This may seem so in part perhaps from the effect that if you read
15 or 20 chapters in NLT you probably won't
see a problem....
Won't see any problem. It will be fine. You can tell it's a reasonably good translation. etc.
But if you happen on the other hand to read certain passages, then you may discover (I have) a whole new kind of serious problem (one that has nothing to do with churches or doctrines at all).
Here is one key example.
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My experience after reading a lot of different verses in multiple translations is that the
NLT (New Living Translation) does fine...
most of the time.
But...sometimes it removes something precious -- the above-us (above our level: Isaiah 55:8-9 ) wording from the Lord.
Look at one of the most deeply wonderful verses in all of Scripture:
New International Version
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
English Standard Version
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
Berean Literal Bible
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
King James Bible
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
New King James Version
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
New American Standard Bible
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
NASB 1995
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
NASB 1977
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
Amplified Bible
In the beginning [before all time] was the Word (Christ), and the Word was with God, and the Word was God Himself.
Christian Standard Bible
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
Holman Christian Standard Bible
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
American Standard Version
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
Contemporary English Version
In the beginning was the one who is called the Word. The Word was with God and was truly God.
Douay-Rheims Bible
IN the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
English Revised Version
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
....
Young's Literal Translation
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God;
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Beautiful, and moving, and wonderful beyond measure, don't you agree? (though perhaps you noticed how the 'amplified' version lost some of the wonderful perfection of the wording).
So....
Imagine...what it would have been like to have
missed that transcendent wording -- the holy wording that
lifts us up above our mortal world....
To instead have something else less good, like this below, that has
some of the transcendent quality, but not all
-- because the wording has been mangled by addition of a superfluous (unnecessary, unneeded in the moment) doctrine.
-->
New Living Translation
In the beginning the Word already existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God.
See what you lose there?
No, I don't see what is lost. "In the beginning was the Word" is actually an unusual sentence structure. It's much clearer to say "In the beginning the Word already existed"
. All the translations above are actually repeating Genesis 1:1, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth", including the NLT. "... was the Word" is strange wording.
The Orthodox Jewish Bible translates Genesis 1:1 as " In the beginning Elohim created hashomayim (the heavens, Himel) and haaretz (the earth)." and John 1:1 as "Bereshis (in the Beginning) was the Dvar Hashem [
YESHAYAH 55:11;
BERESHIS 1:3], and the Dvar Hashem was agav (along with, etzel,
Mishle 8:30;
30:4) Hashem, and the Dvar Hashem was nothing less, by nature, than Elohim! [Psa 56:11(10);
Yn 17:5;
Rev. 19:13 i.e., the Ma’amar Memra]. How's that for clarity? Or do they have it "wrong" also?
Or God's Word translation: "In the beginning the Word already existed."
J B Phillips Translation: " At the beginning God expressed himself. That personal expression, that word, was with God, and was God, and he existed with God from the beginning."
BTW,
the Greek literally says "In beginning was Word ..." (There is no "the")
The NET footnote on John 1:1 says, "
In the beginning. The search for the basic “stuff” out of which things are made was the earliest one in Greek philosophy. It was attended by the related question of “What is the process by which the secondary things came out of the primary one (or ones)?,” or in Aristotelian terminology, “What is the ‘beginning’ (same Greek word as
beginning,
John 1:1) and what is the origin of the things that are made?” In the New Testament the word usually has a temporal sense, but even BDAG 138 s.v. ἀρχή 3 lists a major category of meaning as “the first cause.” For John, the words “In the beginning” are most likely a conscious allusion to the opening words of Genesis—“In the beginning.” Other concepts which occur prominently in
Gen 1 are also found in John’s prologue: “life” (
1:4) “light” (
1:4) and “darkness” (
1:5).
Gen 1 describes the first (physical) creation;
John 1 describes the new (spiritual) creation. But this is not to play off a false dichotomy between “physical” and “spiritual”; the first creation was both physical and spiritual. The new creation is really a re-creation, of the spiritual (first) but also the physical. (In spite of the common understanding of John’s “spiritual” emphasis, the “physical” re-creation should not be overlooked; this occurs in
John 2 with the changing of water into wine, in
John 11 with the resurrection of Lazarus, and the emphasis of
John 20-21 on the aftermath of Jesus’ own resurrection.)
How about The Passion Translation? " In the very beginning the Living Expression was already there. And the Living Expression was with God, yet fully God." IMHO this clarifies the Greek concept of "the Word"
really well (if you understand the concept!)
Or the Worldwide English Translation, "The Word already was, way back before anything began to be. The Word and God were together. The Word was God."
Or the Wycliffe Bible, "In the beginning was the word, and the word was at God, and God was the word. [In the beginning was the word,
that is, God's Son, and the word was at God, and God was the word.] How's that for clarity!
The NLT is a wonderful translation for those people who need an explanation of the Bible's meaning. It is excellent for that purpose, even if other translations differ. They are all attempting to translate not only the Koine Greek, but what it means. Unless you think that Jesus was actually a word -- a component of language, which He clearly wasn't; He was and is a person -- there needs to be an interpretation, either in your mind or having it explained, as the NLT and The Passion Translation do so well.
