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One Bible Many Versions by Dave Brunn – Review

One Bible, Many Versions – Are all Translations Created Equal? By Dave Brunn is a scholarly approach to Bible translations that looks at what makes a translation faithful to the original manuscripts, answers why we need more than one translation, and shows why there is no one perfect translation that trumps all others.

Brunn set out on a journey to translate the Bible into Lamogai and made some startling discoveries about word-for-word and thought-for-thought translations. I’ve always made the assumption that word-for-word, or literal, translations translated words more accurately and that thought-for-thought translations translated words based more on what the translators thought the original writers meant (which is more interpretive). For the most part this is true, but Brunn shows the different ways that translations render passages and compares them to the manuscripts, showing that sometimes a thought-for-thought translation will translate more literal than the word-for-word translations and vice-versa.

Brunn gives many side-by-side comparisons ESV, NIV, NASB, HCSB, KJV, NKJV, NLT, and GW translations, and shows how they compare to the manuscripts. He shows how one word is often translated into many different words, and how many different words can be translated into the same word.

This is a very good book to get a deeper understanding of Bible translations. He goes into depth on the philosophy of translations, the translation process, how to choose a translation, and why we should use more than one. There is a lot of good information in this book. I recommend it to anyone that is interested in learning more about Bible translations, the translation process, and choosing a translation.

 

IVP Academic provided this book free for review. I was not required to give a positive review- only an honest review.

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