Craig Blomberg, distinguished professor of New Testament at Denver Seminary, has participated on four separate Bible translation committees (ESV, HCSB, NLT, and TNIV). With that much experience, I was curious about a seemingly negative statement of his that I’ve seen on a few websites in regard to the New Living Translation. The specific statement, excised from its original context, reads

I relished the chance to work on the NLT (New Living Translation) team to convert the LBP into a truly dynamic-equivalent translation, but I never recommend it to anyone except to supplement the reading of a more literal translation to generate freshness and new insights, unless they are kids or very poor adult readers. My sixteen- and twelve-year old daughters have been weaned on the NLT and have loved it, but both already on their own are now frequently turning to the NIV.

The original source for this statement is actually a review by Blomberg of Leland Ryken’s book, The Word of God in English: Criteria for Excellence in Bible Translation. The review can be found in the July, 2003, issue of the Denver Journal.

The statement quoted above is used by Michael Marlowe in his fairly critical review of the NLT. In fact, Marlowe gives the context for Blomberg’s quote as “responding to criticism of the NLT.” In Marlowe’s review of the NLT, he makes this statement before supplying the quote by Blomberg above:

Finally, we note that Craig L. Blomberg of Denver Seminary, who was the principal translator for the NLT's Gospel according to Matthew, has explicitly stated that this version is not suitable as a regular Bible for adults. Responding to criticism of the NLT, Blomberg explained that the version is for "kids or very poor adult readers," and he suggested that readers of the NLT should move on to a more accurate version when they are able:

But the context that Marlowe gives is completely wrong. Blomberg isn’t responding to criticism of the NLT at all; rather, he’s writing a review of Ryken’s book! And did Blomberg explicitly say that the NLT “is not suitable as a regular Bible for adults”? Well, not precisely. At the very least Marlowe seems to be overreaching a bit, and seems to be looking for support for the fact that he does not like the NLT. Incidentally, both Marlowe’s statement and Blomberg’s quote are repeated verbatim at the Theopedia’s article on the New Living Translation.

Considering that Blomberg’s review dated back to 2003, I was curious to know if he still held the same feelings about the NLT. Does he really only recommend it to kids or adults who are very poor readers? His statement was made a year before the NLT second edition was released, which I believe fixed a lot of problems in the first edition as well as creating a translation which is sometimes more literal and even more traditional in places than the first edition.

Dr. Blomberg and I have now exchanged a handful of emails on this subject and he has given me permission to share the content of those emails on the internet.

In general, Dr. Blomberg told me that does not recommend the NLT as a primary Bible for adults, but he does recommend it as a supplement to reading other Bibles. However, in another email he offered three contexts for choosing the NLT. I have broken up his statement and added numbers to delineate his three options more clearly:

1. I very much approve of it for people who want a second (third, fourth, or whatever) take on the text,
2. or who want to hear it in a fresh way,
3. or who simply for whatever reason want a dynamically equivalent rather than a formally equivalent (or hybrid) translation.

Dr. Blomberg said that the evaluation immediately above is one he held to even before the release of the second edition NLT. Further, he thinks it’s a shame that comments he made in his review of Ryken’s book were used as they were in opposition to the NLT.*



I will send Dr. Blomberg a link to this post. If you would like to leave your thoughts in the comments, perhaps he may take the opportunity to respond if he has time.

Also, I highly recommend for your reading Dr. Blomberg’s post last year on the Koinonia Blog: “Demystifying Bible Translation and Where Our Culture Is with Inclusive Language.”


*This paragraph was added after the initial posting of this blog entry.

Tags: NLT