I don't know about you, but I've explored, in the past couple of years, audio-Bible choices. It all happened when I had a situation that required me to lie down for twenty minutes and to apply warm compresses to my eyes: ophthalmologist's order. This was an intensely boring exercise, until at one point I thought that maybe I could listen to my Bible reading at that time, rather than reading it.
So, off to Bible Gateway audio!
I explored various readers. At that moment, I was not thinking particularly about versions of the Bible. Perhaps, I might have been listening to the NIV.
There was Max McLean, the former Shakespearean actor, and, while, to a former colonial, his accent sounded rather old-country, still, in the Psalms, he had the ability to convey subtle and thoughtful emotions. By the way, he is one of the few persons who has managed to take his recitations of whole books of the Bible to the secular theater in the United States, an admirable feat, I think.
One of the preachers I know, Peter Bolton, recommended, one day, George W. Sarriss, and I listened over a long period to his readings, since he did not sound ministerial, which might have been offputting, but, he did sound in synch with the text, and that was good
And there were others, as well. I heard some of the prophets rendered in dramatic form, which could be a helpful rendering, particularly for kids or for a first read.
Lately, I have been scrolling through various versions. When not on audio, you normally think of the dynamic, highly readable versions such as the NIV and NLT and the CEV, or, conversely, of the highly word-for-word translations such as the KJV and the NASB that try to adhere to the original Greek words, but may lose a little linguistic grace in the process, given that the languages are different. The choice of approach, however, has been either/or.
One day, I listened, simply by chance, it would seem, to the Holman Christian Standard Bible, kind of thinking, "What is this?" After a while, I was surprised by both the grace and the impact of this reading. I also enjoyed the reader, who was the late Dale McConachie. I really enjoyed this audio, and soon looked up information about it.I find that this version has been revised, a bit, to become the CSB, but information on the original HCSB is still available at
Holman Christian Standard Bible
It seems that a group of scholars from 17 denominations thought that there could be something they call an "optimal" translation, that, where the Greek translated word-for-word had a perfectly obvious meaning to the English reader, they would utilize that word-for-word approach, whereas, when the Greek translated word-for-word to the English was not clear, they would, in that case, translate it in a dynamic way, so that its readability would be good. These scholars felt that, in this way, they would be able to give us, the readers, or, in the audio case, the listeners, the advantage of both approaches.
Now, I knew none of this theory when I started listening to the Holman Standard Christian Bible, but I really found that the text was not only more understandable but, as well, more impactful. As one brought up on the King James Version, I was accustomed to hearing some rather bluntly impactful words in the Bible, and, sometimes, in the dynamic versions, I felt that that impact had been lost and that the text seemed, somehow, rather
bland.
(It was as if someone had taken a blender to my dinner, and had rendered it much easier to eat. All of the vitamins and minerals and such were still in the dinner, and all of the flavours were, likewise, present, but something, the texture, had been lost). Conversely, with the Holman, it was as if that texture had been restored, but not at the cost of readability or listenability.
Anyway, that is just an observation that came to me recently. I know that one group, at least, of scholars, are now staying that there does need to be some modulation of over translation that may occur when everything is done with the dynamic aim in view. There is presently a book out about it:
As for the Holman Christian Standard Bible, someone else, with more experience, has recently written an article explaining why he now reads chiefly from that version. I find it an interesting article, to be found at
Why I Use.... There is a great chart on his page, which shows the various translations and paraphrases, as well, on a scale of readability and of formal equivalence.
