2 Pet 1:20-21 are important verses for our doctrine of Scripture, and so it should come as no surprise that there are some differences of opinion on the meaning of the passage.
This is a bit off-topic, but thought I would share about my paper at ETS on the ESV/TNIV. Basically I think it went well, and hopefully set the tone for further debate.
I was asked the other day about the translation of γραμμα in Romans 2:27. “In verse 27, the ESV went with ‘written code’ but it verse 29 they went with ‘letter.’ ‘Written code’ is what the NIV has and is more functional, where ‘letter’ is more formal. Can I ask why the difference there?
Poetry can be exceptionally difficult to translate. It often conveys meaning more with pictures than with individual words, the words working together to create images more powerful than words.
It is good to be back. I have had a good break over the summer, moved to Washougal, WA, and took a job as Vice President of Educational Development at BibleGateway.com. (Disclaimer: I now not only write for Zondervan but am now a Zondervan employee.) Lots of cool stuff coming down the pike.
We had an interesting experience on the ESV translation committee when we were doing 1 Cor 13. We were working really hard on the passage, perhaps especially hard since it was such a famous passage.
I received an interesting question the other day from a Filipino brother. He had learned Greek and was starting to notice certain tendencies in his native translations. Here are the relevant potions of his email.
This is one of the fundamental questions all translations struggle with. How are they going to deal with metaphors. Related to this question is the issue of technical terms such as “saint” or “propitiation.”
