A Commentary on English Bibles

It’s quite likely that I will step on some toes here.  Actually, I don’t apologize.  I am not trying to dissuade you from reading your favorite English Bible and I am not trying to convince you that you need to understand the Bible from a Hebrew worldview.  I would imagine that most readers already have a favorite English translation and already know that without a Hebrew worldview much of Scripture is simply lost.  What I want to do is comment on the cultural implications of today’s crop of English Bibles.

I received the latest Bible catalog in the mail.  It’s always fascinating to read cultural trends into the newest marketing approaches for selling the world’s most familiar book.  Today was not disappointing.  We have the “Becoming” Bible – a New Testament for women.  “Want a new you in the New Year?” says the hype.  This Bible is tailored (a nice feminine term) for transforming truth presented as a “cutting-edge women’s magazine.”  There are articles on beauty, men, health, career and relationships.  Isn’t that nice?  Now you can be stylishly appropriate and still carry a Bible.

Then there’s the “Hugs” Bible for women.  Of course it’s for women.  Can you imagine a man carry around a Bible that says “Hugs” on the cover?  This Bible is designed to give you “encouragement.”  All that’s needed is “pretty paper and a bow for a truly spirit-lifting surprise!”  I wonder if Paul every thought of gift-wrapping his message to the Galatians.  Maybe he should have called it the “Squeeze” letter.  Or perhaps Hosea should have listened to the marketing guys and renamed his message “Hopeful Adultery.”

If that doesn’t appeal to you, then you’ll certainly like the “True Identity – TNIV Bible for Women.”  No more confusion about those nasty tidbits in Paul’s letters.  Now you will “see yourself as God sees you!”  You can “connect the life-changing truth of God’s Word to your real-life issues” and “Unmask 100 common cultural myths.”  Do you suppose that this Bible actually explicates the real meaning of ‘ezer kenegdo and the Hebrew architecture in the Genesis account?  Do you think it reveals Paul’s rabbinic writing and the thousand-year misapplication of Greek motifs to the role of women in the Church?

Have you noticed that the marketers have discovered there is a new target audience here?  These Bibles are aimed at frustrated and discouraged women.  And why wouldn’t they be frustrated and discouraged?  The Church has preached the heresy of a two-class gender system for nearly 2000 years.  But do you think that a new cover and a few notes is going to make the Christian world suddenly comes to terms with its mistake?  No, I don’t think so.  Frankly, if I were a woman I would be insulted by all this pandering.

None of these marketing tactics actually concentrate on what matters – the translations of the text.  This is the same NIV, NLT and NKJV versions that have carried the same message of the Roman Catholic priests, the early fathers and the Greek worldview for centuries.  Until we have a serious revision of the English translation, we are not likely to make progress with “pretty paper and a bow.”

It’s worth noting that there is another Bible offered in a new guise.  It is the “3:16 NCV New Testament.”  “Give the gift of hope to friends, seekers, loved ones – and yourself!”  Yes, with this New Testament you can connect directly to Max Lucado’s bestseller “3:16.”  Wow!  I wonder when the evangelical world is going to discover that those who do not embrace a commitment to follow YHWH are immune to exhortations of “3:16’?  I can’t recall a single passage in the prophets, or in all the Tanakh, that suggests our objective is to reach seekers with “for God so loved the world.”  John 3:16 is not an evangelistic proof text.  It is most likely John’s commentary on the theological motivation of the Messiah.  It is about the inevitable judgment that follows rejection.  And it is not about human beings.  God loved the kosmos – all of His creation.  The purpose is restoration, not simply salvation.  But that’s OK.  I am sure they will sell thousands of copies.

You must have noticed that Bibles today are mostly about the packaging, not the content.  Do we really need a Bible for every shape, color, desire and direction?  Well, we do if we are going to continue to sell this book.  But perhaps sales aren’t the reason we have Bibles.  Maybe what we need is understanding, not packaging.  Take any Bible you have now.  Don’t go buy a new one.  They all basically say the same thing.  Then read the text and start exploring the culture, history, semantics, vocabulary and worldview.  Any Bible will let you do that because none of them offer what you need to know.  You need to know what God said in the language He said it to the people He spoke to.  Tell the pretty paper guys to go wrap up a Lamborghini.  I’ll stick with my theological dictionaries.