Alva Review-Courier -

Now wait just a minute minute! If you are like the infernal grammar checker on Microsoft Word, you probably think I goofed up and randomly repeated a word. I did not! The first “minute” should be pronounced with long vowel sounds and means “very small.” The second “minute” refers to a segment of time lasting 60 seconds. Of course, you could make the argument that a minute is a minute and lasts as long as it lasts, so there’s no such thing as a long minute or a minute minute. Ain’t English fun?

One of the problems we have in sharing the written word of God is that the original documents were written (mainly) in Greek. Although we have an amazing number of reliable manuscripts available to translators, it remains quite a task to take a word or phrase from one language and make it easily understood in another. This is one of the reasons for all the different translations. As our language has changed, translators have been challenged with updating the message for modern learners. Unfortunately, some have seen this as an attempt to undermine what they consider to be more authentic (time-honored) translations. With few exceptions, this is simply not the case.

Every year, more manuscripts are being uncovered. Some of these are very ancient, and may shed new light on what the original text may have been designed to share. Please understand, I am NOT saying that older translations were not reliable or accurate, just that the more information translators have at their disposal, the more sure we can be that the words on the paper are the most precise representations of the original we can get. Jack P. Lewis, one of my instructors at the Harding Graduate School of Religion, was often quoted as saying, “The best translation is the one that a person will read ... “ He was also known to say, “After the mid-term, many of you will no longer be here.” I can testify that he was right, at least concerning the class.

So, whether it is the KJV, NIV, ASV, NASV, ERV, MEV or some other acronym used to describe a translation of God’s word, pick one. Read it. Repeat. See you Sunday.