Saturday, April 30, 2011

Comparison: James 1:8

  • Greek 
    μὴ γὰροἰέσθω ὁ ἄνθρωπος ἐκεῖνος ὅτι λήμψεταί τιπαρὰ τοῦ κυρίου, ἀνὴρ δίψυχος,ἀκατάστατος ἐν πάσαις ταῖς ὁδοῖς αὐτοῦ
  • ESV (English Standard Version)
    For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.
  • OSB (Orthodox Study Bible)
    For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.
  • REB (Revised English Bible)
    A man like that should not think he will receive anything from the Lord. He is always in two minds and unstable in all he does.
  • NABRE (New American Bible Revised Edition)
    For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord, since he is a man of two minds, unstable in all his ways.
  • NJB (New Jerusalem Bible)
    That sort of person, in two minds, inconsistent in every activity, must not expect to receive anything from the Lord.
  • NRSV-CE
    for the doubter, being double-minded and unstable in every way, must not expect to receive anything from the Lord.
  • RSV-CE & 2CE (Revised Standard Version - Catholic Editions)
    For that person must not suppose that a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways, will receive anything from the Lord. 
  • (Update) Douay-Rhiems
  • Therefore let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord. A double minded man is inconstant in all his ways.
My Opinion: The ESV is best at intelligible accuracy and transparency to the original language, closely followed by the OSB which loses a point for the archaic sentence structure. Next is the NABRE, which is my least favorite translation yet, here, gets it right. The REB provides a nice alternative which is accurate and yet subtly different to the standard reading. The NJB seems to be a fair and accurate dynamic translation of the meaning of the original. The NRSV-CE, for this verse, offers a dynamic translation for the purpose of rendering a gender neutral reading. In this case, I think it is a decent translation, sort of. At least I don't hate it. SURPRISE! The RSV-CE and 2CE, my Catholic translations of choice, offer defensible translations but loose serious points for an unnecessarily garbled rendering.

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