Customer Reviews

Unholy Hands on the Bible, Vol. 2: An Examination of the Six Major New Versions

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Green deals with two main issues in this book: Greek text-type and translation principle. For the former, Green prefers the "Textus Receptus" (TR), which underlines the KJV, NKJV, and Green's own "Literal Translation of the Bible," or the Majority Text (MT), which my "Analytical-Literal Translation of the New Testament" is based on. These two texts are very similar, but they differ from the Critical Text, which the six versions Green reviews in this book are based on (i.e. the NASB, NIV, REB, NRSV, GNB, NAB).

Green believes either the TR or the MT more accurately reflect the original autographs than the CT. And I concur with this assessment. He shows the differences in these texts by reviewing dozens of verses and pointing out which of these versions differ from the reading in the TR.

Next he tackles the issue of translation principle. All of these versions (except the NASB) follow a dynamic equivalence translation method. This principle is less accurate than the literal or formal equivalence principle that Green advocates. Green uses arrows to show where these versions omit words, and he uses brackets to show where they add words. Green calculates the number of omitted and added words after each verse. He then provides a short discussion on the significance of these changes.

I very much agree with Green that leaving words untranslated is not appropriate for a Bible version. EVERYTHING God said is important, and I don't believe translators should take it upon themselves to decide that some words are not important and thus leave them untranslated.

Conversely, adding words without offsetting them in some way as all these versions do (except of the NASB) is also inappropriate. Such a practice leaves the reader with no way of distinguishing between the actual words of God and the words added by the translators. And to make matters worse, sometimes these additions are interpretative. So what one ends up with is part translation and part commentary.

But I should note a couple of caveats. First, Green sometimes finds problems in translations when there really are none. So sometimes he has arrows or brackets when a word really has not been omitted or added. Green seems to think that there is only one correct way to translate a passage and any deviation from this is a problem. But very often there is more than one legitimate way to translate a passage.

Second, Green can be a little harsh in his comments on modern versions and even in his comments about their translators. Such language is really unnecessary. But even with these problems, Green's book is very helpful.

Since I produced a literal translation of the NT which is based on the MT, it should be obvious that I whole-heatedly agree with Green's positions on these important matters. In fact, I cover much of the same ground as Green does in my book "Differences Between Bible Versions." However, in my book I never use harsh language, and I try to be as accurate and fair as I can in my evaluations of versions.

Here is a thorough-going review of six translations of the Bible. These versions are The New American Standard Bible, The New International Version, The Revised English Bible, The New Revised Standard Version, The Good News Bible and The New American Bible. Three hundred and seventy nine NT passages are examined, where a Literal Translation in English of the original Greek is used for comparison with the rendition of the same passage from each of the six reviewed versions. A comprehensive examination is then made of the NIV. It looks at the methodology of translation; the addition and subtraction of words from the original Greek (86 passages examined); the addition and subtraction of words from seven OT passages; the NIV and the doctrine of plenary and verbal inspiration; and numerous other questions arising from the NIV's treatment of Scripture. Unholy Hands on the Bible then reviews 18 passages from Matthew's gospel as translated by the NASB.

Appendixes include: The History of Gnosticism's Influence Upon the English Bible; What Difference Does It Make? (as to which Greek text is used); Papyrus P46; Grammatical Accuracy of NT Writers; The Text of the Church, Kurt Aland; Can Anything Good Come Out of Egypt?; A Close Look At The Communication Theories Of Eugene Nida ...; Historical Lessons On How To Destroy Faith In The Scriptures.

All in all, this is a provocative and thoughtful book for those who are struggling to understand the issues confronting the Church with the proliferation of English translations of the Bible in our day. The Church is no longer of one mind as to what God has spoken and it cannot be a bad thing to reassess the dubious blessing of having God's word available to us in so many different versions. This book points the way for such a reassessment.

Everything you need to know about this preposterous weapon of Satan that is isolationist, backward, un-Christian KJV-Only-ism can be learned by James White ministries.