Life Application Study Bible: The New Living Translation

I’m very appreciative of the kind folk at Tyndale who have sent along a copy of their Life Application Study Bible (NLT) for review.

First, then, the positive.  The study Bible is very nicely done (from an aesthetic point of view).  The leather-like cover is a pleasure to hold.  That is, it’s tactile-ly exceedingly pleasing.  It ‘feels’ like a Bible should feel.  Away with the stiff hard board cover found on normal hard back books: this edition of the Bible is Bible-esque.

Likewise, the pages are Bible-ish.  The gold edging and paper-style let the reader know that one isn’t reading some ordinary book.  That, by the way, is an important factor.  The Bible isn’t just some book (or more exactly, a collection of books), it is the Word of God (or again more precisely, in its pages is found the Word of God). So Tyndale has produced a Bible.

The notes surrounding the text of Scripture are, by and large, quite good.  They are also quite conservative (which may, or may not, appeal to readers depending completely on their own theological presuppositions).    They are, as well, intentionally ‘conversational’ in style and aim to be understandable to even the most nominally informed student of Scripture.

As to the translation itself (the NLT), it’s fair enough and in places actually quite well done.  The translation team was comprised of some of the best biblical scholars of the day.   H.G.M. Williamson worked on Ruth, Ezra, and Esther.   Gordon Wenham had a hand in Genesis.  Donald Hagner (Matthew), Darrell Bock (Luke),  Douglas Moo (Romans and Galatians) and Moises Silva (Ephesians – Philemon) all did outstanding work.

But, second, it’s fair as well to look at a couple of problems which the translation and notes have.  For instance, there simply is no reason whatsoever, on any linguistic grounds, to render הָעַלְמָ֗ה ‘virgin’. ‘Young maiden’, ‘young lady’, or even ‘young girl’ are all appropriate but ‘virgin’ is not because there is a Hebrew word for that particular sexual state- בְּתוּלָ֕ה. The translator of Isaiah 7:14 is simply acceding to tradition (and a tradition that is inaccurate at that).

To be sure, the note attempts to show the proper reading- but in fact it also dismisses the proper reading at the very moment it offers it.

Similarly, the absolute identification and collation of dates found in the Hebrew Bible with our modern calendars are dicey affairs, at best.  So it was with more than a little concern to me to see an absolute date offered in the translation of Ezekiel.

Since we cannot be certain with such certainty as here displayed, a better approach (and the one followed in the note) is to simply replicate the Hebrew text and then offer a possible solution.  Or, in other words, the absolute date belongs in the note, not in the text.  And there only as a possibility, not as a certainty.

Most problematic of all though is the fact that on the historical timeline found at the outset of the volume the flood of Noah is listed as an historical event (though undated).  The birth of Abraham is dated to 2166 BCE.   Joseph was sold into slavery in 1898 BCE.  And the 10 Commandments were given in 1445…  This timeline will please few who have studied the history of ancient Israel.

And that is the edition’s greatest weakness.  It’s editors have confused Heilsgeschichte with Historie.  The Bible’s theological ‘historiography’ has been utterly occluded beneath a layer of presupposed ‘history’.  And that is the reason that this Study Bible will please many who are inexperienced in the delicate art of historiography and none who are skilled in it and who can differentiate theology from history- sermon from newspaper.

After weighing the negative and positive features of this Study Bible, it is my opinion that it certainly is a purchase worth making for those hunting a Study Bible that is loaded with useful features.  If, and only if, the person for whom the edition is intended is relatively conservative in theology.