My Bible…

I received my first Bible when I was in third grade.  I’m not sure, but I think it came from one of those ceremonies where all the kids of a certain age got a Bible.  I still have it; it is a King James, tiny-print version.  I faithfully toted that Bible to church for several years.   

When I was about nine years old, a translation of the New Testament called “Good News for Modern Man” came into my possession.  Much later, I learned this translation vocabulary was at a newspaper level, written in modern English.  I would also learn the translation method was called “dynamic equivalency,” meaning the translator aimed not for a literal translation but for the meaning of the Hebrew and the Greek. 

I devoured this translation.  I read it night after night, long after I was supposed to be asleep.  For the first time, the scripture came alive to me.  By the time I finished elementary school, I had read the New Testament through five or six times. 

In middle school, I was introduced to “The Living Bible.”  It was a paraphrase.  The translator, Ken Taylor, took English translations and put them into his own words.  It was very readable.  I began to read it every night, reading through the whole Bible a couple of times. 

When I preached my first sermon, I preached from the King James version because that’s what my pastor did.  I thought (incorrectly) that I could read the Bible from any translation I wanted, but I would have to preach from the King James. 

At college, I entered a different world of Bible translations.  I was required to buy the Revised Standard Version, a more literal translation that tried to preserve some of the grandeur of the King James while eliminating the “thees and thous.”  I remember being upset by this translation and hurling my copy of the RSV across my dorm room one night, convinced it was of the devil.  I discovered years later the RSV was correct and my youthful arrogance was wrong. 

Some of my fellow Religion Majors were gifted linguists.  Two or three of them would take their Greek New Testaments and translate them at sight when they went out to preach in rural Alabama churches.  I never reached this level of proficiency.  However, I was caught up in the intellectual snobbery of thinking the King James Version was of poor quality.  I made fun of all the preachers and rural Alabama Baptists who stuck to the King James version. 

In seminary, my language skills improved.  I became proficient in Hebrew and could read Greek with a little help from a Lexicon.  No one in seminary used the King James; everyone used the Revised Standard Version, or when it came out, the New Revised Standard Version.  I began to preach from the Revised Standard at the churches I pastored.  There was no fuss.  People seemed to appreciate the clearer reading.

When I came to the church, I now pastor thirty years ago, The New International Version was the translation placed in the pew rack.  Since my major Professor, Dr. Marvin Tate, had been on the translation committee, I knew it was valued for readability, accuracy, and clarity.  I switched translations and have preached from the NIV ever since. 

When I read the Bible devotionally, I usually read the NIV or the RSV.  I trust them and am familiar with them.  Since I am a pastor, several companies have sent me copies of translations: the ESV, the CSV, and the HIJKLOMNPV (I just made the last one up).  Like all translations, each has its own strengths and its own weaknesses.  There are no perfect translations of the Bible.  However, almost all translations get the main point across. 

When I was in college, Eugene Nida, the head of the American Bible Society, came to speak on our campus.  I was only eighteen years old, but I knew Dr. Nida could answer a question that bugged me at the time.  During a Q and A session, I asked Dr. Nida, “What is the best translation?”  Of course, I didn’t realize it at the time, but if you are the head of the American Bible Society, you get asked this question often. 

I’ve never forgotten Dr. Nida’s answer: “The best translation of the Bible is the one you will read.”   

That’s the point: read your Bible.  Trust the Holy Spirit to speak to you while you read.  I usually read my Bible at night.  I will be reading, and the Spirit will nudge my heart.  It seems like the Spirit is saying, “See this.  I wrote this for you.  It applies to the moment you are living right now.   

Find yourself in the stories.  In the story of David and Goliath, are you David or Goliath?  You are David if you depend on God; you are Goliath if you depend on yourself.   

Confession:  sometimes, you will read the Bible, and the passage may not speak to you.  It happens.  Keep at it.  On the next page, there might be a story that will change your life. 

My hero, Duke McCall, once wrote that his Bible, the one he read, was inspired.  When he opened the pages of his Bible, God spoke to him.  No matter how supernatural the Bible is or how it was inspired, it doesn’t matter until you open it, read it, and apply it to your life.  Remember, God wrote it for you.