by restrangled 51 Replies latest jw friends
Hi Jonathan,
I am wondering where you got the idea that the NIV was a paraphrase? From everything that I have read about the NIV, it seems to be a translation that translates in a "thought-for-thought" manner rather than a "word-for-word" as the NASB or KJV does.
Hi jonathan dough,
At the risk of sounding like a salesman for the NIV, I comment as follows. The NIV is no more a paraphrase than the ESV or the RSV. It is possible to find examples of "paraphrasing" in the NIV, true, but no more than in the RSV. Any translation from one language to another is going to have what some would call paraphrasing. Unless of course you use Young's Literal Translation which is basically a word for word translation and is not suitable for study.
A very interesting article by Rodney Decker who is a Greek professor at Baptist Bible College in Clarks Summit PA (a very conservative baptist seminary). Decker has written a review of the ESV where he points out the good and not so good from his perspective, which you may not appreciate of course. In the review, he talks about the NIV and the TNIV. The TNIV, which has not come up in this thread yet, is an update of the NIV which uses gender inclusive language. You may not agree with anything Decker says but I'm sure you will find it an interesting read. I give the link to Deckers main web site so that you can see his credentials and other articles he has posted. Go to http://ntresources.com/ click on Book Reviews and Summaries, then click Review of the English Standard Version... There is an unabridged and abridged version of his review. Decker writes a well thought out, honest and reasoned review. It is not 3 paragraphs of hype.
jonathan, I have in my personal library your interlinear with Green's literal translation which is close to Youngs and keyed to Strongs. In addition, I have Vine's , the TDNT, NICNT, on and on, A.T. Robertsons Word Pictures and his NT grammar, Vincent's word studies, Thylers greek lexicon and everything by Spiro Zodhiates to name a few. But without knowing greek grammar, I have to say that this is of limited value to the OP in my opinion.
I appologise to everyone for taking this thread off into the wild blue yonder.
Tom
