A Highly Readable Translation
The New English Bible: The Old Testament (Oxford and Cambridge, 1970, 1,366 pp., $8.95 for Library Edition), is reviewed by Charles F. Pfeiffer, professor of ancient literatures, Central Michigan University, Mount Pleasant, Michigan.
Since the publication of the New English Bible New Testament in 1951, Bible students have been awaiting the Old Testament with keen anticipation. The New Testament was given a generally favorable reception, and American Christians who were less than enthusiastic about the Revised Standard Version thought that this might be a more acceptable translation.
The New English Bible is published jointly by the university presses of Oxford and Cambridge. The American edition is printed here. Representatives of nine religious bodies in the British Isles, including the Church of England and the Church of Scotland, planned and directed the work. The British and Foreign Bible Society and the National Bible Society of Scotland were represented also. During the later stages of translation observers from the Roman Catholic Church joined the committee. The obvious intent of the committee was to produce a Bible translation that would gain wide acceptance throughout the English-speaking world.
Unlike the Revised Standard Version and its predecessors (including the King James Version), the New English Bible professes to be a wholly new translation, rather than a revision of earlier versions. Of course the translators were aware of other versions, and occasionally used them in their search for the best means of rendering the original languages into English. They did not, however, feel any obligation to follow precedent or to justify departures from it. The New English Bible must be evaluated on the basis of its claim that it faithfully renders the original texts into contemporary English.
At times the translators use a simplified English. For Exodus 20:7 they offer, “You shall not make wrong use of the name of the Lord your God”; here and elsewhere they avoid expressions that, although well known to habitual Bible readers, might puzzle the biblically illiterate. In Jonah 1:7 the sailors cast lots to determine who was to blame for their “bad luck.” They did not know the God of Jonah, though we suspect that “bad luck” had more of a religious overtone in ancient times than it does to a modern. The traditional “virtuous woman” (Prov. 31:10, KJV) became the “good wife” in the RSV. In the NEB she is the “capable wife,” a term used in 1965 by R. B. Y. Scott in his Anchor Bible translation. The Hebraist is tempted to throw up his hands and exclaim, “No translation can do justice to the original.” He is right, but the translator must continue to try to find the most suitable English words.
The “garments of skin” made by God for Adam (Gen. 3:21, RSV) become “tunics of skin” in the New English Bible. On the other hand, the “begats” of Genesis 5, which the RSV rendered “was the father of,” have become “begot” in the NEB, a usage that dates to the Jewish Publication Society translation of 1916. The “meat offering” of Leviticus 6 in the King James Version became “meal offering” to the revisers of 1881 and 1901. The Revised Standard used the rather quaint expression “cereal offering”—excellent for the classically trained reader but wholly misleading to Johnny over his Post Toasties. The New English Bible gives us “grain offering,” not very clear, but at least not misleading.
Passages dealing with sex continue to test the ingenuity of the translators. The traditional “Adam knew his wife” (Gen. 4:1, KJV, RSV)—incidentally, a literal translation of the Hebrew—becomes “the man lay with his wife” in the NEB. In the laws pertaining to incest (Lev. 18) the idiom traditionally, and literally, rendered “uncover the nakedness of” becomes “have intercourse with.”
In an attempt to indicate the patronymic as one word or expression, such a name as “Joshua the son of Nun” becomes “Joshua son of Nun” (Josh. 1:1) in the NEB, as in the Jerusalem Bible. The next, and logical, step will be to make it a full proper name and translate, “Joshua ben Nun.”
Since British English and American English are not always uniform, the American reader will occasionally be puzzled. For instance, where the American RSV spoke of “grain in Egypt” (Gen. 42), the New English Bible, like the old King James, says “corn in Egypt.”
The translators were free to paraphrase where they felt this was appropriate. Genesis 6:3, rendered in the RSV “My spirit shall not abide in man forever,” becomes in the NEB “My life-giving spirit shall not remain in man for ever.” Conjectural emendation is an accepted principle. Where the translators feel that the text does not make good sense as it stands, they alter it to provide a meaningful translation. Thus Genesis 9:26 reads, “Bless, O Lord, the tents of Shem …,” with a footnote stating that the Hebrew reads, “Blessed is the Lord, the God of Shem.” As a matter of style, the use of “Once upon a time …” (Gen. 11:1) conveys the idea that the translators regard the story (in this instance, the tower of Babel) as a legend or fairy tale.
The first words of the New English Bible suggest its departure from traditional usages: “In the beginning of creation, when God made heaven and earth, the earth was without form and void … (Gen. 1:1). Hebraists have long suggested that the first word of the Bible is grammatically in the construct state. It is so construed in the Jewish Publication Society’s translation of the Torah (1962) and by Ephraim Speiser in the Anchor Bible. In 1951, Alexander Heidel in his The Babylonian Genesis spent six pages attempting to defend the traditional reading.
Those who criticized the RSV for its treatment of Christological passages in the Old Testament will find little comfort in the New English Bible. The much debated Isaiah 7:14 reads in the NEB, “A young woman is with child.” Interestingly, the Jerusalem Bible, published under Roman Catholic auspices, reads, “The maiden is with child.” A footnote in the Jerusalem Bible states that the Greek version reads “the virgin,” being more explicit than the Hebrew. The NEB gives no footnote. Where the passage is quoted in Matthew 1:23, it is rendered, “The virgin will conceive and bear a son and he shall be called Emmanuel.”
Psalm 2:12, rendered in the KJV “Kiss the Son” and in the RSV “Kiss his feet,” becomes in the NEB, “… kiss the king, lest the Lord be angry and you are struck down in mid course, for his anger flares up in a moment.” A footnote suggests that a literal rendering would be, “tremble and kiss the mighty one,” with the further comment “Heb. obscure.” All will agree that this is a very difficult passage to any translator.
Psalm 45:6 was rendered in the KJV, “Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever.…” The RSV reads, “Your divine throne endures for ever and ever.…” In the NEB we read, “Your throne is like God’s throne, eternal.” In the Suffering Servant passage in Isaiah (52:13 ff.), the NEB reads “Time was when many were aghast at you, my people.…” The “my people” is not in the Hebrew, and is added by the translators to clarify the text in line with their presuppositions.
The familiar Tweny-third Psalm has traditionally ended, “and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord for ever” (so RSV). The Hebrew idiom, literally “to length of days,” is rendered in the NEB “my whole life long.” The translators presuppose that the assurances of God’s presence and blessing in the psalm relate to this life, with no intimations of the next.
Another interesting deviation from custom is omitting the headings that form all or part of verse one of the Hebrew text of many of the psalms, and these were inserted under the psalm number and before the text in earlier versions. While certainly not a part of the original texts, these headings have a history not only as part of the traditional, Masoretic text, but in translations going back to the Septuagint—probably the second century before Christ. The five “books” of psalms are indicated in the NEB.
If headings have been dropped from Psalms, they have been added through most of the rest of the Bible. Unlike the small-print chapter summaries in some editions of the King James Bible, these headings are in large type so that they stand out. The reader should remember that they are editorial insertions, but with that in mind he should find them useful. Before Isaiah 1:1, for example, is the heading “Judah arraigned.” The next heading precedes Isaiah 6:1 and reads, “The call of Isaiah.”
At times the New English Bible is surprisingly conservative. The sacred name of Israel’s God is not Yahweh, as in the Jerusalem Bible and most contemporary scholarly literature, but “the Lord,” as in the King James and Revised Standard versions. The Israelites cross the Red Sea in the NEB, not the Sea of Reeds of the Jerusalem Bible and the JPS Torah. Although, as we have seen, the first words of Genesis 1 depart from traditional usage, “without form and void” are retained as in the King James. The reviewer would prefer something like “formless and empty,” since the six days that follow describe the process of giving form to the formless and filling the empty earth, heavens, and seas. The NEB translators use “thou” and “thee” in contexts in which the deity is addressed. In the New Testament, however, Jesus is addressed as “you.”
Changes in the second edition of the New English Bible New Testament are relatively few, and those largely matters of refining the English style. The spirit and style of the first edition are carried into the second.
In the New English Bible American Christians have one more translation to use in their studies and consider for pulpit or teaching purposes. The NEB should stimulate Bible study, and it will often bring to the layman ideas that have been discussed in scholarly circles for years but have not been available in a readable Bible translation before. We do not expect the New English Bible to gain universal acceptance, and this fact may enable contemporary Christians to consider it without emotional involvement. Like all other translations, it has its strengths and its weaknesses. It is a highly readable translation, made by excellent scholars. Unhappily, brilliant scholars sometimes let their brilliance eclipse the intent of the original writers. This is true of every translation. The New English translators attempted to render faithfully the text of the biblical books. Occasionally they missed, but on the whole the translation merits serious study.
The New English Bible is available in a variety of editions. The Library Edition has three volumes: Old Testament ($8.95); Apocrypha ($4.95); and New Testament (Second Edition) ($5.95). There is also a standard edition of Old Testament and New Testament ($8.95), and one of the Old Testament, Apocrypha, and New Testament ($9.95). The New Testament (Second Edition) is also available as a paperback at $1.75.
The Oxford and Cambridge presses have produced a truly beautiful edition of the Bible. They used a one-column page, departing from the two-column format of earlier editions, including the Revised Standard Version. The traditional verse numbers have been placed in the margin for reference, but they do not break the text itself. In a few places the editors have rearranged the text in accord with their scholarly presuppositions. An extreme example is Zechariah where we find the order: 4:1, 2, 3, 11, 12, 13, 14; 3:1–10; 4:4–10. The editors feel they have restored the correct order, but they keep the traditional chapter and verse numbers. Type is large and clear, and poetry is indicated by marginal indentation. The publishers wanted to produce a readable Bible, and they have succeeded.
Thought-Provoking Study
The Prophets, by Emil G. Kraeling (Rand McNally, 1969, 304 pp., $6.95), is reviewed by Ronald Youngblood, associate professor of Old Testament interpretation, Bethel Theological Seminary, St. Paul, Minnesota.
As in the book of the same title by a contemporary Jewish scholar, Abraham Heschel, Professor Kraeling discusses the basic teachings and unique contributions of the Old Testament prophetic literature (Isaiah through Malachi) in what he considers to be chronological order. Whereas Heschel, however, stops at the exile, Kraeling carries the story down to the end of the Old Testament account, though he gives only a passing nod (to keep the cost down, his foreword tells us) to lesser known or less significant prophets. His “Trito-Isaiah” (Isaiah 56–66), for example, receives but two pages of description, whereas “Deutero-Isaiah” (Isaiah 40–55) merits thirty-seven pages.
Kraeling is at his best when he finds extra-biblical ancient Near Eastern parallels to shed light on Old Testament passages. A lifetime of teaching and scholarship in the Bible and related areas enables him to bring to bear on the text of Scripture a wide array of stimulating and helpful observations. As a Lutheran minister, Kraeling is quick to point out it was the Church that ultimately extended the knowledge and influence of the prophets far beyond the circles of the Jewish ghettos and that the New Testament writers often displayed a remarkably profound understanding of Old Testament prophetic statements. He emphasizes also that later meaning attributed to words and phrases often become more theologically significant than the originally intended meaning. A corollary is the worthwhile comment, made also by Gerhard von Rad and others, that unfulfilled prophecy is not necessarily false prophecy: “God acts in sovereign freedom, and can adopt a different course if circumstances warrant.”
In his discussion of the prophetic consciousness, Kraeling notes correctly that attempts to psychoanalyze the prophets cannot be expected to produce fruitful results, since “the remoteness of the times and the uncertainty and incompleteness of the reporting are formidable barriers. The tests and interrogations that can be applied to living persons cannot be applied to the prophets.” One wishes that the author had used this admirable warning to temper his own skepticism about the kinds of insights that the prophets could or could not have received from their sovereign God. Kraeling freely admits that many of the prophets possessed capacities for clairvoyance, but he rarely if ever allows them the ability to foretell the future and nearly always denies that they could have foreseen specific details. This and similar considerations lead him to suspect the authenticity of numerous passages, frequently assume later interpolations, and fragmentize even the shorter books and pericopes. The snowballing effect of such an approach leads to a belittling of the unity and credibility of the Scriptures to the extent that at one point the reliability of the Gospels bows to that of Josephus.
On balance, however, The Prophets is a discerning and thought-provoking volume, and the reader equipped to separate fact from speculation will learn much from it. Kraeling’s treatment of the four Servant Songs of Isaiah, though necessarily brief and therefore somewhat truncated, was for me one of the highlights of the book. Isaiah 53, says our author, “was the trellis on which the vine of Christian dogma could climb. And who will say that it was not the will of God that it should do so?”
Who, indeed?
A Plea For Obedience
God’s Basic Law, by Kurt Hennig (Fortress. 1969, 242 pp., $5.75), is reviewed by John C. Howell, professor of Christian ethics, Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Kansas City, Missouri.
In a day when adherence to the moral authority of biblical faith is constantly challenged as “legalism” by situationally oriented Christian ethicists, it is refreshing to read a book declaring that responsiveness to God’s mandates is the essence of true morality. Kurt Hennig, a Lutheran pastor in Stuttgart, Germany, provides such a resource in his study of the Ten Commandments as God’s Basic Law.
Much in this book is valuable as Christian guidance. Hennig’s thesis is that man’s basic failure in moral living is his unwillingness to yield his life in obedience to God. The contemporary importance of the Ten Commandments, therefore, is grounded upon the realization that “they do not call us to morality but to something much more important—to obedience.” The Decalogue is not a compendium of ethical universals that all reasonable men should agree to accept; it is, rather, “God’s call to obedience, for in them it is God himself who speaks.”
Each chapter of the book is devoted to one of the commandments, and Hennig usually relates the Old Testament command to its application in the New Testament. He also gives adequate stress to God’s mercy toward the disobedient as a balance to his emphasis upon unconditional obedience.
On the negative side: Hennig uses the commandments as a vehicle for introducing ethical concerns that are only indirectly suggested by the Exodus passages, and some one-sided affirmations.
In discussing the fourth commandment, for instance, he maintains that the disintegration of the family began when “the emancipation of women and equal rights for women were proclaimed and established,” because man’s headship over woman was thus destroyed and respect in the home lost. It is undeniably true that the greater freedom of women has altered the structure of family life, but Hennig gives no hint of the values gained in marriage by accepting the equality of personhood (Gal. 3:28) as a basis for family living.
Similarly, he declares that “no child is born apart from the express will of God.” Since procreation can occur only because God created man to reproduce himself in this way, the statement is partially true; but to declare that every act of conception is God’s express will is absurd.
Such affirmations as these tend to diminish the impact of his many very helpful interpretations of the contemporary relevance of the Ten Commandments. His basic plea for obedience is needed, but the book requires selective reading.
Book Briefs
Listen to Me!, by Gladys Hunt (Inter-Varsity, 1969, 165 pp., $3.50). The author introduces the reader to eight students, representing varied backgrounds and ideologies, who talk about their ideas on “the real stuff of life.”
The Right to Live, by Clifford C. Cawley (A. S. Barnes, 1969, 303 pp., $10). Investigates the legal problems created when a parent, because of his religious convictions, denies a child proper medical aid.
Our God-Breathed Book—the Bible, by John R. Rice (Sword of the Lord, 1969, 416 pp., $5.95). Although this defense of the verbal inspiration and inerrancy of Scripture breaks no new ground, it serves as a useful summary of the views of a number of conservative scholars. There is an emphasis upon God’s control of the environment and character of the human authors so that the words they wrote were actually God’s words.
The Rebellions of Israel, by Andrew C. Tunyogi (John Knox, 1969, 158 pp., $4.95). Studies the rebellion-forgiveness motif in the history of Israel and considers its significance for the new Israel.
The Redeeming Christ, by Peter J. Riga (Corpus, 1969, 124 pp., $4.95). A Roman Catholic theologian affirms the fact of the resurrection of Jesus from the dead as the central event of Christian history.
Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Volume 32:1886, by C. H. Spurgeon (Banner of Truth Trust, 1969, 708 pp., 25s). A reproduction of one of the later volumes in this classic series of Spurgeon’s sermons.
Melanchthon, Reformer Without Honor, by Michael Rogness (Augsburg, 1969, 165 pp., $4.95). Investigates the role of Philip Melanchthon, Luther’s most important co-worker, in the formation of Lutheran theology.
The Letter of Paul to the Galatians, by Robert L. Johnson (Sweet, 1969, 182 pp., $3.50). Latest addition to a series of evangelical commentaries written by Church of Christ scholars and based on the RSV Bible.
Know What You Believe, by Paul E. Little (Scripture Press, 1970, 192 pp., paperback, $1.25). A brief but most helpful survey of the main areas of Christian doctrine.
Prayer Is Action, by Helen Smith Shoemaker (Morehouse-Barlow, 1969, 128 pp., paperback, $3). The widow of Dr. Sam Shoemaker contends that prayer itself is the most effective form of Christian action.
Why Do Christians Suffer?, by Theodore H. Epp (Back to the Bible, 1970, 135 pp., paperback, $.50). Some helpful thoughts on a timeless subject.
Defrost Your Frozen Assets, by C. W. Franke (Word, 1969, 147 pp., $3.95) Explores ways in which Christians can put their faith into action by using their God-given abilities and potential to meet the world’s needs.
Miracle of Time, by Eric W. Hayden (Zondervan, 1969, 123 pp., $2.95) Lenten sermons by the former pastor of London’s Metropolitan Tabernacle.
