NLT: "Highway to Hell"
09/30/2008 20:20 Filed in: Faith & Reason
[No, this isn’t an anti-NLT post.]
Sunday at church, our pastor referenced Matt 7:13 with the NIV text on the overhead screen:
“Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it.”
Kathy, who refuses to carry anything other than the New Living Translation, nudged me to show me what her Bible said:
“You can enter God’s Kingdom only through the narrow gate. The highway to hell is broad, and its gate is wide for the many who choose the easy way.“
When the NLT was released in 1996, I spent the next year or so reading it cover to cover. It was unexpected renderings such as this that made me fall fall in love with the dynamic flavor of the NLT. I look at a rendering like “highway to hell” and at first it startles me, but then upon reflection I delight to realize that it absolutely carries the meaning of the phrase, ἡ ὁδὸς ἡ ἀπάγουσα εἰς τὴν ἀπώλειαν, into the contemporary vernacular in a clear and contemporary way.
I also appreciate the verses that employ the word “scum” (Matt 9:11; Mark 2:16; Luke 5:30).
The only problem with the NLT’s rendering of Matt 7:13? Now I have that AC/DC song playing in my head...
Sunday at church, our pastor referenced Matt 7:13 with the NIV text on the overhead screen:
“Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it.”
Kathy, who refuses to carry anything other than the New Living Translation, nudged me to show me what her Bible said:
“You can enter God’s Kingdom only through the narrow gate. The highway to hell is broad, and its gate is wide for the many who choose the easy way.“
When the NLT was released in 1996, I spent the next year or so reading it cover to cover. It was unexpected renderings such as this that made me fall fall in love with the dynamic flavor of the NLT. I look at a rendering like “highway to hell” and at first it startles me, but then upon reflection I delight to realize that it absolutely carries the meaning of the phrase, ἡ ὁδὸς ἡ ἀπάγουσα εἰς τὴν ἀπώλειαν, into the contemporary vernacular in a clear and contemporary way.
I also appreciate the verses that employ the word “scum” (Matt 9:11; Mark 2:16; Luke 5:30).
The only problem with the NLT’s rendering of Matt 7:13? Now I have that AC/DC song playing in my head...