The English Standard

Read, Mark, Learn and Inwardly Digest:

I was privileged to act as General Editor of the English Standard Version, and now that I look back on what we did in producing that version, I find myself suspecting very strongly that this was the most important thing that I have ever done for the Kingdom, and that the product of our labors is perhaps the biggest milestone in Bible translation in certainly this last 50 years, and perhaps more. Perhaps I ought to be saying 100 years—I think I should, actually—because it was almost 100 years ago that the paraphrase renderings of the Bible began to present themselves, as they did, as the version that you ought to read if you want to understand the Word of God. I think that, while in the short term it was not false entirely, did set the world of Bible translation and distribution off on what long-term was going to prove a false trail.

-J.I. Packer, author of Knowing God.

[thanks to Justin Taylor, via Craig Schwarze]

Translating Two Ways to Live

Two Ways to Live, the simple gospel summary that you can find right here, is now available in Chinese, Japanese, and Spanish.

These translations have taken quite a while to come. But there are all sorts of tricky things to be considered here when working for a publisher of small financial means. One of them is, how do you know your translation is really getting across the exact meaning you intend, when you don't speak the target language and you receive sometimes varied advice from those who actually know what they're talking about? I haven't envied Ian Carmichael or Emma this job one little bit.

I live in mortal fear of the day (and so, I think, do Ian and Emma) when an outraged Hungarian picks up the phone to issue a death threat against us for putting out a Hungarian Two Ways to Live that actually says, in translation, "May your underpants be infested with the offspring of a thousand Ethiopian leeches."

Hmm. Perhaps before we put out that translation I'll consult with my good friend and relic of the Austro-Hungarian empire, Andrew Katay.

Though these days, can I even trust Katay? ;-)