[B-Greek] Very interesting GNT, _A Readers Greek New Testamen t
bgreek at ntresources.com
bgreek at ntresources.com
Fri Apr 30 14:37:03 EDT 2004
> Let's be blunt. It's theological bias on this non-ecumenically
> produced text that has some folks worried.
&
> I think we really need to be careful of staying clear of sectarian
> arguments at this point (myself included).
This has been implied several times now. I'm a bit perplexed by it. The
UBS/NA committee is a far smaller and less representative group than the
RGNT/NIV team. Let's see, NA27 lists 5 people. Of them I think there are
perhaps Lutherans, Presbyterians, and Catholics.
The NIV team of about 100 included Anglican, Assembly of God, Baptist,
Brethren, Christian Reformed, Church of Christ, Evangelical Free, Lutheran,
Mennonite, Methodist, Nazarene, Presbyterian, Wesleyan--per the NIV Preface.
And if you consult the full list at:
http://www.bible-researcher.com/niv-translators.html (see the *2d* list on
that page)
you'll find in addition: Evangelical Covenant, independents, Reformed
Episcopal, and Christian & Missionary Alliance. And that list also shows
substantial diversity within several of the broader denomination listings in
the Preface with a broad range of Baptists, Presbyterians, etc. of quite
different "stripes."
(If you can get that broad a range of theologies agreed on text and
translation, it must be something approaching a minor miracle! :) How that
gets to be "sectarian" is beyond me.
Is it that the NIV is known as an "evangelical" translation that worries the
"liberals"? Or must everyone be a liberal scholar for such a project to be
acceptable? "Evangelical" is a pretty broad category and in some cases
doesn't mean too much more than the fact that the individual accepts the
authority of Scripture. "Liberal" is supposed to mean "open minded"--but it
seems to me that some are rather closed-minded in regard to other
traditions. And I don't say that maliciously.
Can anyone point to any pattern of *textual readings* that indicates a
theological bias in RGNT? Even an isolated reading in which it can be
demonstrated that a text-critical decision was determined by theological
bias? Although I don't know of any, perhaps there are. But if there are,
let's have some evidence.
I can't see that the theology of *any* of the major Greek testaments is any
different one from the other, either those done by Catholics, evangelicals,
or "main line" scholars. There are surely differences when it comes to how
the text is used (or not used!) by various faith communities in the
formation of theological systems, but a charge of theological bias in the
textual decisions seems to me to be ill-founded.
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Rodney J. Decker, Th.D., Assoc. Professor/NT
Baptist Bible Seminary, Clarks Summit, PA, USA
URL: www.NTResources.com
PURL: purl.oclc.org/NT_Resources/
Email: <rdecker> at <NTResources.com>
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