Bible translations

I don't think it's so much condescension as these scholars themselves having bad taste. These scholars aren't coming from a literary perspective, or from the perspective of a pastor or preacher that actually has to stand up and read the passages. They are coming from a perspective of decades of learning ancient languages and analysing / debating the origin and meaning of individual words. That's why they produce such bland work that falls flat on the ear.

The left is cuter.

>translations
lol.

So you've clearly never read why the ASV or the RSV or the NRSV were created. Good to know.

Are you suggesting that accuracy to the original text and meaning is bad?

Also:

I guarantee most people criticizing the NRSV for "aesthetics" on one hand and accuracy on the other don't actually understand how translation works, much less from Biblical Hebrew and Koine Greek, and even less from the perspective of text criticism.

The Old Testament was translated into Koine Greek as the Septuagint for the Alexandrian Jews because they forgot Hebrew. Koine had the particular qualities of being a language for common people, a language more basic than the older Attic Greek. In a nutshell, the Koine Greek of the Septuagint was not overly flowery language, but made to be clearly understood for the people of the time.

As modern literature and many modern Bible translations show, you can have beautiful language that is clear in meaning.

>Are you suggesting that accuracy to the original text and meaning is bad?

No, I'm suggesting that modern scholars don't have much of an ear for language, though they study it analytically.

>Koine had the particular qualities of being a language for common people, a language more basic than the older Attic Greek. In a nutshell, the Koine Greek of the Septuagint was not overly flowery language, but made to be clearly understood for the people of the time.

Yes, but modern translations aren't in the language of common people. They are in the stiff language of scholars.

>As modern literature

Modern literature does not have beautiful language. ESPECIALLY it likes language that is both beautiful and solemn, which is what is required for the scriptures.

>ESPECIALLY it likes language

I suppose I meant "lacks"

Read this senpai

Let's compare an old 19th century translation of the prologue of St. Augustine's Confessions, with a modern one.

19th century:

>Great art Thou, O Lord, and greatly to be praised; great is Thy power, and Thy wisdom infinite. And Thee would man praise; man, but a particle of Thy creation; man, that bears about him his mortality, the witness of his sin, the witness that Thou resistest the proud: yet would man praise Thee; he, but a particle of Thy creation. Thou awakest us to delight in Thy praise; for Thou madest us for Thyself, and our heart is restless, until it repose in Thee.

Contemporary:

>Can any praise be worthy of the Lord's majesty? How magnificent his strength! How inscrutable his wisdom! Man is one of your creatures, Lord, and his instinct is to praise you. He bears about him the mark of death, the sign of his own sin, to remind him that you thwart the proud. But still, since he is part of your creation, he wishes to praise you. The thought of you stirs him so intensely that he cannot unless he praises you, because you made us for yourself and our hearts find no peace until they rest in you.

Another:

>"You are great, Lord, and highly to be praised: great is your power and your wisdom immeasurable." Man, a little piece of your creation, desires to praise you, a human being "bearing his mortality with him", carrying with him the witness of his sin and the witness that you "resist the proud". Nevertheless, to praise you is the desire of man, a little piece of your creation. You stir man to take pleasure in praising you, because you have made us for yourself, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.

See how the solemnity and pathos has been sucked out?

They have no sense of piety, beauty, or solemnity. Only a slavish, utilitarian sense of "accuracy", if they even have that.