Truth is ancient; it's grey hairs may make it venerable;
it comes from Him who is the ancient of days. --Thomas Watson

 

6 September, 2006   comments: (0) Back To The Bible   Mailbag: Battle of the Bibles - Which One is Best? Yesterday's post on the reprinting of the Geneva Bible generated some reader questions related to study bibles, and specifically the difference between the New Geneva study bible and the Geneva Bible. I thought I'd blend in some discussion about bible translations and study bibles such as MacArthur's as well. Warning to NIV readers: this post contains dangerous challenges to your translation preferences! Sarah, a regular reader of Old Truth and Slice emailed this yesterday: My mom asked for a Geneva Bible for her birthday. I bought her one from Ligonier Ministries called New Geneva Study Bible. Do you think it is that same one that site is selling? Also, I didn't realize the history of the King James Bible and that it is different from the Geneva one. Is it different only in side notes that Calvin might have wrote in the margins?....not the actual word of God...right? First, lets clear up the Geneva versus New Geneva confusion. The New Geneva study bible is a product from RC Sproul which has been renamed to the Reformation Study Bible in recent years. You can think of it more as a set of study notes at the bottom of the bible, and not the bible translation itself. He originally had these notes attached only to the New King James Version (NKJV) but has recently released an English Standard Version (ESV) study bible with the New Geneva notes. I personally use the New Geneva ESV, as I've been a big fan of the ESV for several years. I joke with my kids that ESV stands for: Extremely Superior Version. The Geneva Bible (which I posted about yesterday) is something altogether different. It does have study notes in it, but it's a bible translation of it's own; think of it as the protestant predecessor to the KJV. So to answer the other part of Sarah's question, it's a different translation than the KJV. I'm not an expert on bible translations by any means, but I think it's likely true that the KJV is the better of the two translations, though I am more sympathetic to the people who created and used the Geneva Bible. Many Puritans continued using the trusted Geneva Bible for another 75 years after the KJV came out. It was THE Puritan bible for quite a while. So with that in mind, I recommended the Geneva Bible in yesterday's post, but as a keepsake. It's a bit of a museum piece that you can own for yourself, and it's study notes have some functional usefulness as an historic bible commentary. I have mine pre-ordered now, but after it arrives I will continue to use my New Geneva study bible (the ESV with the Sproul notes) as the bible that I regularly read. Modern translations have come a long way, and the (old) Geneva Bible is a bit antiquated now. Another study bible that I'd like to throw into the mix is MacArthur's. My daughter has been a NASB reader for a few years, and since I wanted her to have some study notes, I bought her the recently released MacArthur NASB study bible. I do actually think that MacArthur has the most complete and (overall) reliable study notes of any bible available. With that said however, there are some things in his study notes that I disagree with, and I have worked with my daughter to understand these areas. As an example, his note for Exodus 20 says that Colossians 2:16 essentially voids one of the ten commandments (on the Sabbath), whereas I believe that all of the 10 commandments are God's moral law, which will no sooner pass away than God's morals will. I also disagree with his dispensational slant. These are some of the few areas where John MacArthur departs from the Reformers, Puritans, Spurgeon, and others. Still, the vast majority of his notes are excellent, and his treatment of God's sovereignty (especially) in John 6 is magnificent. He also gives you many more notes than the New Geneva bible, making his study notes much more complete for bible beginners. But I agree with the sentiments of those who say that some of his notes are "not Reformed enough". My pastor sometimes reads the posts on Old Truth, and he may be rolling his eyes as he reads all of this about "study notes". He is one of those purists that doesn't want any study notes mixed in with his bible text at all. My response to that is, "if I knew as much as you know - I wouldn't need notes either!!". But seriously, we don't want to over-rely on study notes, but I do think they are helpful, especially to beginners. By the way, you might be interested in reading what he (Tom Chantry) has to say about the ESV; you'll find an excellent article that he wrote on our new church website. The ESV is not the only good bible translation; I think that the KJV, NKJV, and NASB are all excellent. Jesus said "Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away", and after really considering that a few years ago, I had to reconsider my use of the NIV, in favor of a translation that paid closer attention to each word in the text. If you are still wondering what to think of the NIV, a book that can help you work through it is Accuracy in Translation by Robert Martin. I'll end this post with an interesting chart from Zondervan's website; it shows the difference in translation philosophy between the various bibles. The farther you go to the right side (and get away from word for word translations) the greater my concern is about accuracy. My first bible (over 20 years ago) was a Living Bible, and I remember how dramatic the differences were when I finally gave that up for the NIV. It left me scratching my head saying "the bible doesn't even say what I thought it said in some parts". Some of the versions on the far right side of this chart simply do a very poor job in representing the Word of God. The Message is a new paraphrase version that is quickly becoming the favorite of those in the Seeker Sensitive church growth camp; it is one of the most troubling translations available, in my opinion. Sarah, I hope that answers your questions. If not, post some more questions below in the comments. Some of our commenters know more than I do on this topic, and I'm sure would be happy to help answer. Posted by: Jim B.   Link: http://www.oldtruth.com/blog.cfm/id.2.pid.356   Be the first to post a comment about this article        Home  |   About  |  Videos   |  Calvinism