of Paul's epistles in particular than almost any other author I've ever read. Reading these passages translated by someone who knows and understands them so intimately, along with the translator's notes I hope are included, should be enlightening.

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  2. Tim Bulkeley20 April 2011 at 16:18

    IF there were extensive notes I'd say: Buy it! If not I say: Why buy? What does it offer that you don't have already?

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  3. Gavin R20 April 2011 at 17:00

    Ah Rupert, you're a logical soul. But what's logic got to do with the small ways we assert our uniqueness? Witness the railway enthusiast, the collector of frog-themed memorabilia, the guy with every 1966 issue of Superman comics...

    Yes, I know, it's sad really ;-)

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  4. Sabio Lantz21 April 2011 at 04:24

    Ah, I'd say "Buy it!" Sometimes the only way to burn out a vice is to endulge it to the extreme.

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  5. Anonymous2 May 2011 at 12:07

    Which reminds me, Gavin, can you please reprint that article (or please write a new one), in re: Fred Coulter's The Holy Bible in Its Original Order? I forget what your take on it was, since I wasn't paying much attention to important things, at the time.

    Apparently, Coulter's "original order" was a concept that was initially being pushed by Ernest Martin. (From ASKELM, of "The Tithing Dilemma" fame(infamy?).

    Thanks.

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