Immerse: Poets Now Available!

We are excited that the most recent volume of Immerse: The Bible Reading Experience has been released. Immerse: Poets presents the poetical books of the First Testament divided into two groupings. Songs: Psalms Lamentations Song of Songs Wisdom: Proverbs Ecclesiastes Job These writing all reflect the daily, down-to-earth faith of God’s people as they live out their covenant […]

Saddleback Small Group Loves Immerse

Chris Chapman has been practicing law in Southern California for well over a decade. Recently he created Chapman Sports and Entertainment—a full service sports and marketing agency where Chris is a certified agent with both the NFL and NBA. When I talked to him this week, he was on his way to the Pacific Northwest […]

From “No Bible” to “Know Bible” Part 5: The Story of God and Us

Find out what our partners at the Institute for Bible Reading are talking about and visit ImmerseBible.com to learn more about the Immerse Bible Reading Experience. Read Part 5 of the 6 part series by Bible Scholar Glenn Paauw. Editors Note: From “No Bible” to “Know Bible” is a 6-part series on the path toward great […]

Adding to the Text, or Interpreting the Text?

Translating the biblical texts into English (or any other language) is not as simple as it may sound. For starters, the translator has to determine which philosophy of translation to follow. The two basic options are formal equivalence (also called word-for-word, literal, or essentially literal) and dynamic equivalence (also called thought-for-thought). And there is also […]

How much was the widow’s mite?

We find the story of the widow’s mite in Mark 12:41-44 and Luke 21:1-4. In both passages (which are nearly identical), Jesus makes the point that the widow’s gift to the Temple treasury was very costly to her, because it represented everything she had. But the challenge for the translator is to determine how best […]

“Tongues” or “Unknown languages” in 1 Cor 12-14?

Mark D. Taylor Brent Kercheville has been writing a series of blogs about his interaction with the NLT text. One of those posts is called “Tongues vs. Languages (1 Corinthians 12-14).” Brent appreciates the NLT’s use of “languages” in place of the more obscure term “tongues” in 1 Cor 12, but he expresses frustration that […]

Sentence Structure in the NLT

By Mark D. Taylor The issue of sentence structure in English Bibles is interesting. On the surface, one might assume that an English Bible could/should simply follow the structure of the sentences in Hebrew and Greek. But the very concept of a “sentence” differs from language to language. Let’s look at the prologue to Romans […]

“Propitiation” in the NLT

Mark D. Taylor As a dynamic-equivalence translation, the NLT translates the Hebrew and Greek text in natural, understandable English. This means that we try to avoid technical terms that the average reader would not understand. Two such technical terms not used in the NLT are “propitiation” and “expiation.” The Bible Translation Committee chose not to […]

The Temple tax

Coins of at least three different nations were used in everyday life in Judea during the NT era. The NT text uses the names of Greek coins, Roman coins, and Jewish coins. The original readers of the NT were presumably very familiar with all of these terms and also knew their relative values, just as […]