Lois - thanks for all of the interesting research about Francis Turretin (1623–1687). I contacted Princeton Seminary about books by and about Turretin’s commentaries. They told me that, over the past several centuries, quite a number of books had been written about Turretin and his Biblical research. So, it seems to me that, in order to get at the meat of Turretin’s original intent, it would be necessary to read several books by and about Turretin and arrive at your own conclusion about the various observations which Turretin had to make. Just reading one commentary about Turretin’s Biblical research would seem to me to be sort of limiting.
I rather liked the following observation about the various translations of the Bible, which I found when I visited The History of the English Bible at The Great Site.com - the web page for the Bible History Museum.
“As Christians, we must be very careful to make intelligent and informed decisions about what translations of the Bible we choose to read. On the liberal extreme, we have people who would give us heretical new translations that attempt to change God’s Word to make it politically correct. One example of this, which has made headlines recently is the Today’s New International Version (T.N.I.V.) which seeks to remove all gender-specific references in the Bible whenever possible! Not all new translations are good… and some are very bad.
But equally dangerous, is the other extreme… of blindly rejecting ANY English translation that was produced in the four centuries that have come after the 1611 King James. We must remember that the main purpose of the Protestant Reformation was to get the Bible out of the chains of being trapped in an ancient language that few could understand, and into the modern, spoken, conversational language of the present day. William Tyndale fought and died for the right to print the Bible in the common, spoken, modern English tongue of his day… as he boldly told one official who criticized his efforts, “If God spare my life, I will see to it that the boy who drives the plowshare knows more of the scripture than you, Sir!”
Will we now go backwards, and seek to imprison God’s Word once again exclusively in ancient translations? Clearly it is not God’s will that we over-react to SOME of the bad modern translations, by rejecting ALL new translations and “throwing the baby out with the bathwater”. The Word of God is unchanging from generation to generation, but language is a dynamic and ever-changing form of communication. We therefore have a responsibility before God as Christians to make sure that each generation has a modern translation that they can easily understand, yet that does not sacrifice accuracy in any way. Let’s be ever mindful that we are not called to worship the Bible. That is called idolatry. We are called to worship the God who gave us the Bible, and who preserved it through the centuries of people who sought to destroy it.”
Actually, there are several hundred Bible Museums scattered throughout the United States and Europe. I checked with several of them and they, also, state that Bibles printed before 1880 included the books of the Apocrypha. It seems to me that if all of the Reformers had access to the books of the Apocrypha and still engaged in very beneficial ministries, that it would likewise be possible for others to do so in 2010!
I found that The American Bible Society has a low-cost copy available of the King James Version of the books of the Apocrypha. However, I also rather liked the translation of the Apocrypha which was translated by Edgar J. Goodspeed. Goodspeed’s translation, with the exception of the Latin II Esdras, is based entirely upon the Greek text.
Again, this has been a most interesting topic. Thank you for bringing it up!
Lois - thanks for all of the interesting research about Francis Turretin (1623–1687). I contacted Princeton Seminary about books by and about Turretin’s commentaries. They told me that, over the past several centuries, quite a number of books had been written about Turretin and his Biblical research. So, it seems to me that, in order to get at the meat of Turretin’s original intent, it would be necessary to read several books by and about Turretin and arrive at your own conclusion about the various observations which Turretin had to make. Just reading one commentary about Turretin’s Biblical research would seem to me to be sort of limiting.
I rather liked the following observation about the various translations of the Bible, which I found when I visited The History of the English Bible at The Great Site.com - the web page for the Bible History Museum.
“As Christians, we must be very careful to make intelligent and informed decisions about what translations of the Bible we choose to read. On the liberal extreme, we have people who would give us heretical new translations that attempt to change God’s Word to make it politically correct. One example of this, which has made headlines recently is the Today’s New International Version (T.N.I.V.) which seeks to remove all gender-specific references in the Bible whenever possible! Not all new translations are good… and some are very bad.
But equally dangerous, is the other extreme… of blindly rejecting ANY English translation that was produced in the four centuries that have come after the 1611 King James. We must remember that the main purpose of the Protestant Reformation was to get the Bible out of the chains of being trapped in an ancient language that few could understand, and into the modern, spoken, conversational language of the present day. William Tyndale fought and died for the right to print the Bible in the common, spoken, modern English tongue of his day… as he boldly told one official who criticized his efforts, “If God spare my life, I will see to it that the boy who drives the plowshare knows more of the scripture than you, Sir!”
Will we now go backwards, and seek to imprison God’s Word once again exclusively in ancient translations? Clearly it is not God’s will that we over-react to SOME of the bad modern translations, by rejecting ALL new translations and “throwing the baby out with the bathwater”. The Word of God is unchanging from generation to generation, but language is a dynamic and ever-changing form of communication. We therefore have a responsibility before God as Christians to make sure that each generation has a modern translation that they can easily understand, yet that does not sacrifice accuracy in any way. Let’s be ever mindful that we are not called to worship the Bible. That is called idolatry. We are called to worship the God who gave us the Bible, and who preserved it through the centuries of people who sought to destroy it.”
Actually, there are several hundred Bible Museums scattered throughout the United States and Europe. I checked with several of them and they, also, state that Bibles printed before 1880 included the books of the Apocrypha. It seems to me that if all of the Reformers had access to the books of the Apocrypha and still engaged in very beneficial ministries, that it would likewise be possible for others to do so in 2010!
I found that The American Bible Society has a low-cost copy available of the King James Version of the books of the Apocrypha. However, I also rather liked the translation of the Apocrypha which was translated by Edgar J. Goodspeed. Goodspeed’s translation, with the exception of the Latin II Esdras, is based entirely upon the Greek text.
Again, this has been a most interesting topic. Thank you for bringing it up!