New Testament
Week 2: Origins & translation of the New Testament
15 September 2022
Lesson Materials
Notes
arnt02_notes.pdfHandout
arnt02_handout.pdfReliable Modern Bible Translations
WT: The New Testament: A Translation for Latter-day Saints (printed edition study Bible | Kindle edition study Bible)
NRSV: New Revised Standard Version (online, limited footnotes | printed edition study Bible | Kindle edition study Bible)
NET: New English Translation (online study Bible | printed edition study Bible | Kindle edition, no footnotes)
ESV: English Standard Version (online, limited footnotes | printed edition, limited footnotes)
NASB: New American Standard Bible (online, limited footnotes | printed edition, limited footnotes)
Additional reading and links
Ben Spackman. “Why Bible Translations Differ: A Guide for the Perplexed.” Religious Educator 15, no. 1 (2014): 31–65. This article, published in BYU’s magazine for teachers of religion, looks at the challenges of accurately translating the Bible and how modern translations can help us understand difficult books and passages.
Joshua M. Sears. “Study Bibles: An Introduction for Latter-day Saints.” Religious Educator 20, no. 3 (2019): 26–57. Sears explains how Latter-day Saints can benefit from combining the strengths of the Church-published King James Bible with the strengths of modern translations and the study aids in academic study Bibles.
No Bible translation is perfect; translators are constantly seeking ways to better render ancient languages into English so that the translation is accurate, faithful to the intent of the original, and understandable to modern readers. The editors of the NET Bible responded to reader feedback by agreeing to change one word in their translation of Matthew 7:14 in the next edition.
Bill Mounce. “What is an “Accurate’ Translation?” BillMounce.com (blog), 14 September 2010. Bill Mounce was on the translation committee for the English Standard Version (ᴇsᴠ) and the team that revised the New International Version (ɴɪᴠ).
Philip L. Barlow. “Why the King James Version?: From the Common to the Official Bible of Mormonism.” Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 22, no. 2 (Summer 1989): 19–42.
Grant Hardy. “The King James Bible and the Future of Missionary Work.” By Common Consent (blog), 15 February 2011. Latter-day Saint university professor Grant Hardy examines the increasing difficulty Latter-day Saint missionaries face bringing the King James Version of the Bible into English-speaking homes that are used to modern translations.
Stephen O. Smoot. “Translating the New Testament for Latter‑day Saints.” Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship 31 (2019): 95–110. This article is a review of BYU professor Thomas Wayment’s The New Testament: A Translation for Latter-day Saints.
Doctrine and Covenants lesson 15 goes into greater depth on the history and meaning of the Joseph Smith Translation.
Bruce Terry, Professor of Biblical Studies at Ohio Valley University, maintains a web page with list of some of the more important textual variants between New Testament manuscripts: “A Student’s Guide to New Testament Textual Variants.”
For a very accessible and easy-to-read introduction to the differences between early manuscripts of the New Testament, I recommend Bart Ehrman’s book Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible And Why (New York: HarperSanFrancisco, 2005). Ehrman is one of the leading scholars on the text of the New Testament. You can read his book online for free at the link above or purchase it in print or for Kindle for less than $15 at Amazon.com.
For a Latter-day Saint perspective on the development of the New Testament, I also warmly recommend Kent P. Jackson and Frank F. Judd Jr., eds., How the New Testament Came to Be (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center at Brigham Young University / Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2006). You can read his book online for free at the link above, or purchase it in print or for Kindle for about $20 at Amazon.com.
Videos
Some Bible translations are not as reliable as others. Although most translators take great pains to accurately and faithfully rending ancient texts into modern English, some allow their biases to affect their work. An example of this is how the New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition (NRSVue, 2021) has handled some of teachings of Paul regarding homosexual conduct. In this video, Baptist New Testament scholar Mark Ward explained his concerns about the NRSVue’s treatment of 1 Corinthians 6:9–10 and 1 Timothy 1:10.