by Jason Joyner | Sep 24, 2012 | Biblical worldview, Blog, books, critical thinking, CSFF, Mike Duran, speculative fiction, The Telling
It’s time to “Tell” you about the September Christian Sci-fi and Fantasy Tour.
This one is a pleasure for me because the CSFF is featuring Mike Duran and his latest novel, The Telling.
Mike Duran is an author and prolific blogger. His blog Decompose is a fertile ground of ideas that make you think. Not only does Mike post provocative thoughts on faith, fiction, and culture, but the community of commenters he has following him often expand the posts into very interesting realms.
Mike is not afraid to ask the hard questions or probe issues regarding Christian fiction and speculative ideas. However, he has a deep love for the Church and regularly pokes at the foibles of atheist and relativistic thinking.
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| Mike and I chatting it up |
The best part about Mike is that he is real and he is interested in people and exploring these issues. I know this because I had the great pleasure of meeting him this last weekend at the ACFW Conference in Dallas.
If this post sounds gushing because I just met the guy and I’m talking him up, you can forget that idea. The web does not allow for really knowing people, no matter how much you think it does. The face-to-face with Mike and bouncing ideas off him and other like thinkers (here’s a shout to fellow CSFF tour member Morgan Busse) over meals was a highlight of the conference to me.
Over the next few days we’ll be talking about Mike and The Telling. I’m sure it will be a tour with a lot of discussion. I invite you to check out my fellow tourmates below for more information.
Jim Armstrong
Noah Arsenault
Keanan Brand
Beckie Burnham
Brenda Castro
Jeff Chapman
Christine
Theresa Dunlap
Victor Gentile
Nikole Hahn
Bruce Hennigan
Julie
Carol Keen
Emileigh Latham
Meagan @ Blooming with Books
Rebecca LuElla Miller
Anna Mittower
Kathleen Smith
Donna Swanson
Jessica Thomas
Steve Trower
Dona Watson
Shane Werlinger
Phyllis Wheeler
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by Jason Joyner | Sep 29, 2011 | Bible study, Blog, critical thinking, reading
It is always a good idea to read critically, even if what you read is something very well researched.
Like the Bible.
This is a little different from my usual topics, but I wanted to share something I saw today. I was reading in Proverbs today in the New International Version (NIV) on Bible Gateway. This is what Proverbs 10:22 says:
The blessing of the LORD brings wealth,
without painful toil for it.
I did a double take at that. That sounded like a prosperity gospel verse. I had never noticed it before, but I wondered about the translation of it.
I checked some other translations at Bible Gateway (very easy to do, that’s why I recommend it), and this is what I got:
It is the blessing of the LORD that makes rich,
And He adds no sorrow to it. (NASB)
The blessing of the LORD makes one rich,
And He adds no sorrow with it. (NKJV)
The blessing of the Lord makes a person rich,
and he adds no sorrow with it. (NLT)
The blessing of the LORD makes rich,
and he adds no sorrow with it. (ESV – adds a note that an alternate reading is “and toil adds nothing to it”)
I think the other readings matching up suggests that the NIV isn’t the best reading in this instance.
I don’t know Hebrew, but I wish I did so I could go to the original text. When we rely on translation, there is some interpretation involved by those doing the work. Every version is going to have verses where it the translation is skewed a little.
This doesn’t put doubt on the Bible. It is an issue of trying to convey thoughts in English (or whatever language) from Hebrew. What it tells us is that we need to read critically and realize that we shouldn’t rely on one translation when we study the Bible. The NIV version of 10:22 reads a lot differently to me than the others, and it didn’t match up with other parts of the Bible that speak of working hard. We don’t shut off our brains when we read anything, especially God’s Word. Yes, I believe in inspiration and the leading of the Holy Spirit, but He also gave us minds for a reason.
If you are looking for a good book on Bible study, my favorite is How To Read The Bible For All Its Worth by Gordon Fee and Douglas Stuart.
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by Jason Joyner | Sep 29, 2011 | Bible study, Blog, critical thinking, reading
It is always a good idea to read critically, even if what you read is something very well researched.
Like the Bible.
This is a little different from my usual topics, but I wanted to share something I saw today. I was reading in Proverbs today in the New International Version (NIV) on Bible Gateway. This is what Proverbs 10:22 says:
The blessing of the LORD brings wealth,
without painful toil for it.
I did a double take at that. That sounded like a prosperity gospel verse. I had never noticed it before, but I wondered about the translation of it.
I checked some other translations at Bible Gateway (very easy to do, that’s why I recommend it), and this is what I got:
It is the blessing of the LORD that makes rich,
And He adds no sorrow to it. (NASB)
The blessing of the LORD makes one rich,
And He adds no sorrow with it. (NKJV)
The blessing of the Lord makes a person rich,
and he adds no sorrow with it. (NLT)
The blessing of the LORD makes rich,
and he adds no sorrow with it. (ESV – adds a note that an alternate reading is “and toil adds nothing to it”)
I think the other readings matching up suggests that the NIV isn’t the best reading in this instance.
I don’t know Hebrew, but I wish I did so I could go to the original text. When we rely on translation, there is some interpretation involved by those doing the work. Every version is going to have verses where it the translation is skewed a little.
This doesn’t put doubt on the Bible. It is an issue of trying to convey thoughts in English (or whatever language) from Hebrew. What it tells us is that we need to read critically and realize that we shouldn’t rely on one translation when we study the Bible. The NIV version of 10:22 reads a lot differently to me than the others, and it didn’t match up with other parts of the Bible that speak of working hard. We don’t shut off our brains when we read anything, especially God’s Word. Yes, I believe in inspiration and the leading of the Holy Spirit, but He also gave us minds for a reason.
If you are looking for a good book on Bible study, my favorite is How To Read The Bible For All Its Worth by Gordon Fee and Douglas Stuart.
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