Kjv Vs Niv Bible

[Hamilton Porter]

Really? Is that not the translation produced by the JW?

Yes really.

[DJBrown]

So I just got my New International Version of the Bible. From what I've researched its the most thorough, well researched and translated Bible ever. Is anyone familiar with it? The best thing too is its in modern English. I don't know why the Church just hasn't canonized it and moved on from the KJV. Any ideas on why that's so?

 

Mine is a different take on the reason behind the church's position on the KJV.

 

Researchers at Liverpool University have recently published interesting findings relating to the effect of classic English on the human brain.  Philip Davis, professor at the university, along with his research group, has monitored the electrical activity in the brains of individuals as they read literature from Bard authors including Shakespeare, Wadsworth, and others.  Utilizing high-tech MRI scanners, they can see which areas of the brain are activated with reading and the degree to which the brain is stimulated by this activity.  The research group has found interesting differences in brain activity when people read classical literature compared to more modern texts.  It turns out that when people read the works of Shakespeare and other Elizabethan texts, the brain activity increases significantly more than when other forms of literature are read.  Professor Davis states that this type of literature is “like a rocket booster to the brain.”  He goes on to say that reading classic English texts seems to engage the brain in deeper self-reflection capacities and increases “autobiographical memory,” something Davis says helps the reader reflect upon and reappraise their own experiences in light of what they have read.  Such English prose has a greater effect on an individual than “self-help” books according to Davis.

 

The team of researchers translated the older English texts into more modern versions and found that the brain activity in readers declined significantly compared to the brain activity when they read the older versions of the texts.

 

Could it be that the Lord knows what He is doing in asking us to use the KJV and in providing this form of English in the modern revelations?

[Bowtiemenace]

Very interesting DJ Brown. I never would have thought of that!

[Calm]

Excellent find, DJ.  Do you have a link?

[Bob Crockett]

Mine is a different take on the reason behind the church's position on the KJV.

 

. . . .

 

Could it be that the Lord knows what He is doing in asking us to use the KJV and in providing this form of English in the modern revelations?

 

However, the Church does not use the authorized KJV.  For reasons that I've never been able to discern, when the Church released its version of the KJV with its own footnotes, it dropped the authorized KJV's marginal notes, which marginal notes are just as much of the scriptures as the text of the scriptures. The marginal notes would, on occasion, note an altenative rendering that reached the level of almost-inclusion as the consensus translation.  A prime example is the marginal rendering of "no other god beside me" in Isaiah.  It seem Elder McConkie simply needed to cut to conserve space.  So, what we use as the KJV is not the same KJV that sits on altars and podiums in most Protestant Churches. 

[Bob Crockett]

Yes really.

I also have to laugh that the NIV includes the johannine comma even though the translators knew it was spurious. 

[DJBrown]

Excellent find, DJ.  Do you have a link?

 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/9797617/Shakespeare-and-Wordsworth-boost-the-brain-new-research-reveals.html

[Hamilton Porter]

I also have to laugh that the NIV includes the johannine comma even though the translators knew it was spurious. 

 

Really? What a sham.

[Calm]

Thank you.

[Bob Crockett]

Really? What a sham.

The NIV study guide, which I do use frequently, states that the johannine comma is spurious.  But then, there you see, the NIV includes it.  Yet it is the single most significant scriptural passage in favor of the Trinity.

[DJBrown]

Thank you.

 

It is interesting to consider the significance of these findings from the University of LIverpool along with a look at the enormous influence of English speaking peoples in the last 500 years around the world (as well as the fact that English is by far the most common second language around the world).

[Nevo]

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Edited October 1, 2014 by Nevo

[toujours]

Has anyone read any of Robert Alter's translation of the Old Testament, or Richmond Lattimore's of the New Testament?

[toujours]

I should have said, I've heard him read some - http://podcast.foundjs.org/the_challenge_of_translating_the_bible - and it does sound really lovely.

[toon]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/9797617/Shakespeare-and-Wordsworth-boost-the-brain-new-research-reveals.html

 

That link doesn't necessarily support your claim.

 

First, the conclusions were not limited to classic, Elizabethan English.  Rather, it was about "the power of language to shift mental pathways, create new thoughts, shapes and connections."  While Shakespeare was used, it wasn't limited to this, as the same impact was also found with Eliot, Hughes, and Larkin.  It was more about the impact of serious and poetic literature for serious situations. 

 

The comparison was challenging prose and poetry as opposed to modernized and straightforward texts.  But I think it's a mischaracterization to classify the NIV and NRSV as modernized texts that are not challenging.  And it should be noted that the study did not compare the KJV with other translations.

 

While the comparison was with

[readstoomuch]

I vote for the ESV with the KJV open to have both available. I find DJ`s reference quite interesting. I do not like the NIV and have stopped using that. ESV all the way.

[Anakin7]

      Some of my Fundamentalist Independent Baptist [ I used to be one ! ] friends are staunch hard core KJV Only Advocates. I share with them - www.kjvonly.org

 

      In His Debt/Grace

      Anakin7

      LDS JEDI KNIGHT

Edited July 17, 2014 by Anakin7

[Doctrine 612]

I went and looked up niv ch 7 and I found that they changed it to not touch. From not marry. So I guess it been awhile since I looked at it. But still I am a kjv guy.

[Hamilton Porter]

The NIV study guide, which I do use frequently, states that the johannine comma is spurious.  But then, there you see, the NIV includes it.  Yet it is the single most significant scriptural passage in favor of the Trinity.

I'm familiar with the comma from Bart Ehrman. I didn't know you read Barlow. I need to read that book too.

[Hamilton Porter]

Has anyone read any of Robert Alter's translation of the Old Testament, or Richmond Lattimore's of the New Testament?

 

I've read Robert Alter's Art of Biblical Narrative and part of his Art of Biblical Poetry which has his translation of the Psalms.

[Hamilton Porter]

Naw man, I'd go with the New Oxford Annotated Bible. THAT's the best one academically.

 

The HarperCollins Study Bible has more extensive footnotes than Oxford.

 

I have the Oxford Bible Commentary though. Just to outdo everybody here , I also have the Eerdman's Commentary on the Bible (the Isaiah entry was written by Margaret Barker), the IVP Background Bible Commentary on both the OT and the NT for an Evangelical View.

 

Study Bibles: I own a TNIV, the Orthodox Study Bible which has beautiful art, and the Quiet Strength New Living Translation with a foreword by Tony Dungy, the first African-American head coach to win a Superbowl.

Edited July 17, 2014 by Hamilton Porter

[Nevo]

.

Edited October 1, 2014 by Nevo

[toujours]

I also enjoyed the listen and it too made me want to read his translations. In the course of finding out a bit more about him I came across Richard Lattimore and his New Testament translation, which it appears is as equally well received as Alter's. When I saw this I thought I would see if anyone had read either and what they thought. 

 

Appreciate the welcome.

[maklelan]

Mine is a different take on the reason behind the church's position on the KJV.

 

Researchers at Liverpool University have recently published interesting findings relating to the effect of classic English on the human brain.  Philip Davis, professor at the university, along with his research group, has monitored the electrical activity in the brains of individuals as they read literature from Bard authors including Shakespeare, Wadsworth, and others.  Utilizing high-tech MRI scanners, they can see which areas of the brain are activated with reading and the degree to which the brain is stimulated by this activity.  The research group has found interesting differences in brain activity when people read classical literature compared to more modern texts.  It turns out that when people read the works of Shakespeare and other Elizabethan texts, the brain activity increases significantly more than when other forms of literature are read.  Professor Davis states that this type of literature is “like a rocket booster to the brain.”  He goes on to say that reading classic English texts seems to engage the brain in deeper self-reflection capacities and increases “autobiographical memory,” something Davis says helps the reader reflect upon and reappraise their own experiences in light of what they have read.  Such English prose has a greater effect on an individual than “self-help” books according to Davis.

 

The team of researchers translated the older English texts into more modern versions and found that the brain activity in readers declined significantly compared to the brain activity when they read the older versions of the texts.

 

Could it be that the Lord knows what He is doing in asking us to use the KJV and in providing this form of English in the modern revelations?

 

Or it's just that the brain must be more attentive and active to interpret vernacular and syntax to which it's not accustomed. We conserve the most cognitive effort with language that is simple and familiar. In other words, the more contemporary and proximate to your own way of speaking and writing, the less work the brain has to do to understand it. 

[maklelan]

So I just got my New International Version of the Bible. From what I've researched its the most thorough, well researched and translated Bible ever. Is anyone familiar with it? The best thing too is its in modern English. I don't know why the Church just hasn't canonized it and moved on from the KJV. Any ideas on why that's so?

 

It is not particularly thorough or well-researched, and the translators demonstrably altered the text in places to promote conservative Evangelical dogmas. I think it's a terrible translation, but there are others that are worse, at least for those purposes for which I read the Bible.