Blum on the HCSB at Anwoth

12/20/2007 00:00 Filed in: Faith & Reason
Will Lee has a great interview over at his blog Anwoth with Ed Blum, general editor of the Holman Christian Standard Bible.

Blum is incredibly transparent about disagreements among the translators and even the publishers. Also, Blum goes to great length to distinguish the HCSB from other translations and combat the notion that this is a "Baptist Bible" (Blum himself is not Baptist). You must read the entire interview, but here are some of the more surprising elements about the HCSB and Blum that were revealed:
  • A second edition of the HCSB will be released in 2009.
  • Why "beer" is used instead of "strong drink."
  • When the project first started by Arthur Farstad, there were parallel tracks for the HCSB in which there were to be two New Testaments, one based on the Majority Text and one based on the Nestle-Aland text. The Majority Text project was dropped after the death of Farstad.
  • Southern Baptists (does he mean Lifeway here?) tried to BUY the NASB from the Lockman Foundation three times--and it almost went through!
  • We finally get a better understanding of the relationship of the HCSB to the Logos21/Living Water Gospel of John.
  • Blum explains the complicated history behind the name "Holman Christian Standard Bible" and reveals other names considered. Every name including the current one has legal issues, though.
  • According to Blum, "Holman" is already being downplayed in the logo and will soon disappear altogether leaving the designation simply "CSB."
  • Mounce sent Blum an email stating that the HCSB is the first translation to get John 3:16 right. (I think I said that, too, a while back!)
  • Currently, the HCSB uses the designation "Yahweh" instead of the traditional "LORD" (all caps) 75 times. In the 2009 revision, that number will grow to 400.
  • Awkward terms like "deluge" and "atmospheric domains" will NOT appear in the 2009 revision.
  • Blum explains the decision to go with the half brackets around some words that are added for clarity, but admits he was not in favor of doing it.
  • The HCSB translators hate red-letter editions, but publishers love it.
  • Farstad was not a Baptist but was a Brethren. Blum is Presbyterian. Only about 1/3 of the translators were Southern Baptist. This hardly justifies the HCSB's reputation as the "Baptist Bible."
  • Blum claims that the HCSB is outselling the ESV two to one.
  • Agrees that the HCSB website is hard to use.

Good stuff. Really good stuff.

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