Podcasts about nlt bible

“The other day I was in Barns and Noble bookstore. I looked at a NLT Bible by Tyndale and saw that it was printed in China. I was surprised since the country is against Christianity. Maybe Bibles are being secretly sent out there or is China just profiting from Christianity.” So many honest Christians, like the one who wrote this letter, are confused. Aren't Bibles illegal in China? If so, then why is my Bible made in China?

Reading of first John chapter 3 and four and commenting on what we find through the NLT Bible and life Recovery Bible --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/fernando-m-de-oca/support

Have you ever struggled to see how all the pieces of the Bible fit together?You're not alone. Many believers find it challenging to connect the dots between the events of Scripture and how they relate to each other. But here's the good news: Understanding the timeline of Scripture can bring clarity and a deeper sense of purpose to your Bible study, helping you see the big picture of God's unfolding story.In this episode, Iva May breaks down the importance of studying Scripture chronologically and why every believer should understand the overarching story arc of the Bible. You'll gain fresh insights into how God's plan has been unfolding since creation and how you fit into this incredible narrative.Related Resources:NLT One Year Chronological Study Bible: Read the story of the Bible in historical order, broken into 14 eras. This Study Bible includes notes and devotional questions to help you see God's grand narrative and your place in it.Follow on Instagram for insights and encouragement:@NLTBible: Discover how the NLT Bible makes Scripture accessible and relatable for everyday life.@ChronologicalBibleTeaching: Learn more from Iva May and her team as they teach practical ways to understand the Bible as one continuous story.The First 5 app is your go-to resource for interactive Bible study. Beginning January 6, join us as we dive into Genesis and help you unpack the foundational truths of Scripture. Download the First 5 app.Genesis Study Guide: Pair your study of Genesis with this comprehensive guide, filled with thought-provoking questions and insights that help you apply what you're learning to your daily life. Get your study guide.Click here to download a transcript of this episode.Proverbs 31 Ministries is a nonprofit organization, and this podcast is funded thanks to the generous support of our one-time and monthly donors. To learn more about how to partner with us, click here!We want to hear how this podcast has impacted you! Share your story with us here.

Even though we're in the middle of summer, I can't help but think about the upcoming school year. I am really wanting to get my kids new Bibles this year (something they can grow with) and  today's conversation fits perfectly with this train of thought. I'm joined by my real-life friend Amanda Jass, who was the editor on the Go Bible, a brand-new NLT Bible just for kids from Tyndale. Amanda is passionate about making the Bible accessible and engaging for children and her insights on parenting and faith are both practical and encouraging.Here's what you'll learn in today's episode:Amanda shares her personal story of how God transformed her life and how it changed her approach to parenting.Tips and strategies to get your kids excited about diving into their Bibles.The importance of demonstrating a strong faith and teaching God's unconditional love to our children.How to encourage your kids to ask questions and explore their own faith.Join us for a conversation that will leave you feeling inspired and equipped to help your children grow in their faith. Amanda's story and advice are sure to spark excitement about the Bible in your home.Grab Amanda's advent book and other resources hereOr connect with her on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/amandakjassGet your kids a copy of the Go Bible https://www.tyndale.com/sites/gobible/Resources mentionedGet your 2024-2025 prayer journal, A Life of Faith02:57 Modeling Faith and Unconditional Love09:00 The Importance of Spending Time with God14:00 The Go Bible: Focusing on Transformation24:41 Teaching the Bible: Engaging Children in God's Word30:05 Simplifying the Journey: Keeping Faith Simple for ChildrenThe Christian Parenting Podcast is part of The Christian Parenting Podcast Network. As a donor funded ministry, we rely on generous supporters like you to keep this show going. If you enjoy this podcast, please consider giving a gift today. Join the Christian Parenting Legacy Builders communityPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

NLT BIBLE 2 TIMOTHY NARRATED BY ANNE AJADI --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/arnajadi/message

NLT BIBLE 1 THESSALONIANS NARRATED BY ANNE AJADI --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/arnajadi/message

NLT BIBLE 2 THESSALONIANS NARRATED BY ANNE AJADI --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/arnajadi/message

NLT BIBLE 2 TIMOTHY NARRATED BY ANNE AJADI --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/arnajadi/message

The reading of New Testament, psalms and proverbs. NLT Bible. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/fernando-montes-de-oca/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/fernando-montes-de-oca/support

Yes!  You are in!  Work.  Most of us complain about it.  Yet very interesting play of the day.  The correlation of free time and depression.  Make sense, if you are living life and feel like you are not fulfilling a purpose, that can be depressing and empty.  Here's the good news.  You do have a purpose.  You are here for a reason.  Here you go...Thank you Pastor Rick Warren, a mainstay on our play of the days.  If you would like to hear more of that play, check out Daily Hope, that one is entitled "The Purpose of Work, Part 2", published on the 11th of March 2024.You have a purpose.  You do.  How do I know that?  Jer 29:11.  You don't believe that?  Well, that's on you.  Your choice.  For those that believe, that is an epic verse and promise.  A few years back, the FriDudes tackled a book called "Halftime" by Bob Shank.  Epic read.  Life changing for some of us.  Further back, we also read "Purpose Driven Life" by Rick Warren.  Yes, that Rick.  Game changing for some of us.  Why just some of us?  Your choice.  Your choice to read and your choice to implement.So game changing that we have a FriDudes named Greg.  He's been featured before.  He was so moved by especially Half Time that he created something that we call Gcrosssurf.org.  In the midst of a rebrand.  Things in the works.  Stay tuned.  Bottom line, Greg set out to better identify, goal/life plan/God's plan, write it down make it happen.  Identify strength and confess weaknesses.  Super bold.  Not for the faint of heart.  Back to the HalfTime book, tracked a bunch of guys that made a bunch of money.  In particular some Exxon retired execs.  Worked hard, retired, comfy, played, golf and on average died 10 years too early on average.  Many depressed, lost their purpose.  Their former jobs were their identity.  No longer needed.  Again, lost.  Some of you are now way, you are saying I never have to worry about money and I can be depressed and empty?  Yep, have you read David or King Solomon?  Then, yes!  Ever wonder why the rich and famous overdose and die...repeatedly?  There you go.  “Everything is meaningless,” says the Teacher, “completely meaningless!” What do people get for all their hard work under the sun? Generations come and generations go, but the earth never changes.Ecclesiastes 1:2-9 NLT - Bible.comHang in there.  Full circle.  Yet if you tune in.  Ask God why and keep pursuing, match your gifts into service and your heart will overflow...Jeremiah 29:11New International Version11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.Romans 8:28New International Version28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who[a] have been called according to his purpose.

Hey Guys! I read from Joshua 1 in the NLT Bible! We are strong and very courageous because the spirit of God lives in us, helps us and has ALREADY STRENGTHENED us to be obedient and succeed.

Our friend and one of our favorite theologians around here, Dr. Nijay Gupta, is back! If you're like me and geek out when talking all things Scripture, I think you're really going to love this episode. Not only is Dr. Nijay a professor of New Testament, but he's also a senior translator for the NLT Bible, the New Living Translation, which we're using for the month of April on Let's Read the Gospels. So clearly this is our guy for all our questions! Today we talked about the first Christians being so different from Roman culture, the mystery of God and time, and the reputation problem of Christianity. Dr. Nijay is just so brilliant! Be sure to grab a copy of his newest book, Strange Religion: How the First Christians Were Weird, Dangerous, and Compelling. . . . . . Want to watch this episode on YouTube? Head on over to our YouTube Channel and be sure to like and subscribe!  . . . . The ⁠⁠Let's Read the Gospels Journal⁠⁠ is available everywhere starting tomorrow! Grab a copy for yourself and a friend. . . . . Subscribe to Let's Read the Gospels with Annie F. Downs HERE. Go to https://anniefdowns.com/gospels to download your 2024 January - March Reading Plan or purchase the 2023 Let's Read the Gospels Guidebook. . . . . . Join our Patreon community Single Purpose League as we tackle the question: What is my single purpose and what is my purpose while single? . . . . . Sign up to receive the AFD Week In Review email and ask questions to future guests! #thatsoundsfunpodcast . . . . . Thank you to our sponsors! Athletic Greens: Try AG1 and get a FREE 1-year supply of Vitamin D3+K2 AND 5 free AG1 Travel Packs with your first purchase exclusively at drinkAG1.com/soundsfun. Shopify: Sign up for a $1 per-month trial period at Shopify.com/soundsfun. . . . . . If you'd like to partner with Annie as a sponsor for the That Sounds Fun podcast, fill out our Advertise With Us form! . . . . . NYTimes bestselling Christian author, speaker, and host of the That Sounds Fun Podcast, Annie F. Downs shares with you some of her favorite things: new books, faith conversations, entertainers not to miss, and interviews with friends.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today's reading is Mark 16:1-8, Matthew 28:1-7, Luke 24:1-12, Mark 16:9-11, John 20:1-18, Matthew 28:8-15, Luke 24:13-43, Mark 16:12-13, John 20:19-23, Mark 16:14, John 20:24-31, John 21:1-23, Matthew 28:16-20, Mark 16:15-18, Luke 24:44-49, Mark 16:19-20, Luke 24:50-53, and John 21:24-25. . . . . Go to ⁠https://anniefdowns.com/gospels⁠ to purchase your April Reading Plan or Let's Read the Gospels Guidebook. . . . . This month, we will be reading from the ⁠NLT Bible⁠ in Chronological Order. . . . . Follow Let's Read the Gospels on ⁠YouTube⁠, ⁠Instagram⁠, and ⁠Facebook⁠ . . . . Your ratings and reviews help us spread the Gospel to new friends! If you love this podcast, ⁠rate the podcast on Apple Podcasts and leave us a brief review⁠! You can do the same on ⁠Spotify⁠ and on ⁠Google Podcasts⁠ as well.

Today's reading is Mark 15:21-24, Matthew 27:32-34, Luke 23:26-31, John 19:17, Mark 15:25-32, Matthew 27:35-44, Luke 23:32-43, John 19:18-27, Mark 15:33-41, Matthew 27:45-56, Luke 23:44-49, John 19:28-37, Mark 15:42-47, Matthew 27:57-61, Luke 23:50-56, John 19:38-42, and Matthew 27:62-66. . . . . Go to ⁠https://anniefdowns.com/gospels⁠ to purchase your April Reading Plan or Let's Read the Gospels Guidebook. . . . . This month, we will be reading from the ⁠NLT Bible⁠ in Chronological Order. . . . . Follow Let's Read the Gospels on ⁠YouTube⁠, ⁠Instagram⁠, and ⁠Facebook⁠ . . . . Your ratings and reviews help us spread the Gospel to new friends! If you love this podcast, ⁠rate the podcast on Apple Podcasts and leave us a brief review⁠! You can do the same on ⁠Spotify⁠ and on ⁠Google Podcasts⁠ as well.

Today's reading is Mark 15:1, Matthew 27:1-2, Luke 22:66-71, Matthew 27:3-10, Mark 15:2-5, Matthew 27:11-14, Luke 23:1-12, John 18:28-40, Mark 15:6-15, Matthew 27:15-26, Luke 23:13-25, John 19:1-16, Mark 15:16-20, Matthew 27:27-31, and Luke 22:63-65. . . . . Go to ⁠https://anniefdowns.com/gospels⁠ to purchase your April Reading Plan or Let's Read the Gospels Guidebook. . . . . This month, we will be reading from the ⁠NLT Bible⁠ in Chronological Order. . . . . Follow Let's Read the Gospels on ⁠YouTube⁠, ⁠Instagram⁠, and ⁠Facebook⁠ . . . . Your ratings and reviews help us spread the Gospel to new friends! If you love this podcast, ⁠rate the podcast on Apple Podcasts and leave us a brief review⁠! You can do the same on ⁠Spotify⁠ and on ⁠Google Podcasts⁠ as well.

Today's reading is Matthew 26:36-46, Luke 22:39-46, Mark 14:43-52, Matthew 26:47-56, Luke 22:47-53, John 18:3-24, Mark 14:53-65, Matthew 26:57-68, Mark 14:66-72, Matthew 26:69-75, Luke 22:54-62, and John 18:25-27. . . . . Go to ⁠https://anniefdowns.com/gospels⁠ to purchase your April Reading Plan or Let's Read the Gospels Guidebook. . . . . This month, we will be reading from the ⁠NLT Bible⁠ in Chronological Order. . . . . Follow Let's Read the Gospels on ⁠YouTube⁠, ⁠Instagram⁠, and ⁠Facebook⁠ . . . . Your ratings and reviews help us spread the Gospel to new friends! If you love this podcast, ⁠rate the podcast on Apple Podcasts and leave us a brief review⁠! You can do the same on ⁠Spotify⁠ and on ⁠Google Podcasts⁠ as well.

Today's reading is John 13:31-38, Mark 14:27-31, Matthew 26:31-35, Luke 22:31-38, and John 14-17. . . . . Go to ⁠https://anniefdowns.com/gospels⁠ to purchase your April Reading Plan or Let's Read the Gospels Guidebook. . . . . This month, we will be reading from the ⁠NLT Bible⁠ in Chronological Order. . . . . Follow Let's Read the Gospels on ⁠YouTube⁠, ⁠Instagram⁠, and ⁠Facebook⁠ . . . . Your ratings and reviews help us spread the Gospel to new friends! If you love this podcast, ⁠rate the podcast on Apple Podcasts and leave us a brief review⁠! You can do the same on ⁠Spotify⁠ and on ⁠Google Podcasts⁠ as well.

Today's reading is Matthew 25:14-46, Mark 14:1-2, Matthew 26:1-5, Luke 22:1-2, Mark 14:10-11, Matthew 26:14-16, Luke 22:3-6, Mark 14:12-16, Matthew 26:17-19, Luke 22:7-13, John 13:1-17, Mark 14:17-26, Matthew 26:20-30, Luke 22:14-30, and John 13:18-30. . . . . Go to ⁠https://anniefdowns.com/gospels⁠ to purchase your April Reading Plan or Let's Read the Gospels Guidebook. . . . . This month, we will be reading from the ⁠NLT Bible⁠ in Chronological Order. . . . . Follow Let's Read the Gospels on ⁠YouTube⁠, ⁠Instagram⁠, and ⁠Facebook⁠ . . . . Your ratings and reviews help us spread the Gospel to new friends! If you love this podcast, ⁠rate the podcast on Apple Podcasts and leave us a brief review⁠! You can do the same on ⁠Spotify⁠ and on ⁠Google Podcasts⁠ as well.

Today's reading is Mark 13:1-23, Matthew 24:1-25, Luke 21:5-24, Mark 13:24-31, Matthew 24:26-35, Luke 21:25-33, Mark 13:32-37, Matthew 24:36-51, Luke 21:34-38, and Matthew 25:1-13. . . . . Go to ⁠https://anniefdowns.com/gospels⁠ to purchase your April Reading Plan or Let's Read the Gospels Guidebook. . . . . This month, we will be reading from the ⁠NLT Bible⁠ in Chronological Order. . . . . Follow Let's Read the Gospels on ⁠YouTube⁠, ⁠Instagram⁠, and ⁠Facebook⁠ . . . . Your ratings and reviews help us spread the Gospel to new friends! If you love this podcast, ⁠rate the podcast on Apple Podcasts and leave us a brief review⁠! You can do the same on ⁠Spotify⁠ and on ⁠Google Podcasts⁠ as well.

Today's reading is Matthew 22:1-14, Mark 12:13-17, Matthew 22:15-22, Luke 20:20-26, Mark 12:18-27, Matthew 22:23-33, Luke 20:27-40, Mark 12:28-34, Matthew 22:34-40, Mark 12:35-37, Matthew 22:41-46, Luke 20:41-44, Mark 12:38-40, Matthew 23:1-12, Luke 20:45-47, Matthew 23:13-39, Mark 12:41-44, and Luke 21:1-4. . . . . Go to ⁠https://anniefdowns.com/gospels⁠ to purchase your March Reading Plan or Let's Read the Gospels Guidebook. . . . . This month, we will be reading from the ⁠NLT Bible⁠ in Chronological Order. . . . . Follow Let's Read the Gospels on ⁠YouTube⁠, ⁠Instagram⁠, and ⁠Facebook⁠ . . . . Your ratings and reviews help us spread the Gospel to new friends! If you love this podcast, ⁠rate the podcast on Apple Podcasts and leave us a brief review⁠! You can do the same on ⁠Spotify⁠ and on ⁠Google Podcasts⁠ as well.

Today's reading is John 12:20-50, Mark 11:12-14, Matthew 21:18-22, Mark 11:15-19, Matthew 21:12-17, Luke 19:45-48, Mark 11:20-33, Matthew 21:23-27, Luke 20:1-8, Matthew 21:28-32, Mark 12:1-12, Matthew 21:33-46, and Luke 20:9-19. . . . . Go to ⁠https://anniefdowns.com/gospels⁠ to purchase your March Reading Plan or Let's Read the Gospels Guidebook. . . . . This month, we will be reading from the ⁠NLT Bible⁠ in Chronological Order. . . . . Follow Let's Read the Gospels on ⁠YouTube⁠, ⁠Instagram⁠, and ⁠Facebook⁠ . . . . Your ratings and reviews help us spread the Gospel to new friends! If you love this podcast, ⁠rate the podcast on Apple Podcasts and leave us a brief review⁠! You can do the same on ⁠Spotify⁠ and on ⁠Google Podcasts⁠ as well.

Today's reading is Matthew 20:29-34, Mark 10:46-52, Luke 18:35-43, Luke 19:1-27, Mark 14:3-9, Matthew 26:6-13, John 12:1-11, Mark 11:1-11, Matthew 21:1-11, Luke 19:28-40, John 12:12-19, and Luke 19:41-44. . . . . Go to ⁠https://anniefdowns.com/gospels⁠ to purchase your March Reading Plan or Let's Read the Gospels Guidebook. . . . . This month, we will be reading from the ⁠NLT Bible⁠ in Chronological Order. . . . . Follow Let's Read the Gospels on ⁠YouTube⁠, ⁠Instagram⁠, and ⁠Facebook⁠ . . . . Your ratings and reviews help us spread the Gospel to new friends! If you love this podcast, ⁠rate the podcast on Apple Podcasts and leave us a brief review⁠! You can do the same on ⁠Spotify⁠ and on ⁠Google Podcasts⁠ as well.

Today's reading is Luke 18:9-14, Mark 10:1-12, Matthew 19:1-12, Mark 10:13-16, Matthew 19:13-15, Luke 18:15-17, Mark 10:17-31, Matthew 19:16-30, Luke 18:18-30, Matthew 20:1-16, Mark 10:32-34, Matthew 20:17-19, Luke 18:31-34, Mark 10:35-45, and Matthew 20:20-28. . . . . Go to ⁠https://anniefdowns.com/gospels⁠ to purchase your March Reading Plan or Let's Read the Gospels Guidebook. . . . . This month, we will be reading from the ⁠NLT Bible⁠ in Chronological Order. . . . . Follow Let's Read the Gospels on ⁠YouTube⁠, ⁠Instagram⁠, and ⁠Facebook⁠ . . . . Your ratings and reviews help us spread the Gospel to new friends! If you love this podcast, ⁠rate the podcast on Apple Podcasts and leave us a brief review⁠! You can do the same on ⁠Spotify⁠ and on ⁠Google Podcasts⁠ as well.

Today's reading is Luke 16, Luke 17:1-10, John 11, Luke 17:11-37, and Luke 18:1-8. . . . . Go to https://anniefdowns.com/gospels to purchase your March Reading Plan or Let's Read the Gospels Guidebook. . . . . This month, we will be reading from the NLT Bible in Chronological Order. . . . . Follow Let's Read the Gospels on YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook . . . . Your ratings and reviews help us spread the Gospel to new friends! If you love this podcast, rate the podcast on Apple Podcasts and leave us a brief review! You can do the same on Spotify and on Google Podcasts as well.

Today's reading is John 10, Luke 13:22-35, Luke 14, and Luke 15. . . . . Go to https://anniefdowns.com/gospels to purchase your March Reading Plan or Let's Read the Gospels Guidebook. . . . . This month, we will be reading from the NLT Bible in Chronological Order. . . . . Follow Let's Read the Gospels on YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook . . . . Your ratings and reviews help us spread the Gospel to new friends! If you love this podcast, rate the podcast on Apple Podcasts and leave us a brief review! You can do the same on Spotify and on Google Podcasts as well.

Today's reading is Luke 11:14-54, Luke 12, Luke 13:1-21, and John 9. . . . . Go to https://anniefdowns.com/gospels to purchase your March Reading Plan or Let's Read the Gospels Guidebook. . . . . This month, we will be reading from the NLT Bible in Chronological Order. . . . . Follow Let's Read the Gospels on YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook . . . . Your ratings and reviews help us spread the Gospel to new friends! If you love this podcast, rate the podcast on Apple Podcasts and leave us a brief review! You can do the same on Spotify and on Google Podcasts as well.

Today's reading is John 8, Luke 10, and Luke 11:1-13. . . . . Go to https://anniefdowns.com/gospels to purchase your March Reading Plan or Let's Read the Gospels Guidebook. . . . . This month, we will be reading from the NLT Bible in Chronological Order. . . . . Follow Let's Read the Gospels on YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook . . . . Your ratings and reviews help us spread the Gospel to new friends! If you love this podcast, rate the podcast on Apple Podcasts and leave us a brief review! You can do the same on Spotify and on Google Podcasts as well.

Today's reading is Mark 9:33-37, Matthew 18:1-6, Luke 9:46-48, Mark 9:38-41, Luke 9:49-50, Mark 9:42-50, Matthew 18:7-10, Matthew 18:12-35, John 7:1-9, Luke 9:51-56, Matthew 8:18-22, Luke 9:57-62, and John 7: 10-53. . . . . Go to https://anniefdowns.com/gospels to purchase your March Reading Plan or Let's Read the Gospels Guidebook. . . . . This month, we will be reading from the NLT Bible in Chronological Order. . . . . Follow Let's Read the Gospels on YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook . . . . Your ratings and reviews help us spread the Gospel to new friends! If you love this podcast, rate the podcast on Apple Podcasts and leave us a brief review! You can do the same on Spotify and on Google Podcasts as well.

Today's reading is Mark 8:22-30, Matthew 16:13-20, Luke 9:18-20, Mark 8:31-9:1, Matthew 16:21-28, Luke 9:21-27, Mark 9:2-13, Matthew 17:1-13, Luke 9:28-36, Mark 9:14-29, Matthew 17:14-21, Luke 9:37-43, Mark 9:30-32, Matthew 17:22-23, Luke 9:43-45, and Matthew 17:24-27. . . . . Go to https://anniefdowns.com/gospels to purchase your March Reading Plan or Let's Read the Gospels Guidebook. . . . . This month, we will be reading from the NLT Bible in Chronological Order. . . . . Follow Let's Read the Gospels on YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook . . . . Your ratings and reviews help us spread the Gospel to new friends! If you love this podcast, rate the podcast on Apple Podcasts and leave us a brief review! You can do the same on Spotify and on Google Podcasts as well.

Today's reading is Mark 7:1-23, Matthew 15:1-20, Mark 7:24-30, Matthew 15:21-28, Mark 7:31-37, Matthew 15:29-31, Mark 8:1-10, Matthew 15:32-39, Matthew 16:1-4, Mark 8:11-21, and Matthew 16:5-12. . . . . Go to https://anniefdowns.com/gospels to purchase your March Reading Plan or Let's Read the Gospels Guidebook. . . . . This month, we will be reading from the NLT Bible in Chronological Order. . . . . Follow Let's Read the Gospels on YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook . . . . Your ratings and reviews help us spread the Gospel to new friends! If you love this podcast, rate the podcast on Apple Podcasts and leave us a brief review! You can do the same on Spotify and on Google Podcasts as well.

Today's reading is Luke 9:7-9, Mark 6:14-29, Matthew 14:1-21, Mark 6:30-44, Luke 9:10-17, John 6:1-15, Mark 6:45-52, Matthew 14:22-33, John 6:16-21, Mark 6:53-56, Matthew 14:34-36, and John 6:22-71. . . . . Go to https://anniefdowns.com/gospels to purchase your March Reading Plan or Let's Read the Gospels Guidebook. . . . . This month, we will be reading from the NLT Bible in Chronological Order. . . . . Follow Let's Read the Gospels on YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook . . . . Your ratings and reviews help us spread the Gospel to new friends! If you love this podcast, rate the podcast on Apple Podcasts and leave us a brief review! You can do the same on Spotify and on Google Podcasts as well.

Today's reading is Mark 5:21-43, Matthew 9:18-26, Luke 8:40-56, Matthew 9:27-34, Mark 6:1-6, Matthew 13:53-58, Matthew 9:35-38, Mark 6:7-13, Matthew 10:1-42, and Luke 9:1-6. . . . . Go to https://anniefdowns.com/gospels to purchase your March Reading Plan or Let's Read the Gospels Guidebook. . . . . This month, we will be reading from the NLT Bible in Chronological Order. . . . . Follow Let's Read the Gospels on YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook . . . . Your ratings and reviews help us spread the Gospel to new friends! If you love this podcast, rate the podcast on Apple Podcasts and leave us a brief review! You can do the same on Spotify and on Google Podcasts as well.

Today's reading is Luke 8:16-18, Mark 4:21-29, Matthew 13:24-30, Mark 4:30-34, Matthew 13:31-52, Mark 4:35-41, Matthew 8:23-27, Luke 8:22-25, Mark 5:1-20, Matthew 8:28-34, and Luke 8:26-39. . . . . Go to https://anniefdowns.com/gospels to purchase your March Reading Plan or Let's Read the Gospels Guidebook. . . . . This month, we will be reading from the NLT Bible in Chronological Order. . . . . Follow Let's Read the Gospels on YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook . . . . Your ratings and reviews help us spread the Gospel to new friends! If you love this podcast, rate the podcast on Apple Podcasts and leave us a brief review! You can do the same on Spotify and on Google Podcasts as well.

Today's reading is Matthew 11:20-30, Luke 7:36-50, Luke 8:1-3, Mark 3:20-30, Matthew 12:22-45, Mark 3:31-35, Matthew 12:46-50, Luke 8:19-21, Mark 4:1-9, Matthew 13:1-9, Luke 8:4-8, Mark 4:10-20, Matthew 13:10-23, and Luke 8:9-15. . . . . Go to https://anniefdowns.com/gospels to purchase your March Reading Plan or Let's Read the Gospels Guidebook. . . . . This month, we will be reading from the NLT Bible in Chronological Order. . . . . Follow Let's Read the Gospels on YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook . . . . Your ratings and reviews help us spread the Gospel to new friends! If you love this podcast, rate the podcast on Apple Podcasts and leave us a brief review! You can do the same on Spotify and on Google Podcasts as well.

Today's reading is Matthew 7:1-6, Luke 6:37-42, Matthew 7:7-20, Luke 6:;43-45, Matthew 7:21-29, Luke 6:46-49, Matthew 8:5-13, Luke 7:1-17, Matthew 11:1-19, and Luke 7:18-35. . . . . Go to https://anniefdowns.com/gospels to purchase your March Reading Plan or Let's Read the Gospels Guidebook. . . . . This month, we will be reading from the NLT Bible in Chronological Order. . . . . Follow Let's Read the Gospels on YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook . . . . Your ratings and reviews help us spread the Gospel to new friends! If you love this podcast, rate the podcast on Apple Podcasts and leave us a brief review! You can do the same on Spotify and on Google Podcasts as well.

Today's reading is Mark 3:7-19, Luke 6:12-16, Matthew 5:1-12, Luke 6:17-26, Matthew 5:13-48, Luke 6:27-36, and Matthew 6:1-34. . . . . Go to https://anniefdowns.com/gospels to purchase your March Reading Plan or Let's Read the Gospels Guidebook. . . . . This month, we will be reading from the NLT Bible in Chronological Order. . . . . Follow Let's Read the Gospels on YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook . . . . Your ratings and reviews help us spread the Gospel to new friends! If you love this podcast, rate the podcast on Apple Podcasts and leave us a brief review! You can do the same on Spotify and on Google Podcasts as well.

Today's reading is Mark 2:1-12, Matthew 9:1-8, Luke 5:17-26, Mark 2:13-17, Matthew 9:9-13, Luke 5:27-32, Mark 2:18-22, Matthew 9:14-17, Luke 5:33-39, John 5, Mark 2:23-28, Matthew 12:1-8, Luke 6:1-5, Mark 3:1-6, Matthew 12:9-14, Luke 6:6-11, and Matthew 12:15-21. . . . . Go to https://anniefdowns.com/gospels to purchase your March Reading Plan or Let's Read the Gospels Guidebook. . . . . This month, we will be reading from the NLT Bible in Chronological Order. . . . . Follow Let's Read the Gospels on YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook . . . . Your ratings and reviews help us spread the Gospel to new friends! If you love this podcast, rate the podcast on Apple Podcasts and leave us a brief review! You can do the same on Spotify and on Google Podcasts as well.

Today's reading is Mark 1:14-15, Matthew 4:12-17, Luke 3:23, John 4:46-54, Luke 4:16-30, Mark 1:16-20, Matthew 4:18-22, Mark 1:21-28, Luke 4:31-37, Mark 1:29-34, Matthew 8:14-17, Luke 4:38-41, Mark 1:35-39, Luke 4:42-44, Matthew 4:23-25, Luke 5:1-11, Mark 1:40-45, Matthew 8:1-4, and Luke 5:12-16. . . . . Go to https://anniefdowns.com/gospels to purchase your March Reading Plan or Let's Read the Gospels Guidebook. . . . . This month, we will be reading from the NLT Bible in Chronological Order. . . . . Follow Let's Read the Gospels on YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook . . . . Your ratings and reviews help us spread the Gospel to new friends! If you love this podcast, rate the podcast on Apple Podcasts and leave us a brief review! You can do the same on Spotify and on Google Podcasts as well.

Today's reading is John 1:35-51, John 2-3, John 4:1-45, and Luke 3:19-20. . . . . Go to https://anniefdowns.com/gospels to purchase your March Reading Plan or Let's Read the Gospels Guidebook. . . . . This month, we will be reading from the NLT Bible in Chronological Order. . . . . Follow Let's Read the Gospels on YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook . . . . Your ratings and reviews help us spread the Gospel to new friends! If you love this podcast, rate the podcast on Apple Podcasts and leave us a brief review! You can do the same on Spotify and on Google Podcasts as well.

Today's reading is Luke 2:41-52, Mark 1:1-8, Matthew 3:1-12, Luke 3:1-18, Mark 1:9-11, Matthew 3:13-17, Luke 3:21-22, Mark 1:12-13, Matthew 4:1-11, Luke 4:1-15, and John 1:19-34. . . . . Go to https://anniefdowns.com/gospels to purchase your March Reading Plan or Let's Read the Gospels Guidebook. . . . . This month, we will be reading from the NLT Bible in Chronological Order. . . . . Follow Let's Read the Gospels on YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook . . . . Your ratings and reviews help us spread the Gospel to new friends! If you love this podcast, rate the podcast on Apple Podcasts and leave us a brief review! You can do the same on Spotify and on Google Podcasts as well.

Today's reading is Luke 1:39-80, Matthew 1:18-25, Luke 2:1-40, and Matthew 2. . . . . Go to https://anniefdowns.com/gospels to purchase your March Reading Plan or Let's Read the Gospels Guidebook. . . . . This month, we will be reading from the NLT Bible in Chronological Order. . . . . Follow Let's Read the Gospels on YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook . . . . Your ratings and reviews help us spread the Gospel to new friends! If you love this podcast, rate the podcast on Apple Podcasts and leave us a brief review! You can do the same on Spotify and on Google Podcasts as well.

Today's reading is Mark 1:1, Luke 1:1-4, John 1:1-18, Matthew 1:1-17, Luke 3:23-38, and Luke 1:5-38. . . . . Go to https://anniefdowns.com/gospels to purchase your March Reading Plan or Let's Read the Gospels Guidebook. . . . . This month, we will be reading from the NLT Bible in Chronological Order. . . . . Follow Let's Read the Gospels on YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook . . . . Your ratings and reviews help us spread the Gospel to new friends! If you love this podcast, rate the podcast on Apple Podcasts and leave us a brief review! You can do the same on Spotify and on Google Podcasts as well.

Every Word 2022 day 115: What most people don't know about Bible translations Hi there, and welcome to this bonus podcast! I will be discussing the two main types of Bible translations I recommend for most people. As a Bible translator since 1983, I feel that most Christians in the USA are not given enough information about why Bible translations differ in wording, and which kinds of Bible translations will be better for different kinds of readers. This is an important topic, so I am surprised at myself: I can't believe that I haven't released a dedicated podcast about this topic every year since 2014. ALSO, please stay tuned for the end of the podcast, because I want to recommend a fantastic new real-book Bible. Because of more difficult content in this podcast, if you are not driving a car, it would be a great idea to open the episode notes so you can visually follow along and make sure you don't miss something important. Look especially at the words I have made bold. There are actually five types of Bible translations, but I will mainly discuss the two most-used types in this podcast. But let's start with showing the two types with a translation example that is not from the Bible. Consider this sentence: Jill looked like a deer caught in the headlights when she heard Jack's proposal. Now let's imagine a word-for-word translation for some language in Africa. Since we don't know a language like that, let's pretend we do and make a word-for-word translation into English. Here is my suggestion for that: Jill appeared like a trapped gazelle in bright light upon hearing Jack's desire. What we have in this example (caught in the headlights) is a figure of speech. Americans rather frequently use this figure of speech. But a word-for-word translation for the hypothetical African audience would very likely be tricky for them to understand. They might not know what a gazelle would do if a bright light shone upon them. (For that matter, I don't know if gazelle's act like deer do when meeting with bright lights.) I think an African might understand “Jill appeared like a gazelle trapped in bright light” to be a gazelle trapped with a metal trap, in pain, and struggling to get loose when the bright light suddenly shines upon it. Our hypothetical African listener will probably get a very different idea about what is meant. For our second hypothetical translation, let's try giving the plain meaning like we would if we were explaining to an 8-year-old child. We might translate, “Jill was stunned by Jack's proposal.” Or we might say, Jill was caught off guard and totally surprised by Jack's offer.” In this example, I've dropped the figure of speech entirely and gone straight for the meaning. These are the two main translation types that I want to explain: The first was what we call a literal translation, or a word-for-word translation. And the second is what I will call a meaning-based translation.  Literal: Jill appeared like a trapped gazelle in bright light … Meaning-based: Jill was stunned by Jack's proposal. Which translation is ‘right'? Actually both translations can be considered right. But the word-for-word translation is difficult to understand for our hypothetical African listeners, because there are cultural factors involved in interpreting the figure of speech in this example. The listeners would likely come up with various interpretations about the poor, defenseless gazelle being trapped. Whereas, if Jill likes Jack, she may be thrilled at his proposal. The meaning based translation is right too: “Jill was stunned by Jack's proposal.” That translation is easy to understand, but if you remember the original sentence, you will miss the richness of the figure of speech. The two main types of Bible translations have exactly the same problems as what I have shown in the two examples above. The advantage of a literal, word-for-word translation is that it mirrors the form of the original text. The disadvantage of a literal translation is that it cannot always clearly give the meaning in the target language. The meaning-based translation is just the opposite: The advantage of a meaning-based translation is that it shows the meaning clearly. The disadvantage of a meaning-based translation is that it cannot mirror the form of the original text. Every Bible translator starts out thinking, “I will be able to translate word-for-word and still clearly enough show the meaning.” For two languages that are strongly related to each other, a literal translation can often still be clear. But if we are thinking of translating ancient Hebrew and Greek into modern English, there is a huge gulf between the ancient and modern languages and cultures. My first example involved an English figure of speech. But let me give you a chance to experience decoding an Indonesian figure of speech: Yakobus adalah kacang yang sudah lupa kulitnya. A word-for-word translation is this: Jack is a peanut that has forgotten his shell. Now it is your turn to wonder what that could mean. You won't guess, so I will tell you. Here's a meaning-based translation of “Jack is a peanut that has forgotten his shell.” That means, Jack left his rural village to get an education in the city, and now has a good job with a high salary, but he has forgotten his humble beginnings. He never helps any of his friends and relatives in his home village. There are many literal (or word-for-word) Bible translations in English. That kind of translation is easier to make. And not all literal translations are equally literal. Some fudge to be slightly more meaning-based. But for the purposes of this discussion, I will choose what I think is the most popular literal translation today: It is the ESV (English Standard Version). It is the translation that would translate, “Jill appeared like a trapped gazelle in bright light.” It is great at showing the word-for-word form of the original text, but not so good at giving you the meaning clearly. A literal translation I like better than the ESV is the WEBBE (World English Bible British Edition). Meaning-based Bible translations are much rarer, because they require the translator to work much harder to accurately translate the meaning. For English language readers, I recommend the Weymouth New Testament in Modern Speech of 1901, The Good News Bible (TEV 1966), and the New Living Translation. There are a few more, but those are my favorites, and I will focus in this podcast on the NLT. The NLT would translate our example as “Jill was stunned by Jack's proposal.”  The KJV is a literal translation, and an unfortunate part of the continuing legacy of the KJV, is that pastors often prefer using literal translations from the pulpit. But unfortunately this means that many ordinary people in the pew wind up using something like the ESV for their daily Bible reading at home. This means that many Christians who read their Bibles at home often struggle with hard-to-understand passages. If you normally read the ESV Bible and think you understand everything in it, well, I bet you haven't yet read all of it! Here is one of my most important recommendations for you: Make sure you have access to both kinds of translations. In other words, use both an ESV and an NLT Bible. That way you can quickly see the meaning (in the NLT), and you get a window into the word-for-word shape of the original text with the ESV. My Daily Bible Reading podcasts have only been of two meaning-based translations. Why? Because they can be understood by people just listening to the recordings. It would be useless to record the ESV, because listeners would often miss the meaning.  Now I want to illustrate what I have been saying with a Bible passage. I wish I could spend an hour doing this, but I feel I must limit myself to only one example. I have chosen the topic statement for the book of Romans, chapter 1, verses 16-17. In the ESV verse 16 says, For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. If I had all the podcast listeners in front of me as a  group, I would say to you, “Raise your hand if you are a Jew.” Usually in my audiences, no one raises their hand. At that point I say, “Raise your hand if you are a Greek.” Usually again, no one raises their hand. But then my question is, “Where do you fit in to Romans 1:16?” This verse says that the gospel is “the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. Sounds like you people who didn't raise your hands are not able to be saved! So which one are we?” The answer is that Paul is contrasting Jews with everyone else. Greek was the universal language of culture and commerce at that time, even under the Roman government. Now let's compare the same verse in the NLT: For I am not ashamed of this Good News about Christ. It is the power of God at work, saving everyone who believes— the Jew first and also the Gentile. Now let's look at verse 17 in the ESV: For in it (referring back to the Gospel) the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.” No English reader will suspect that there is anything kind of strange about the phrase ‘the righteous of God'. The problem is that ‘of God' is a genitive in Greek, and genitives have a dozen different options for the meaning. ESV nearly always uses the word ‘of' to translate genitives. But in this verse, ‘righteousness of God'  will mean that the Gospel is about revealing that God is righteous. Wait a minute! If God is righteous and I am not righteous, that is not Good News. He will punish me. Rather, in this verse, the genitive is one showing source. Just wait a moment and I will read the NLT. A second significant problem in verse 17 is a grammatical construction that forms an idiom in Greek: For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith. So the literal translation has zero meaning or leaves the reader to guess at meanings, which will probably be wrong. Finally, because of the first two problems I just mentioned, it seems like the final quote from Habakkuk 2:4 doesn't fit with what came before it. So we ask, why did Paul quote, “The righteous shall live by faith.” Now let me read the NLT to you: 17 This Good News tells us how God makes us right in his sight. This is accomplished from start to finish by faith. As the Scriptures say, “It is through faith that a righteous person has life.” Many years ago, I had a phone conversation with a woman who was a new believer. She liked reading her KJV, and I used Romans 1:16-17 to try to show her that she would be better off reading the NLT. The KJV has the same problem in v.17: “For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith.” So I asked her what that means, and she quickly replied, “Oh, you know, the Catholic faith, the Mormon faith, the protestant faith.” Hello! None of those things existed when Paul wrote Romans. I give that story to show that a dangerous thing that happens when many people read the Bible: If we don't understand something, we may just make up a meaning that sounds plausible to us. And as time goes on, we can get more and more convinced that our guesses are true. Going back to the advantages and disadvantages of the two translation types, the ESV has made a very good literal translation of 1:17. The ESV closely mirrors the form of the Greek text, but the problem is that readers won't grasp the meaning, unless perhaps there are study notes to guide them. On the other hand, the NLT has the disadvantage that it doesn't match the word-for-word form of the Greek, but it nails the meaning. God is the source of our righteousness. NLT translates: This Good News tells us how God makes us right in his sight. And the Greek idiom ‘from faith to faith' means, “This is accomplished from start to finish by faith.” Finally, if you take the time to read verse 17 again, you will see that the quote at the end of the verse supports what Paul claims about the Good News about Christ. I am passionate about people having access to at least one Bible that is a literal translation, and one that is a meaning-based translation.  Recently an elder in our church shared that he was struggling hard to read and understand Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel. He was rather bitter in his complaints, saying, “Why did Jeremiah write like this? I can't penetrate this stuff!” This is just one example of many I could share. Normal Christians like you and me who try to use a literal translation for devotional reading, and attempt to read every book in the Bible, will not enjoy the experience. This can clearly be seen in Indonesia, where the people have only had wide access to one literal translation since 1974. Indonesian Christians have been discouraged from reading their Bibles for too long, and that has seriously weakened the church throughout that country. Now, with our Plain Indonesian Translation, thousands of people have discovered that they enjoy reading the Bible. But now, through our 90-day Bible reading challenge, teenage kids and adults are rejoicing to find that they enjoy reading the New Testament, finishing it in 90 days, and many immediately start over to read it again. Any Christian who wants to glorify God should read the whole Bible. And if we really want to glorify God, then we should read a translation that we understand. Reading a translation that you don't understand fully will not help you or encourage you. I need to give two important clarifications: Some people think that the NLT is a paraphrase because the first edition still contained some words or phrases that sounded like the Living Bible. The Living Bible deserves to be called a paraphrase, because it occasionally adds ideas not found in the original text, or fails to translate other things. But the New Living Translation is a highly researched and revised meaning-based translation. My second clarification is that The Message is an extreme paraphrase. Please don't think it is a faithful translation. Please don't quote it. Please don't give it to a new Christian to read. Here is the information about real-book Bibles I mentioned at the beginning of the podcast. I want you to know that no one at Tyndale House asked me to promote their products, and I am not getting paid anything for giving out this information. Gale decided to give NLT Bibles to members of her Bible study groups, and I decided to give them to my small group. It has been a long time since we bought Bibles, and so we made some delightful discoveries. Tyndale House has several cool NLT Bibles right now. The NLT Illustrated Study Bible is incredible! Beautifully illustrated with maps and charts and many study notes and supplemental information. The hardcover edition is only $36.66. You might like the leather-like edition which is a bit more. However, at more than 2,500 pages, you won't want to carry this Bible around.  Here's what I am giving to some young people in our church, including our grandkids: There is a new kind of Bible developed by Tyndale House, called a Filament Enabled NLT Bible. This real-book Bible comes without study notes and maps, making it practical to carry and providing an uncluttered reading experience, but it has a companion cell phone app that gives you all the stuff you would get in a study Bible and even much more. You download the Filament app for your phone or tablet, and then you can take a picture of the page number or type in the page number for which you want to get more information. The app then gives you study notes, charts, timelines, and devotional material, including videos and even worship songs. There is a premium-value edition with a leather-like cover for just $15. For the person who wants to make notes, there is a beautiful wide margin edition available for $38. A large print Filament enabled Bible is about that same price. A genuine leather thin-line edition of the NLT Filament Bible is only $35.  I highly recommend an article linked at the very end of the episode notes entitled How Not to Argue About Which Bible Translation Is Best by Andy Naselli.    And may the Lord bless you ‘real good'.   LINKS: https://sites.google.com/clarinetpages.net/read-the-bible-in-a-year/read/start-with-a-good-plan See the second part of this page: Recommended Bible translations for devotional reading   Fantastic article: How Not to Argue About Which Bible Translation Is Best June 13, 2017  |  Andy Naselli  

Every Word 2022 day 115: What most people don't know about Bible translations Hi there, and welcome to this bonus podcast! I will be discussing the two main types of Bible translations I recommend for most people. As a Bible translator since 1983, I feel that most Christians in the USA are not given enough information about why Bible translations differ in wording, and which kinds of Bible translations will be better for different kinds of readers. This is an important topic, so I am surprised at myself: I can't believe that I haven't released a dedicated podcast about this topic every year since 2014. ALSO, please stay tuned for the end of the podcast, because I want to recommend a fantastic new real-book Bible. Because of more difficult content in this podcast, if you are not driving a car, it would be a great idea to open the episode notes so you can visually follow along and make sure you don't miss something important. Look especially at the words I have made bold. There are actually five types of Bible translations, but I will mainly discuss the two most-used types in this podcast. But let's start with showing the two types with a translation example that is not from the Bible. Consider this sentence: Jill looked like a deer caught in the headlights when she heard Jack's proposal. Now let's imagine a word-for-word translation for some language in Africa. Since we don't know a language like that, let's pretend we do and make a word-for-word translation into English. Here is my suggestion for that: Jill appeared like a trapped gazelle in bright light upon hearing Jack's desire. What we have in this example (caught in the headlights) is a figure of speech. Americans rather frequently use this figure of speech. But a word-for-word translation for the hypothetical African audience would very likely be tricky for them to understand. They might not know what a gazelle would do if a bright light shone upon them. (For that matter, I don't know if gazelle's act like deer do when meeting with bright lights.) I think an African might understand “Jill appeared like a gazelle trapped in bright light” to be a gazelle trapped with a metal trap, in pain, and struggling to get loose when the bright light suddenly shines upon it. Our hypothetical African listener will probably get a very different idea about what is meant. For our second hypothetical translation, let's try giving the plain meaning like we would if we were explaining to an 8-year-old child. We might translate, “Jill was stunned by Jack's proposal.” Or we might say, Jill was caught off guard and totally surprised by Jack's offer.” In this example, I've dropped the figure of speech entirely and gone straight for the meaning. These are the two main translation types that I want to explain: The first was what we call a literal translation, or a word-for-word translation. And the second is what I will call a meaning-based translation.  Literal: Jill appeared like a trapped gazelle in bright light … Meaning-based: Jill was stunned by Jack's proposal. Which translation is ‘right'? Actually both translations can be considered right. But the word-for-word translation is difficult to understand for our hypothetical African listeners, because there are cultural factors involved in interpreting the figure of speech in this example. The listeners would likely come up with various interpretations about the poor, defenseless gazelle being trapped. Whereas, if Jill likes Jack, she may be thrilled at his proposal. The meaning based translation is right too: “Jill was stunned by Jack's proposal.” That translation is easy to understand, but if you remember the original sentence, you will miss the richness of the figure of speech. The two main types of Bible translations have exactly the same problems as what I have shown in the two examples above. The advantage of a literal, word-for-word translation is that it mirrors the form of the original text. The disadvantage of a literal translation is that it cannot always clearly give the meaning in the target language. The meaning-based translation is just the opposite: The advantage of a meaning-based translation is that it shows the meaning clearly. The disadvantage of a meaning-based translation is that it cannot mirror the form of the original text. Every Bible translator starts out thinking, “I will be able to translate word-for-word and still clearly enough show the meaning.” For two languages that are strongly related to each other, a literal translation can often still be clear. But if we are thinking of translating ancient Hebrew and Greek into modern English, there is a huge gulf between the ancient and modern languages and cultures. My first example involved an English figure of speech. But let me give you a chance to experience decoding an Indonesian figure of speech: Yakobus adalah kacang yang sudah lupa kulitnya. A word-for-word translation is this: Jack is a peanut that has forgotten his shell. Now it is your turn to wonder what that could mean. You won't guess, so I will tell you. Here's a meaning-based translation of “Jack is a peanut that has forgotten his shell.” That means, Jack left his rural village to get an education in the city, and now has a good job with a high salary, but he has forgotten his humble beginnings. He never helps any of his friends and relatives in his home village. There are many literal (or word-for-word) Bible translations in English. That kind of translation is easier to make. And not all literal translations are equally literal. Some fudge to be slightly more meaning-based. But for the purposes of this discussion, I will choose what I think is the most popular literal translation today: It is the ESV (English Standard Version). It is the translation that would translate, “Jill appeared like a trapped gazelle in bright light.” It is great at showing the word-for-word form of the original text, but not so good at giving you the meaning clearly. A literal translation I like better than the ESV is the WEBBE (World English Bible British Edition). Meaning-based Bible translations are much rarer, because they require the translator to work much harder to accurately translate the meaning. For English language readers, I recommend the Weymouth New Testament in Modern Speech of 1901, The Good News Bible (TEV 1966), and the New Living Translation. There are a few more, but those are my favorites, and I will focus in this podcast on the NLT. The NLT would translate our example as “Jill was stunned by Jack's proposal.”  The KJV is a literal translation, and an unfortunate part of the continuing legacy of the KJV, is that pastors often prefer using literal translations from the pulpit. But unfortunately this means that many ordinary people in the pew wind up using something like the ESV for their daily Bible reading at home. This means that many Christians who read their Bibles at home often struggle with hard-to-understand passages. If you normally read the ESV Bible and think you understand everything in it, well, I bet you haven't yet read all of it! Here is one of my most important recommendations for you: Make sure you have access to both kinds of translations. In other words, use both an ESV and an NLT Bible. That way you can quickly see the meaning (in the NLT), and you get a window into the word-for-word shape of the original text with the ESV. My Daily Bible Reading podcasts have only been of two meaning-based translations. Why? Because they can be understood by people just listening to the recordings. It would be useless to record the ESV, because listeners would often miss the meaning.  Now I want to illustrate what I have been saying with a Bible passage. I wish I could spend an hour doing this, but I feel I must limit myself to only one example. I have chosen the topic statement for the book of Romans, chapter 1, verses 16-17. In the ESV verse 16 says, For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. If I had all the podcast listeners in front of me as a  group, I would say to you, “Raise your hand if you are a Jew.” Usually in my audiences, no one raises their hand. At that point I say, “Raise your hand if you are a Greek.” Usually again, no one raises their hand. But then my question is, “Where do you fit in to Romans 1:16?” This verse says that the gospel is “the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. Sounds like you people who didn't raise your hands are not able to be saved! So which one are we?” The answer is that Paul is contrasting Jews with everyone else. Greek was the universal language of culture and commerce at that time, even under the Roman government. Now let's compare the same verse in the NLT: For I am not ashamed of this Good News about Christ. It is the power of God at work, saving everyone who believes— the Jew first and also the Gentile. Now let's look at verse 17 in the ESV: For in it (referring back to the Gospel) the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.” No English reader will suspect that there is anything kind of strange about the phrase ‘the righteous of God'. The problem is that ‘of God' is a genitive in Greek, and genitives have a dozen different options for the meaning. ESV nearly always uses the word ‘of' to translate genitives. But in this verse, ‘righteousness of God'  will mean that the Gospel is about revealing that God is righteous. Wait a minute! If God is righteous and I am not righteous, that is not Good News. He will punish me. Rather, in this verse, the genitive is one showing source. Just wait a moment and I will read the NLT. A second significant problem in verse 17 is a grammatical construction that forms an idiom in Greek: For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith. So the literal translation has zero meaning or leaves the reader to guess at meanings, which will probably be wrong. Finally, because of the first two problems I just mentioned, it seems like the final quote from Habakkuk 2:4 doesn't fit with what came before it. So we ask, why did Paul quote, “The righteous shall live by faith.” Now let me read the NLT to you: 17 This Good News tells us how God makes us right in his sight. This is accomplished from start to finish by faith. As the Scriptures say, “It is through faith that a righteous person has life.” Many years ago, I had a phone conversation with a woman who was a new believer. She liked reading her KJV, and I used Romans 1:16-17 to try to show her that she would be better off reading the NLT. The KJV has the same problem in v.17: “For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith.” So I asked her what that means, and she quickly replied, “Oh, you know, the Catholic faith, the Mormon faith, the protestant faith.” Hello! None of those things existed when Paul wrote Romans. I give that story to show that a dangerous thing that happens when many people read the Bible: If we don't understand something, we may just make up a meaning that sounds plausible to us. And as time goes on, we can get more and more convinced that our guesses are true. Going back to the advantages and disadvantages of the two translation types, the ESV has made a very good literal translation of 1:17. The ESV closely mirrors the form of the Greek text, but the problem is that readers won't grasp the meaning, unless perhaps there are study notes to guide them. On the other hand, the NLT has the disadvantage that it doesn't match the word-for-word form of the Greek, but it nails the meaning. God is the source of our righteousness. NLT translates: This Good News tells us how God makes us right in his sight. And the Greek idiom ‘from faith to faith' means, “This is accomplished from start to finish by faith.” Finally, if you take the time to read verse 17 again, you will see that the quote at the end of the verse supports what Paul claims about the Good News about Christ. I am passionate about people having access to at least one Bible that is a literal translation, and one that is a meaning-based translation.  Recently an elder in our church shared that he was struggling hard to read and understand Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel. He was rather bitter in his complaints, saying, “Why did Jeremiah write like this? I can't penetrate this stuff!” This is just one example of many I could share. Normal Christians like you and me who try to use a literal translation for devotional reading, and attempt to read every book in the Bible, will not enjoy the experience. This can clearly be seen in Indonesia, where the people have only had wide access to one literal translation since 1974. Indonesian Christians have been discouraged from reading their Bibles for too long, and that has seriously weakened the church throughout that country. Now, with our Plain Indonesian Translation, thousands of people have discovered that they enjoy reading the Bible. But now, through our 90-day Bible reading challenge, teenage kids and adults are rejoicing to find that they enjoy reading the New Testament, finishing it in 90 days, and many immediately start over to read it again. Any Christian who wants to glorify God should read the whole Bible. And if we really want to glorify God, then we should read a translation that we understand. Reading a translation that you don't understand fully will not help you or encourage you. I need to give two important clarifications: Some people think that the NLT is a paraphrase because the first edition still contained some words or phrases that sounded like the Living Bible. The Living Bible deserves to be called a paraphrase, because it occasionally adds ideas not found in the original text, or fails to translate other things. But the New Living Translation is a highly researched and revised meaning-based translation. My second clarification is that The Message is an extreme paraphrase. Please don't think it is a faithful translation. Please don't quote it. Please don't give it to a new Christian to read. Here is the information about real-book Bibles I mentioned at the beginning of the podcast. I want you to know that no one at Tyndale House asked me to promote their products, and I am not getting paid anything for giving out this information. Gale decided to give NLT Bibles to members of her Bible study groups, and I decided to give them to my small group. It has been a long time since we bought Bibles, and so we made some delightful discoveries. Tyndale House has several cool NLT Bibles right now. The NLT Illustrated Study Bible is incredible! Beautifully illustrated with maps and charts and many study notes and supplemental information. The hardcover edition is only $36.66. You might like the leather-like edition which is a bit more. However, at more than 2,500 pages, you won't want to carry this Bible around.  Here's what I am giving to some young people in our church, including our grandkids: There is a new kind of Bible developed by Tyndale House, called a Filament Enabled NLT Bible. This real-book Bible comes without study notes and maps, making it practical to carry and providing an uncluttered reading experience, but it has a companion cell phone app that gives you all the stuff you would get in a study Bible and even much more. You download the Filament app for your phone or tablet, and then you can take a picture of the page number or type in the page number for which you want to get more information. The app then gives you study notes, charts, timelines, and devotional material, including videos and even worship songs. There is a premium-value edition with a leather-like cover for just $15. For the person who wants to make notes, there is a beautiful wide margin edition available for $38. A large print Filament enabled Bible is about that same price. A genuine leather thin-line edition of the NLT Filament Bible is only $35.  I highly recommend an article linked at the very end of the episode notes entitled How Not to Argue About Which Bible Translation Is Best by Andy Naselli.    And may the Lord bless you ‘real good'.   LINKS: https://sites.google.com/clarinetpages.net/read-the-bible-in-a-year/read/start-with-a-good-plan See the second part of this page: Recommended Bible translations for devotional reading   Fantastic article: How Not to Argue About Which Bible Translation Is Best June 13, 2017  |  Andy Naselli  

161 – Did you know that as the image and likeness of God, in a sense, you are already complete and whole.When I was a kid, I usually felt there was something missing in my life. I didn't have everything I needed. I felt incomplete. I often thought I needed some thing or situation to make me complete, but it was actually a mindset issue. Way down inside, I felt incomplete as a person.As I grew in my faith, I came to see that as a child of God made in the divine image and likeness, my completeness came from God, not external things or just good human thoughts internally.In this week's episode, I talk about how Jesus saw the completeness of the people he came in contact with and the healing effect it had on their lives. I discuss:The woman who touched Jesus's clothes for healing and how Jesus took that healing to a deeper dimension Bartimaeus, whom Jesus could see as whole before he was was healedThe two aspects of Jesus's mindset that revealed a person's wholeness and then healed themWhere did Jesus see someone's completeness? What Jesus said to the woman who couldn't stand up that revealed she was already complete, even before she was healedChrist represents the fullness of God. All God's fullness is in Christ. When you truly embrace this idea that Christ embodies the fullness, the full nature, of God, then,  “you also are complete through your union with Christ.” (Colossians 2:10  NLT)_________________________Bible references in this week's episode: thebiblespeakstoyou.com/161Subscribe to the podcastSupport the show_________________________James Early, the Jesus Mindset Coach, is a Bible teacher, speaker, and podcaster. He conducts Bible workshops online and in person. His focus is on getting back to the original Christianity of Jesus by embracing the mindset of Christ in daily life. Contact him here.

Another Old Episode from the beginning of the show. Hopefully you guys enjoy this one and also enjoy that we have gotten a little better at podcasting!Again extra bonus points for how many "umm"s you can count! lolA Christian is someone whose behavior and heart reflects Jesus Christ. Followers of Jesus were first called “Christians” in Antioch. ... The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch." They were called "Christians" because their speech and behavior were like Christ.Acts 11:26 and when he found him, he brought him to Antioch. So for a whole year Barnabas and Saul met with the church and taught great numbers of people. (The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch).John 12:26 Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves meAct 26:28Then Agrippa said to Paul, “Do you think that in such a short time you can persuade me to be a Christian?”1Peter 4:16However, if you suffer as a Christian, do not be ashamed, but praise God that you bear that name.The NLT Bible has it the most at 25 times. The NLT bible was written in 1996. Gal 3:3 NLTHow foolish can you be? After starting your Christian lives in the Spirit, why are you now trying to become perfect by your own human effort?Gal 3:3 NIV Are you so foolish? After beginning by means of the Spirit, are you now trying to finish by means of the flesh?[fn]1 Peter 2:17 NLTRespect everyone, and love your Christian brothers and sisters.[fn] Fear God, and respect the king.1 Peter 2:17 NIVShow proper respect to everyone, love the family of believers, fear God, honor the emperor.

Hey friends! I have a new spin on our Quick Tip Tuesday! I asked our FB group to comment random questions they would like for me to answer here on the podcast! So this episode covers a variety of questions! If you are not in the community, you can join here! Questions covered today include: Show me where in the Bible it says it's ok for women to be pastors in a church, Bible and book recommendations (linked below), best way to bring Christ to your resistant coworkers or family, and how to deal with the guilt if you miss reading your Bible. NLT Bible for kids/teensAction Bible for KidsBlessings book over your childrenAll of my favorite books and devotionals Check out my website for e-workbooks, courses, apparel,  and info on God Is Within Her Mentoring Community and 1-on-1 Faith + Mindset coaching for women with me!Work with me // www.valreynolds.comConnect with me // @val_reynoldsCollab with me // info@valreynolds.comSupport the show (https://paypal.me/ValarieReynolds?locale.x=en_US)

Hi there, and welcome to this bonus podcast for day 115. I will be discussing the two main types of Bible translations I recommend for most people. As a Bible translator since 1983, I feel that most Christians in the USA are not given enough information about why Bible translations differ in wording, and which kinds of Bible translations will be better for different kinds of readers. This is an important topic, so I am surprised at myself: I can't believe that I haven't released a dedicated podcast about this topic every year since 2014. ALSO, please stay tuned for the end of the podcast, because I want to recommend a fantastic new real-book Bible. Because of more difficult content in this podcast, if you are not driving a car, it would be a great idea to open the episode notes so you can visually follow along and make sure you don't miss something important. Look especially at the words I have made bold. There are actually five types of Bible translations, but I will mainly discuss the two most-used types in this podcast. But let's start with showing the two types with a translation example that is not from the Bible. Consider this sentence: Jill looked like a deer caught in the headlights when she heard Jack's proposal. Now let's imagine a word-for-word translation for some language in Africa. Since we don't know a language like that, let's pretend we do and make a word-for-word translation into English. Here is my suggestion for that: Jill appeared like a trapped gazelle in bright light upon hearing Jack's desire. What we have in this example (caught in the headlights) is a figure of speech. Americans rather frequently use this figure of speech. But a word-for-word translation for the hypothetical African audience would very likely be tricky for them to understand. They might not know what a gazelle would do if a bright light shone upon them. (For that matter, I don't know if gazelle's act like deer do when meeting with bright lights.) I think an African might understand “Jill appeared like a gazelle trapped in bright light” to be a gazelle trapped with a metal trap, in pain, and struggling to get loose when the bright light suddenly shines upon it. Our hypothetical African listener will probably get a very different idea about what is meant. For our second hypothetical translation, let's try giving the plain meaning like we would if we were explaining to an 8-year-old child. We might translate, “Jill was stunned by Jack's proposal.” Or we might say, Jill was caught off guard and totally surprised by Jack's offer.” In this example, I've dropped the figure of speech entirely and gone straight for the meaning. These are the two main translation types that I want to explain: The first was what we call a literal translation, or a word-for-word translation. And the second is what I will call a meaning-based translation. Literal: Jill appeared like a trapped gazelle in bright light … Meaning-based: Jill was stunned by Jack's proposal. Which translation is ‘right'? Actually both translations can be considered right. But the word-for-word translation is difficult to understand for our hypothetical African listeners, because there are cultural factors involved in interpreting the figure of speech in this example. The listeners would likely come up with various interpretations about the poor, defenseless gazelle being trapped. Whereas, if Jill likes Jack, she may be thrilled at his proposal. The meaning based translation is right too: “Jill was stunned by Jack's proposal.” That translation is easy to understand, but if you remember the original sentence, you will miss the richness of the figure of speech. The two main types of Bible translations have exactly the same problems as what I have shown in the two examples above. The advantage of a literal, word-for-word translation is that it mirrors the form of the original text. The disadvantage of a literal translation is that it cannot always clearly give the meaning in the target language. The meaning-based translation is just the opposite: The advantage of a meaning-based translation is that it shows the meaning clearly. The disadvantage of a meaning-based translation is that it cannot mirror the form of the original text. Every Bible translator starts out thinking, “I will be able to translate word-for-word and still clearly enough show the meaning.” For two languages that are strongly related to each other, a literal translation can often still be clear. But if we are thinking of translating ancient Hebrew and Greek into modern English, there is a huge gulf between the ancient and modern languages and cultures. My first example involved an English figure of speech. But let me give you a chance to experience decoding an Indonesian figure of speech: Yakobus adalah kacang yang sudah lupa kulitnya. A word-for-word translation is this: Jack is a peanut that has forgotten his shell. Now it is your turn to wonder what that could mean. You won't guess, so I will tell you. Here's a meaning-based translation of “Jack is a peanut that has forgotten his shell.” That means, Jack left his rural village to get an education in the city, and now has a good job with a high salary, but he has forgotten his humble beginnings. He never helps any of his friends and relatives in his home village. There are many literal (or word-for-word) Bible translations in English. That kind of translation is easier to make. And not all literal translations are equally literal. Some fudge to be slightly more meaning-based. But for the purposes of this discussion, I will choose what I think is the most popular literal translation today: It is the ESV (English Standard Version). It is the translation that would translate, “Jill appeared like a trapped gazelle in bright light.” It is great at showing the word-for-word form of the original text, but not so good at giving you the meaning clearly. A literal translation I like better than the ESV is the WEBBE (World English Bible British Edition). Meaning-based Bible translations are much rarer, because they require the translator to work much harder to accurately translate the meaning. For English language readers, I recommend the Weymouth New Testament in Modern Speech of 1901, The Good News Bible (TEV 1966), and the New Living Translation. There are a few more, but those are my favorites, and I will focus in this podcast on the NLT. The NLT would translate our example as “Jill was stunned by Jack's proposal.” The KJV is a literal translation, and an unfortunate part of the continuing legacy of the KJV, is that pastors often prefer using literal translations from the pulpit. But unfortunately this means that many ordinary people in the pew wind up using something like the ESV for their daily Bible reading at home. This means that many Christians who read their Bibles at home often struggle with hard-to-understand passages. If you normally read the ESV Bible and think you understand everything in it, well, I bet you haven't yet read all of it! Here is one of my most important recommendations for you: Make sure you have access to both kinds of translations. In other words, use both an ESV and an NLT Bible. That way you can quickly see the meaning (in the NLT), and you get a window into the word-for-word shape of the original text with the ESV. My Daily Bible Reading podcasts have only been of two meaning-based translations. Why? Because they can be understood by people just listening to the recordings. It would be useless to record the ESV, because listeners would often miss the meaning. Now I want to illustrate what I have been saying with a Bible passage. I wish I could spend an hour doing this, but I feel I must limit myself to only one example. I have chosen the topic statement for the book of Romans, chapter 1, verses 16-17. In the ESV verse 16 says, For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. If I had all the podcast listeners in front of me as a group, I would say to you, “Raise your hand if you are a Jew.” Usually in my audiences, no one raises their hand. At that point I say, “Raise your hand if you are a Greek.” Usually again, no one raises their hand. But then my question is, “Where do you fit in to Romans 1:16?” This verse says that the gospel is “the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. Sounds like you people who didn't raise your hands are not able to be saved! So which one are we?” The answer is that Paul is contrasting Jews with everyone else. Greek was the universal language of culture and commerce at that time, even under the Roman government. Now let's compare the same verse in the NLT: For I am not ashamed of this Good News about Christ. It is the power of God at work, saving everyone who believes— the Jew first and also the Gentile. Now let's look at verse 17 in the ESV: For in it (referring back to the Gospel) the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.” No English reader will suspect that there is anything kind of strange about the phrase ‘the righteous of God'. The problem is that ‘of God' is a genitive in Greek, and genitives have a dozen different options for the meaning. ESV nearly always uses the word ‘of' to translate genitives. But in this verse, ‘righteousness of God' will mean that the Gospel is about revealing that God is righteous. Wait a minute! If God is righteous and I am not righteous, that is not Good News. He will punish me. Rather, in this verse, the genitive is one showing source. Just wait a moment and I will read the NLT. A second significant problem in verse 17 is a grammatical construction that forms an idiom in Greek: For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith. So the literal translation has zero meaning or leaves the reader to guess at meanings, which will probably be wrong. Finally, because of the first two problems I just mentioned, it seems like the final quote from Habakkuk 2:4 doesn't fit with what came before it. So we ask, why did Paul quote, “The righteous shall live by faith.” Now let me read the NLT to you: 17 This Good News tells us how God makes us right in his sight. This is accomplished from start to finish by faith. As the Scriptures say, “It is through faith that a righteous person has life.” Many years ago, I had a phone conversation with a woman who was a new believer. She liked reading her KJV, and I used Romans 1:16-17 to try to show her that she would be better off reading the NLT. The KJV has the same problem in v.17: “For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith.” So I asked her what that means, and she quickly replied, “Oh, you know, the Catholic faith, the Mormon faith, the protestant faith.” Hello! None of those things existed when Paul wrote Romans. I give that story to show that a dangerous thing that happens when many people read the Bible: If we don't understand something, we may just make up a meaning that sounds plausible to us. And as time goes on, we can get more and more convinced that our guesses are true. Going back to the advantages and disadvantages of the two translation types, the ESV has made a very good literal translation of 1:17. The ESV closely mirrors the form of the Greek text, but the problem is that readers won't grasp the meaning, unless perhaps there are study notes to guide them. On the other hand, the NLT has the disadvantage that it doesn't match the word-for-word form of the Greek, but it nails the meaning. God is the source of our righteousness. NLT translates: This Good News tells us how God makes us right in his sight. And the Greek idiom ‘from faith to faith' means, “This is accomplished from start to finish by faith.” Finally, if you take the time to read verse 17 again, you will see that the quote at the end of the verse supports what Paul claims about the Good News about Christ. I am passionate about people having access to at least one Bible that is a literal translation, and one that is a meaning-based translation. Recently an elder in our church shared that he was struggling hard to read and understand Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel. He was rather bitter in his complaints, saying, “Why did Jeremiah write like this? I can't penetrate this stuff!” This is just one example of many I could share. Normal Christians like you and me who try to use a literal translation for devotional reading, and attempt to read every book in the Bible, will not enjoy the experience. This can clearly be seen in Indonesia, where the people have only had wide access to one literal translation since 1974. Indonesian Christians have been discouraged from reading their Bibles for too long, and that has seriously weakened the church throughout that country. Now, with our Plain Indonesian Translation, thousands of people have discovered that they enjoy reading the Bible. But now, through our 90-day Bible reading challenge, teenage kids and adults are rejoicing to find that they enjoy reading the New Testament, finishing it in 90 days, and many immediately start over to read it again. Any Christian who wants to glorify God should read the whole Bible. And if we really want to glorify God, then we should read a translation that we understand. Reading a translation that you don't understand fully will not help you or encourage you. I need to give two important clarifications: Some people think that the NLT is a paraphrase because the first edition still contained some words or phrases that sounded like the Living Bible. The Living Bible deserves to be called a paraphrase, because it occasionally adds ideas not found in the original text, or fails to translate other things. But the New Living Translation is a highly researched and revised meaning-based translation. My second clarification is that The Message is an extreme paraphrase. Please don't think it is a faithful translation. Please don't quote it. Please don't give it to a new Christian to read. Here is the information about real-book Bibles I mentioned at the beginning of the podcast. I want you to know that no one at Tyndale House asked me to promote their products, and I am not getting paid anything for giving out this information. Gale decided to give NLT Bibles to members of her Bible study groups, and I decided to give them to my small group. It has been a long time since we bought Bibles, and so we made some delightful discoveries. Tyndale House has several cool NLT Bibles right now. The NLT Illustrated Study Bible is incredible! Beautifully illustrated with maps and charts and many study notes and supplemental information. The hardcover edition is only $36.66. You might like the leather-like edition which is a bit more. However, at more than 2,500 pages, you won't want to carry this Bible around. Here's what I am giving to some young people in our church, including our grandkids: There is a new kind of Bible developed by Tyndale House, called a Filament Enabled NLT Bible. This real-book Bible comes without study notes and maps, making it practical to carry and providing an uncluttered reading experience, but it has a companion cell phone app that gives you all the stuff you would get in a study Bible and even much more. You download the Filament app for your phone or tablet, and then you can take a picture of the page number or type in the page number for which you want to get more information. The app then gives you study notes, charts, timelines, and devotional material, including videos and even worship songs. There is a premium-value edition with a leather-like cover for just $15. For the person who wants to make notes, there is a beautiful wide margin edition available for $38. A large print Filament enabled Bible is about that same price. A genuine leather thin-line edition of the NLT Filament Bible is only $35. I highly recommend an article linked at the very end of the episode notes entitled How Not to Argue About Which Bible Translation Is Best by Andy Naselli. And may the Lord bless you ‘real good'. LINKS: https://sites.google.com/clarinetpages.net/read-the-bible-in-a-year/read/start-with-a-good-plan See the second part of this page: Recommended Bible translations for devotional reading Blog post: https://dailybiblereading.libsyn.com/website/more-about-bible-translations Fantastic article: How Not to Argue About Which Bible Translation Is Best June 13, 2017 | Andy Naselli

Hi there, and welcome to this bonus podcast for day 115. I will be discussing the two main types of Bible translations I recommend for most people. As a Bible translator since 1983, I feel that most Christians in the USA are not given enough information about why Bible translations differ in wording, and which kinds of Bible translations will be better for different kinds of readers. This is an important topic, so I am surprised at myself: I can't believe that I haven't released a dedicated podcast about this topic every year since 2014. ALSO, please stay tuned for the end of the podcast, because I want to recommend a fantastic new real-book Bible. Because of more difficult content in this podcast, if you are not driving a car, it would be a great idea to open the episode notes so you can visually follow along and make sure you don't miss something important. Look especially at the words I have made bold. There are actually five types of Bible translations, but I will mainly discuss the two most-used types in this podcast. But let's start with showing the two types with a translation example that is not from the Bible. Consider this sentence: Jill looked like a deer caught in the headlights when she heard Jack's proposal. Now let's imagine a word-for-word translation for some language in Africa. Since we don't know a language like that, let's pretend we do and make a word-for-word translation into English. Here is my suggestion for that: Jill appeared like a trapped gazelle in bright light upon hearing Jack's desire. What we have in this example (caught in the headlights) is a figure of speech. Americans rather frequently use this figure of speech. But a word-for-word translation for the hypothetical African audience would very likely be tricky for them to understand. They might not know what a gazelle would do if a bright light shone upon them. (For that matter, I don't know if gazelle's act like deer do when meeting with bright lights.) I think an African might understand “Jill appeared like a gazelle trapped in bright light” to be a gazelle trapped with a metal trap, in pain, and struggling to get loose when the bright light suddenly shines upon it. Our hypothetical African listener will probably get a very different idea about what is meant. For our second hypothetical translation, let's try giving the plain meaning like we would if we were explaining to an 8-year-old child. We might translate, “Jill was stunned by Jack's proposal.” Or we might say, Jill was caught off guard and totally surprised by Jack's offer.” In this example, I've dropped the figure of speech entirely and gone straight for the meaning. These are the two main translation types that I want to explain: The first was what we call a literal translation, or a word-for-word translation. And the second is what I will call a meaning-based translation. Literal: Jill appeared like a trapped gazelle in bright light … Meaning-based: Jill was stunned by Jack's proposal. Which translation is ‘right'? Actually both translations can be considered right. But the word-for-word translation is difficult to understand for our hypothetical African listeners, because there are cultural factors involved in interpreting the figure of speech in this example. The listeners would likely come up with various interpretations about the poor, defenseless gazelle being trapped. Whereas, if Jill likes Jack, she may be thrilled at his proposal. The meaning based translation is right too: “Jill was stunned by Jack's proposal.” That translation is easy to understand, but if you remember the original sentence, you will miss the richness of the figure of speech. The two main types of Bible translations have exactly the same problems as what I have shown in the two examples above. The advantage of a literal, word-for-word translation is that it mirrors the form of the original text. The disadvantage of a literal translation is that it cannot always clearly give the meaning in the target language. The meaning-based translation is just the opposite: The advantage of a meaning-based translation is that it shows the meaning clearly. The disadvantage of a meaning-based translation is that it cannot mirror the form of the original text. Every Bible translator starts out thinking, “I will be able to translate word-for-word and still clearly enough show the meaning.” For two languages that are strongly related to each other, a literal translation can often still be clear. But if we are thinking of translating ancient Hebrew and Greek into modern English, there is a huge gulf between the ancient and modern languages and cultures. My first example involved an English figure of speech. But let me give you a chance to experience decoding an Indonesian figure of speech: Yakobus adalah kacang yang sudah lupa kulitnya. A word-for-word translation is this: Jack is a peanut that has forgotten his shell. Now it is your turn to wonder what that could mean. You won't guess, so I will tell you. Here's a meaning-based translation of “Jack is a peanut that has forgotten his shell.” That means, Jack left his rural village to get an education in the city, and now has a good job with a high salary, but he has forgotten his humble beginnings. He never helps any of his friends and relatives in his home village. There are many literal (or word-for-word) Bible translations in English. That kind of translation is easier to make. And not all literal translations are equally literal. Some fudge to be slightly more meaning-based. But for the purposes of this discussion, I will choose what I think is the most popular literal translation today: It is the ESV (English Standard Version). It is the translation that would translate, “Jill appeared like a trapped gazelle in bright light.” It is great at showing the word-for-word form of the original text, but not so good at giving you the meaning clearly. A literal translation I like better than the ESV is the WEBBE (World English Bible British Edition). Meaning-based Bible translations are much rarer, because they require the translator to work much harder to accurately translate the meaning. For English language readers, I recommend the Weymouth New Testament in Modern Speech of 1901, The Good News Bible (TEV 1966), and the New Living Translation. There are a few more, but those are my favorites, and I will focus in this podcast on the NLT. The NLT would translate our example as “Jill was stunned by Jack's proposal.” The KJV is a literal translation, and an unfortunate part of the continuing legacy of the KJV, is that pastors often prefer using literal translations from the pulpit. But unfortunately this means that many ordinary people in the pew wind up using something like the ESV for their daily Bible reading at home. This means that many Christians who read their Bibles at home often struggle with hard-to-understand passages. If you normally read the ESV Bible and think you understand everything in it, well, I bet you haven't yet read all of it! Here is one of my most important recommendations for you: Make sure you have access to both kinds of translations. In other words, use both an ESV and an NLT Bible. That way you can quickly see the meaning (in the NLT), and you get a window into the word-for-word shape of the original text with the ESV. My Daily Bible Reading podcasts have only been of two meaning-based translations. Why? Because they can be understood by people just listening to the recordings. It would be useless to record the ESV, because listeners would often miss the meaning. Now I want to illustrate what I have been saying with a Bible passage. I wish I could spend an hour doing this, but I feel I must limit myself to only one example. I have chosen the topic statement for the book of Romans, chapter 1, verses 16-17. In the ESV verse 16 says, For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. If I had all the podcast listeners in front of me as a group, I would say to you, “Raise your hand if you are a Jew.” Usually in my audiences, no one raises their hand. At that point I say, “Raise your hand if you are a Greek.” Usually again, no one raises their hand. But then my question is, “Where do you fit in to Romans 1:16?” This verse says that the gospel is “the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. Sounds like you people who didn't raise your hands are not able to be saved! So which one are we?” The answer is that Paul is contrasting Jews with everyone else. Greek was the universal language of culture and commerce at that time, even under the Roman government. Now let's compare the same verse in the NLT: For I am not ashamed of this Good News about Christ. It is the power of God at work, saving everyone who believes— the Jew first and also the Gentile. Now let's look at verse 17 in the ESV: For in it (referring back to the Gospel) the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.” No English reader will suspect that there is anything kind of strange about the phrase ‘the righteous of God'. The problem is that ‘of God' is a genitive in Greek, and genitives have a dozen different options for the meaning. ESV nearly always uses the word ‘of' to translate genitives. But in this verse, ‘righteousness of God' will mean that the Gospel is about revealing that God is righteous. Wait a minute! If God is righteous and I am not righteous, that is not Good News. He will punish me. Rather, in this verse, the genitive is one showing source. Just wait a moment and I will read the NLT. A second significant problem in verse 17 is a grammatical construction that forms an idiom in Greek: For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith. So the literal translation has zero meaning or leaves the reader to guess at meanings, which will probably be wrong. Finally, because of the first two problems I just mentioned, it seems like the final quote from Habakkuk 2:4 doesn't fit with what came before it. So we ask, why did Paul quote, “The righteous shall live by faith.” Now let me read the NLT to you: 17 This Good News tells us how God makes us right in his sight. This is accomplished from start to finish by faith. As the Scriptures say, “It is through faith that a righteous person has life.” Many years ago, I had a phone conversation with a woman who was a new believer. She liked reading her KJV, and I used Romans 1:16-17 to try to show her that she would be better off reading the NLT. The KJV has the same problem in v.17: “For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith.” So I asked her what that means, and she quickly replied, “Oh, you know, the Catholic faith, the Mormon faith, the protestant faith.” Hello! None of those things existed when Paul wrote Romans. I give that story to show that a dangerous thing that happens when many people read the Bible: If we don't understand something, we may just make up a meaning that sounds plausible to us. And as time goes on, we can get more and more convinced that our guesses are true. Going back to the advantages and disadvantages of the two translation types, the ESV has made a very good literal translation of 1:17. The ESV closely mirrors the form of the Greek text, but the problem is that readers won't grasp the meaning, unless perhaps there are study notes to guide them. On the other hand, the NLT has the disadvantage that it doesn't match the word-for-word form of the Greek, but it nails the meaning. God is the source of our righteousness. NLT translates: This Good News tells us how God makes us right in his sight. And the Greek idiom ‘from faith to faith' means, “This is accomplished from start to finish by faith.” Finally, if you take the time to read verse 17 again, you will see that the quote at the end of the verse supports what Paul claims about the Good News about Christ. I am passionate about people having access to at least one Bible that is a literal translation, and one that is a meaning-based translation. Recently an elder in our church shared that he was struggling hard to read and understand Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel. He was rather bitter in his complaints, saying, “Why did Jeremiah write like this? I can't penetrate this stuff!” This is just one example of many I could share. Normal Christians like you and me who try to use a literal translation for devotional reading, and attempt to read every book in the Bible, will not enjoy the experience. This can clearly be seen in Indonesia, where the people have only had wide access to one literal translation since 1974. Indonesian Christians have been discouraged from reading their Bibles for too long, and that has seriously weakened the church throughout that country. Now, with our Plain Indonesian Translation, thousands of people have discovered that they enjoy reading the Bible. But now, through our 90-day Bible reading challenge, teenage kids and adults are rejoicing to find that they enjoy reading the New Testament, finishing it in 90 days, and many immediately start over to read it again. Any Christian who wants to glorify God should read the whole Bible. And if we really want to glorify God, then we should read a translation that we understand. Reading a translation that you don't understand fully will not help you or encourage you. I need to give two important clarifications: Some people think that the NLT is a paraphrase because the first edition still contained some words or phrases that sounded like the Living Bible. The Living Bible deserves to be called a paraphrase, because it occasionally adds ideas not found in the original text, or fails to translate other things. But the New Living Translation is a highly researched and revised meaning-based translation. My second clarification is that The Message is an extreme paraphrase. Please don't think it is a faithful translation. Please don't quote it. Please don't give it to a new Christian to read. Here is the information about real-book Bibles I mentioned at the beginning of the podcast. I want you to know that no one at Tyndale House asked me to promote their products, and I am not getting paid anything for giving out this information. Gale decided to give NLT Bibles to members of her Bible study groups, and I decided to give them to my small group. It has been a long time since we bought Bibles, and so we made some delightful discoveries. Tyndale House has several cool NLT Bibles right now. The NLT Illustrated Study Bible is incredible! Beautifully illustrated with maps and charts and many study notes and supplemental information. The hardcover edition is only $36.66. You might like the leather-like edition which is a bit more. However, at more than 2,500 pages, you won't want to carry this Bible around. Here's what I am giving to some young people in our church, including our grandkids: There is a new kind of Bible developed by Tyndale House, called a Filament Enabled NLT Bible. This real-book Bible comes without study notes and maps, making it practical to carry and providing an uncluttered reading experience, but it has a companion cell phone app that gives you all the stuff you would get in a study Bible and even much more. You download the Filament app for your phone or tablet, and then you can take a picture of the page number or type in the page number for which you want to get more information. The app then gives you study notes, charts, timelines, and devotional material, including videos and even worship songs. There is a premium-value edition with a leather-like cover for just $15. For the person who wants to make notes, there is a beautiful wide margin edition available for $38. A large print Filament enabled Bible is about that same price. A genuine leather thin-line edition of the NLT Filament Bible is only $35. I highly recommend an article linked at the very end of the episode notes entitled How Not to Argue About Which Bible Translation Is Best by Andy Naselli. And may the Lord bless you ‘real good'. LINKS: https://sites.google.com/clarinetpages.net/read-the-bible-in-a-year/read/start-with-a-good-plan See the second part of this page: Recommended Bible translations for devotional reading Blog post: https://dailybiblereading.libsyn.com/website/more-about-bible-translations Fantastic article: How Not to Argue About Which Bible Translation Is Best June 13, 2017 | Andy Naselli

April 10, 2022. Palm Sunday Message in commemoration of Jesus Christ before Easter. Scriptures taken from The NLT Bible. All music pieces are licensed for use to author Laverna Spain. Voice announcer Arne Loe. May God Bless and keep you safe. Amen.