Translation Hysteria<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"(The following is a helpful post by Larry Hurtado.\u00a0 It also reminds us that it is possible for Evangelicals to look really stupid when they over-react to\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Translation Hysteria\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"(The following is a helpful post by Larry Hurtado.\u00a0 It also reminds us that it is possible for Evangelicals to look really stupid when they over-react to\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/2012\/05\/09\/translation-hysteria\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Bible and Culture\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-05-09T05:37:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-03-14T03:08:46+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/wp.patheos.com.s3.amazonaws.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/files\/2012\/04\/BW0486-Crape-Myrtle-Corinth-300x204.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Ben Witherington\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Ben Witherington\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/2012\/05\/09\/translation-hysteria\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/2012\/05\/09\/translation-hysteria\/\",\"name\":\"Translation Hysteria\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2012-05-09T05:37:01+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-03-14T03:08:46+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/67da39aff728f9d015878d198839df4b\"},\"description\":\"(The following is a helpful post by Larry Hurtado.\u00a0 It also reminds us that it is possible for Evangelicals to look really stupid when they over-react to\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/2012\/05\/09\/translation-hysteria\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/2012\/05\/09\/translation-hysteria\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/2012\/05\/09\/translation-hysteria\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Translation Hysteria\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/\",\"name\":\"The Bible and Culture\",\"description\":\"A One-Stop Shop for All Things Biblical and Christian\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/67da39aff728f9d015878d198839df4b\",\"name\":\"Ben Witherington\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8cf1998568f0b6ccbd63f56b44d47303?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8cf1998568f0b6ccbd63f56b44d47303?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Ben Witherington\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/author\/benw333\/\"}]}<\/script>\n","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Translation Hysteria","description":"(The following is a helpful post by Larry Hurtado.\u00a0 It also reminds us that it is possible for Evangelicals to look really stupid when they over-react to","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"follow"},"og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Translation Hysteria","og_description":"(The following is a helpful post by Larry Hurtado.\u00a0 It also reminds us that it is possible for Evangelicals to look really stupid when they over-react to","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/2012\/05\/09\/translation-hysteria\/","og_site_name":"The Bible and Culture","article_published_time":"2012-05-09T05:37:01+00:00","article_modified_time":"2015-03-14T03:08:46+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/wp.patheos.com.s3.amazonaws.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/files\/2012\/04\/BW0486-Crape-Myrtle-Corinth-300x204.jpg"}],"author":"Ben Witherington","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Ben Witherington","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/2012\/05\/09\/translation-hysteria\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/2012\/05\/09\/translation-hysteria\/","name":"Translation Hysteria","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/#website"},"datePublished":"2012-05-09T05:37:01+00:00","dateModified":"2015-03-14T03:08:46+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/67da39aff728f9d015878d198839df4b"},"description":"(The following is a helpful post by Larry Hurtado.\u00a0 It also reminds us that it is possible for Evangelicals to look really stupid when they over-react to","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/2012\/05\/09\/translation-hysteria\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/2012\/05\/09\/translation-hysteria\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/2012\/05\/09\/translation-hysteria\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Translation Hysteria"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/","name":"The Bible and Culture","description":"A One-Stop Shop for All Things Biblical and Christian","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/67da39aff728f9d015878d198839df4b","name":"Ben Witherington","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8cf1998568f0b6ccbd63f56b44d47303?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8cf1998568f0b6ccbd63f56b44d47303?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","caption":"Ben Witherington"},"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/author\/benw333\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3046","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/91"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3046"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3046\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3046"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3046"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3046"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}

{"id":3046,"date":"2012-05-09T01:37:01","date_gmt":"2012-05-09T05:37:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/?p=3046"},"modified":"2015-03-13T23:08:46","modified_gmt":"2015-03-14T03:08:46","slug":"translation-hysteria","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/2012\/05\/09\/translation-hysteria\/","title":{"rendered":"Translation Hysteria"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

$\"\"$ <\/a><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve just been alerted to the latest hysterical reaction to translating the NT. (Of course, the week isn\u2019t over yet, so we could get something else by Friday!) In the new translation called The Voice Bible<\/em> (Thomas Nelson Publishers), the choice was made to go for a more dynamic translation of some familiar words. The one that seems to have got some folks all worked up is the translation of the Greek word Christos<\/em> as \u201cthe anointed one\u201d. Hysterical people and some news outlets scream: \u201cNew translation takes Christ out of the Bible!\u201d So, e.g., the lead scholar in the project, Dr. David Capes (Houston Baptist University), gets interviewed on CNN about why they\u2019ve done this, and across blog-dom the hysterics spread.<\/p>\n

So, for the record: CNN and USAToday<\/em> have misrepresented the translation. Nobody\u2019s removed Jesus from the NT. The translation \u201canointed\u201d is simply what \u201cChristos<\/em> means. It\u2019s not a name, of course, but a title.<\/p>\n

The translation is from an avowed Evangelical Christian publisher, and Capes is a devout Christian as well as a fine NT scholar. But, because of the hysterical headlines, they\u2019re having to spend a lot of time correcting and re-assuring. Some say there\u2019s no such thing as bad publicity, but I\u2019m not so sure. Hysterics can be dangerous, like shouting \u201cfire!\u201d in a crowded theatre.<\/p>\n

The translation choices of The Voice<\/em> can be evaluated as to how effective they will be in the intended aim of trying to produce a Bible that can be engaged and understood by the average person who doesn\u2019t go to church. But there\u2019s no conspiracy to take Jesus out of the Bible or Christian faith. Whew! That\u2019s a relief!<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"