As I continue to read through the Knox Bible, I am increasingly grateful that Baronius Press has re-published this fine translation. It really has opened my eyes to a different way of looking at some passages. When I first received the new edition in October, I spent enough time with it in order to review it, but without really "digging in to it" so to speak. Life was way too busy at that point. That has changed over the past month, and I have had some time to just sit with the Knox Bible and read. What I have found is that I find reading from the Knox Bible to be amazingly refreshing. We often spend time debating on this blog issues concerning the Big Three: the RSV, NRSV, or NAB(RE). Yet, it takes reading something like the Knox Bible to realize how similar the Big Three really are. Sure there are issues that come up like technical vocabulary as well as inclusive language differences, but having spent some serious time reading through the Knox Bible it is clear that the Big Three are far more similar than different.
Here is an example:
'Take your standard from him, from his endurance, from the enmity the wicked bore him, and you will not grow faint, you will not find your souls unmanned.' - Heb 12:3 (Knox)
"Consider him who endured such hostility against himself from sinners,* so that you may not grow weary or lose heart." -Heb 12:3 (NRSV)
(* Hebrews 12:3 Other ancient authorities read such hostility from sinners against themselves)
So, I plan on continuing to use the Knox Bible for everyday reading from the foreseeable future. For study, Verbum (Logos) Bible Software has got me covered there. But I must say that I would really like to see the Knox Bible show up in some more New Media outlets. Having it on Bible Gateway (and New Advent) has been great, as well as its inclusion on some devotional Bible apps. But why not a Knox Bible app? Or even a complete Knox audio Bible?
I'm really glad Baronius republished the Knox version. I'm more comfortable with translations in the Tyndale tradition, but only due to familiarity. I like the discomfort of the unfamiliar readings; it makes me think.
ReplyDeleteI think the punctuation is original to the original Knox bible, but I would really like to see the punctuation modernized. I miss having dialog in quotation marks and sometimes have difficulty distinguishing between narration and speakers in the Gospels.
What I would really like to see is a truly pocket sized New Testament of the Knox bible. We truly lack good pocket New Testaments as Catholics. The 8.5 x 13.0 cm Confraternity is the perfect layout and size. I want a Knox bible like that. Baronius' beautiful huge codex is just to large to carry around or even hold in my lap to read for any length of time. Why don't we have a selection of small New Testaments as Catholics? They're all mostly protestant versions.
Thwaites was actually English, not Irish -- and had originally planned to become an Anglican priest. He converted to Catholicism while he was in the army in the Second World War.
ReplyDeleteThwaites describes his experiences here and here, part of a large audio collection of Thwaites. (Scroll halfway down this page to see it.)
Apparently, he was quite a remarkable figure.
His sad death on August 21st last year was widely lamented on conservative and pro-Tridentine Mass Catholic blogs.
I have to hand it to them, it was pretty brilliant for them to publish the Knox. The timing seems right and I like the verve of it. Very entrepenurial of them.
ReplyDeleteThat's the good effect of dynamic equivalence, it gives us fresh ways to understand Scriptures.
ReplyDeleteBut unlike modern translations that dumb down the Scriptures, Knox only rendered it in a new angle, while keeping the dignity of the Scriptures.
The decline in the reading level required to be able to read the Bible is one of my biggest dislikes of more modern translations.
ReplyDeleteThere is no denying that more recent translations have been dumbed down to a shocking degree. It's really depressing to me that so many people complain that the ESV is 'hard to read' when they strove to write it at an 8th grade reading level. An 8th grade reading level doesn't seem very advanced to me, and I get depressed when I hear people recommend something like the NIV over the ESV because the NIV is written at a 6th grade reading level....which supposedly makes it 'better'.
If an 8th grade reading level is 'too hard' for most Christians today...than I weep over the failure of the educational system.
You can also donwload or subscribe to King James Bible Online to augment your bible study tools for Knox version. Original version may help understand the deep things of God
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