Another Bible translation?

Yes, there is to be a new interdenominational translation of the Bible — for some sketchy details of this (as yet unnamed) translation, see the graphe site. Do we need another Bible? Surprisingly, I think the answer is yes. In our college community, the NIV seems to hold sway, with some use of the NRSV, the ESV and others. I encourage students to branch out and read, among others, the New English Bible, the Jerusalem Bible and the New Living Translation, though they all have their strengths and weaknesses.

The translations in most common use seem locked in a time warp in terms of their use of language. The thees and thous may have gone, but the sentence structure too often remains stilted. The characters who inhabit the pages of Scripture seem to speak in translationese, with expressions and idioms which no native English speaker would use. Just at random, would you ask a friend to “Intercede with the LORD your God and pray for me that my hand may be restored” (NIV), or would your prayer point be in the form, “Entreat now the favor of the LORD your God, and pray for me, so that my hand may be restored to me” (NRSV - 1 Kings 13:6)? We’ve got to do better than this.

The editorial board includes the likes of David L. Petersen and Joel Green, and promises to devote attention to readability. The translation is to be “developed with a special emphasis on education and worship”.

The fact that the new translation includes the apocryphal books is not likely to endear it to conservative Protestants. Are we then condemned to keep using the NIV for the next 350 years just as the church I was in for a while was still insisting on the use of the KJV (“it sounded like a Bible should sound”) long after comprehension had ceased?