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New Testament. Edwin Blum, ed., Holman Christian Standard Bible: Experiencing the Word New Testament. (Nashville: Broadman & Holman, 2001).
Bible. Edwin Blum, ed., Holy Bible: Holman Christian Standard Bible. (Nashville: Holman Bible Publishers, 2004).
This version of the Bible was planned and sponsored by the Sunday School Board of the Southern Baptist Convention (renamed "LifeWay Christian Resources" of the Southern Baptist Convention in 1998). The publisher, Broadman & Holman, is that agency's publishing house. The Holman Christian Standard Bible (CSB) was conceived as a replacement for the NIV, which the SBC Sunday School Board had been using in its curriculum materials under a license agreement. The NIV became controversial after the International Bible Society acknowledged in 1997 that it was revising the NIV with "politically correct" gender-neutral language, and so in 1998 the Sunday School Board entered into an agreement with Arthur Farstad (formerly the editor of the New King James Version) for him to oversee the production of a new version that would be under its own control. Soon afterward, Farstad died, and Edwin Blum was appointed general editor in his place.
The version was produced by a large team of translators and stylists, and a smaller editorial team meeting in Dallas, Texas. About a third of the team members are Southern Baptist. Other team members are Plymouth Brethren, Presbyterians (PCA), Congregationalists, Church of England, Church of God, Evangelical Free Church, Methodists, Evangelical Mennonites and Episcopalians.
The motivation behind the version was explained by David R. Shepherd, vice president of Bible publishing for Broadman & Holman, in an article which appeared in the SBC's Baptist Press while the New Testament was under preparation:
"Some recent translations have reinterpreted the Bible to make it consistent with current trends and their own way of thinking ... Current trends in Bible translation have been a real wake-up call for everybody who's concerned about preserving the integrity of Scripture. The CSB will be under the stewardship of Christians who believe we should conform our lives and culture to the Bible - not the other way around." (1)
The first edition of the completed New Testament appeared in June 2001 as the text for the Experiencing the Word New Testament, with devotional notes by Henry Blackaby. The Old Testament was first published in electronic form on the internet in December 2003, and the first printed edition of the complete Bible was published in the Spring of 2004.
The Introduction states that the Greek text used by the CSB translators was the Nestle-Aland text, but advises the reader that "in a few places in the NT, large square brackets indicate texts that the translation team and most biblical scholars today believe were not part of the original text. However, these texts have been retained in brackets in the Holman CSB because of their undeniable antiquity and their value for tradition and the history of NT interpretation in the church." The bracketed insertions include not only the larger passages Mark 16:9-20 and John 7:53-8:11, which are found in brackets in nearly all versions of the Bible, but also some other verses and parts of verses which are ordinarily relegated to the footnotes in modern versions of the Bible. For example, the doxology added to the Lord's Prayer at the end of Matthew 6:13 appears in the CSB text, rather than in the footnotes. The Ethiopian's confession of faith in Acts 8:37, which has very little manuscript support (the earliest manuscript that contains it is from the sixth century), is also retained. Unfortunately, the footnotes in these places read simply, "other mss omit bracketed text," which gives no indication that in the judgment of the translators these are later additions, and not doubtful cases. We note that the editors have not included the Johannine Comma in 1 John 5:7-8 despite its "value for tradition and the history of NT interpretation." (2)
In general, the CSB translation is slightly more literal than the New International Version, but much less literal than the New American Standard Bible or the English Standard Version. In various ways the text is simplified (long and complex Greek sentences are broken up into smaller and simpler ones) and made easy to understand by interpretive renderings. The style is on a level much lower than the NKJV, RSV and ESV. It sometimes fails to convey the literary qualities of the text. But an attempt is made to present the Psalms in a suitable literary style. We give now Psalm 69 from the CSB.
A Plea for Rescue
For the choir director: according to "The Lilies."
1 Save me, God,
for the water has risen to my neck.
2 I have sunk in deep mud, and there is no footing;
I have come into deep waters, and a flood sweeps over me.
3 I am weary from my crying; my throat is parched.
My eyes fail, looking for my God.
4 Those who hate me without cause are more numerous than the hairs of my head;
my deceitful enemies, who would destroy me, are powerful.
Though I did not steal, I must repay.
5 God, You know my foolishness,
and my guilty acts are not hidden from You.
6 Do not let those who put their hope in You be disgraced because of me, Lord God of Hosts;
do not let those who seek You be humiliated because of me, God of Israel.
7 For I have endured insults because of You,
and shame has covered my face.
8 I have become a stranger to my brothers
and a foreigner to my mother's sons
9 because zeal for Your house has consumed me,
and the insults of those who insult You have fallen on me.
10 I mourned and fasted,
but it brought me insults.
11 I wore sackcloth as my clothing,
and I was a joke to them.
12 Those who sit at the city gate talk about me,
and drunkards make up songs about me.
13 But as for me, Lord,
my prayer to You is for a time of favor.
In Your abundant, faithful love, God, answer me with Your sure salvation.
14 Rescue me from the miry mud; don't let me sink.
Let me be rescued from those who hate me, and from the deep waters.
15 Don't let the floodwaters sweep over me
or the deep swallow me up;
don't let the Pit close its mouth over me.
16 Answer me, Lord, for Your faithful love is good;
in keeping with Your great compassion, turn to me.
17 Don't hide Your face from Your servant,
for I am in distress. Answer me quickly!
18 Draw near to me and redeem me;
ransom me because of my enemies.
19 You know the insults I endure—my shame and disgrace.
You are aware of all my adversaries.
20 Insults have broken my heart, and I am in despair.
I waited for sympathy, but there was none;
for comforters, but found no one.
21 Instead, they gave me gall for my food,
and for my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.
22 Let their table set before them be a snare,
and let it be a trap for [their] allies.
23 Let their eyes grow too dim to see,
and let their loins continually shake.
24 Pour out Your rage on them,
and let Your burning anger overtake them.
25 Make their fortification desolate;
may no one live in their tents.
26 For they persecute the one You struck
and talk about the pain of those You wounded.
27 Add guilt to their guilt;
do not let them share in Your righteousness.
28 Let them be erased from the book of life
and not be recorded with the righteous.
29 But as for me—poor and in pain—
let Your salvation protect me, God.
30 I will praise God's name with song
and exalt Him with thanksgiving.
31 That will please the Lord more than an ox,
more than a bull with horns and hooves.
32 The humble will see it and rejoice.
You who seek God, take heart!
33 For the Lord listens to the needy
and does not despise His own who are prisoners.
34 Let heaven and earth praise Him,
the seas and everything that moves in them,
35 for God will save Zion
and build up the cities of Judah.
They will live there and possess it.
36 The descendants of His servants will inherit it,
and those who love His name will live in it.
Unlike most versions published in the twentieth century, the CSB indicates "supplied words" of the translation by putting them in brackets. The idea here is to let readers know where the translators have "added" English words which do not have any corresponding words in the original, in order to produce an English translation that makes sense. Other Bible versions (e.g. KJV, ASV, NKJV) have used italics for this purpose. It can sometimes be helpful, but it should be used sparingly. When the appropriateness of the "supplied word" is in doubt, it serves to warn readers that the translators have offered an interpretation which may not be correct; but when the accuracy of the interpretation is not in doubt, there is no good reason to mark any of the English words that are used to express it.
We will comment on the places where "supplied word" brackets appear in the translation of Philippians.
In Philippians 1:11 there is no need to bracket the word "comes" in "[comes] through Jesus Christ." In 1:17 the brackets are misleading: "the others proclaim Christ out of rivalry, not sincerely, seeking to cause [me] trouble in my imprisonment." This will give readers the idea that a precise translation of the Greek (minus the bracketed word) would be "cause trouble in my imprisonment"—allowing the interpretation that the insincere preachers "cause trouble" for others in some general way. But this not the case. The phrase is literally, "make distress arise in my bonds" (tois desmois mou being understood as an associative dative), and there can be no doubt that "for me" is implied here. So it should not have been put in brackets. In 2:4 the "only" in "look out not [only] for his own interests" is rightly bracketed; but the word does not really belong here, and it weakens the impact of the saying. (In the second half of the verse the "also" in "also for the interests of others" should also have been omitted, because the Greek phrase alla kai here is ascensive in sense, as in 1:18—translated "yes.") In 2:13 the words "enabling you" are inserted with brackets in the sentence, "For it is God who is working in you, [enabling you] both to will and and to act for his good purpose." But again, the supplied words weaken the sense, and do not belong here. (3) In 3:10 we have "[My goal] is to know him," but it should be "[My goal is] to know him." In 3:12 "reached [the goal]" mistranslates the verb elabon, which means "received, obtained," and so supplied word "goal" is inappropriate; the unexpressed object of elabon is the "prize" of verse 14. In 3:16 the sentence "we should live up to whatever [truth] we have attained" is a paraphrastic rendering. The phrase "live up to" (cadged from the NIV) does not convey the meaning of the Greek word stoichein, which means "procede in line" with others, in orderly fashion. This word was used of soldiers on the march, and as Marvin Vincent says, "the idea of a regulative standard is implied" in it. (4) F.F. Bruce translates literally: "let us march by the same (rule as we have followed) to the point we have already reached," and explains that the use of stoichein carries "the implication that this is not a matter of individual attainment, but one in which the whole community should move forward together" (5) How all this might be put into an English translation we cannot say; but the CSB's use of brackets to flag a "supplied word" here will give readers the false impression that the other words in the sentence correspond closely to the Greek words. In 4:10 the added words "opportunity [to show it]" are appropriate. In 4:12 "learned the secret [of being content]—whether well-fed or hungry" is acceptable, but it would be more accurately rendered "learned through [my] initiation both to be filled and to be hungry."
In general, it seems that the CSB's use of bracketed "supplied words" in Philippians is not very helpful. They occur in places where a footnote is really needed to explain some intepretive difficulty or disagreement.
The translation of generic masculine nouns and pronouns in this version is conservative — that is, the version does not aim to conceal the fact that the authors of Scripture regularly use what modern feminists have called "sexist" language. But the Greek word anthropos ("man") is regularly translated "people," and masculine forms are carefully avoided where the Greek or Hebrew texts have words which may be rendered with gender-neutral equivalents such as "someone," "no one," "another," etc. The CSB is more gender-neutral than the NASB, the NIV, the ESV, and most other versions which have been published in the past 20 years.
In the Old Testament the translation follows the custom of conservative protestant Bibles by rendering the messianic passages in accordance with their interpretation in the New Testament. For example, in Isaiah 7:14 it has "the virgin will conceive" (though a footnote gives the alternate "the virgin is pregnant"). Genesis 22:18 reads, "And all the nations of the earth will be blessed by your offspring" (with the alternative "Or will bless themselves, or will find blessing" in a note). Psalm 2:12 reads "Pay homage to the Son" (with a note indicating that the text reads literally "Kiss the Son").
The Holman Christian Standard Bible has an unusually large number of marginal notes giving other manuscript readings and alternative renderings of the text. There seems to be at least twice as many of these notes as is usual for English versions. When the notes offer an alternative rendering, it is usually more literal than the rendering in the text. Some of the notes are explanatory, as for example the note to Acts 7:19, which explains that the abandonment of infants oudoors was "a common pagan practice of birth control." A note on John 1:1 explains that "the Word (Gk Logos) is a title for Jesus as the communication and revealer of God the Father." The word logos here means much more than this note indicates, but at least the CSB tries to explain it (other versions do not). Unfortunately there is no marginal note at Galatians 6:16, where the CSB gives the unusual rendering "May peace be on all those who follow this standard, and mercy also be on the Israel of God!" There ought to have been a note here telling the reader about the more commonly accepted interpretation, in which kai epi ton Isael tou Theou (and upon the Israel of God) is understood as Paul's way of asserting that "all those who follow this standard" are the true and spiritual Israel. In the first chapter of Philippians there are some footnotes of little value (in verse 6 a footnote gives the alternative "work among you" for "work in you"); but in verse 10 there is no indication that the Greek may mean "approve what is best" instead of "determine what really matters." The difference in interpretation here is surely more interesting and important than some of the trivial alternatives that are presented in the chapter's footnotes. Is Paul tellling the Philippians not to worry about secondary issues (as "determine what really matters" seems to imply) or is he warning them to choose carefully what is best in all things? The practical implications for us are quite different. (6) We can hardly complain about the number of footnotes, seeing that the CSB has many more than most versions—but a better sense for what is important to Christian readers may be in order.
In addition to the marginal notes, there are also some "bullet notes" in an appendix. When the text has some frequently-occuring words or phrases which might need explanation (i.e. "centurion"), rather than add so many notes to the margin these words are marked with a bullet in the text, which refers the reader to the explanation in the appendix.
The marginal equipment of the CSB is clearly its best feature, and (despite the few lapses noted above) in this reviewer's opinion it more than compensates for any weaknesses of the text. Probably in the future there will be some inexpensive "text editions" of the Holman CSB which omit the notes, but I can recommend the use of this version for study purposes on the condition that the student uses an edition which includes them.
Michael Marlowe
July 2004
1. John Perry, "Broadman & Holman Publishers announces new Bible translation" Baptist Press, May 7, 1999.
2. In a note on 1 John 5:7 the clause is mentioned and the reason for its omission is obliquely indicated. The note reads, "Other mss (the Lat Vg and a few late Gk mss) read testify in heaven ..." But this statement is inaccurate. It should have said that the clause appears in most medieval copies of the Latin Vulgate and in a few late Greek manuscripts. The clause does not appear in the earliest copies of the Vulgate.
3. With the addition of the words "enabling you" (also found in the NRSV) we seem to have an injection of the Wesleyan concept of "prevenient grace" into the verse. God is enabling now, rather than simply working in the heart and life of the believer. This is "a quite unwarranted weakening of the compatibilism that Paul here assumes." (D.A. Carson, "Review of the New Revised Standard Version," The Reformed Theological Review 50/1 [January-April 1991], p. 6).
4. Marvin Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament, vol. 3 (Hendrickson reprint, n.d.), p. 460. Cf. also H.C.G. Moule's remarks on the verse in his commentary Philippians in the Cambridge Bible series (1903), and H.A.W. Meyer, Critical and Exegetical Handbook to the Epistles to the Philippians and Colossians and to Philemon, trans. by John Moore (Edinburgh, 1883). The article on stoicheo in the BAGD lexicon (1979, p. 769) offers the gloss "hold on to" for Phil. 3:16, but this is paraphrastic. Despite the argument presented by Delling in TDNT (vol. 7, pp. 667-8), contexts in which the word occurs (esp. Romans 4:12) do indicate that "walk" was a component of the verb's meaning. The words peripatountas kathos echete tupon hemas "walk according to the pattern you have in us" in Phil. 3:17 unfold the meaning of the word stoichein in Phil. 3:16.
5. F.F. Bruce, Philippians, in the Good News Commentaries series (New York: Harper & Row, 1983), p. 101.
6. We can well imagine that in the midst of the ongoing controversy about worship music someone might use the CSB rendering to support the idea that the style of music is not among the essential things that "really matter." With this familiar plea, much inferior and juvenile music has come to dominate the worship services of evangelical churches, while mature Christians are discouraged from expressing their unhappiness and concern about it. But if we are urged to "approve what is excellent" (ESV) or "discern what is best" (NIV), a different light is thrown upon the question. Sometimes even what is "good" becomes the enemy of the "best." And so J.A. Bengel in his Gnomon of the New Testament (1742) interprets Paul's saying as an instruction to discern "the best among the good."
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