Category: Book Reviews
Translation is Meaning-Based
I was very passionate in seminary about Bible translation. I loved the NASB, which was so wooden and formal, I could feel the foreign grammar bleeding through the page. I remember having debates in classes about how we should translate certain words and passages. My passion was, however, poorly disguised ignorance. I had never really tried to translate the Bible and at that stage would have done a terrible job. At the time, I tended to talk about words and their meanings in an English-centric way. So, when studying Greek I would say, “The word ανθρωπος means ‘man’.” It made…
Father’s Day Book Review: When Church Conflict Happens
My dad recently published a book called When Church Conflict Happens. I have been planning on writing a detailed review, and since Sunday was Father’s Day, I figured it was fitting to do it now. Whereas many of us would like to pretend like church conflict does not happen (at least not in our church), this book demonstrates how to identify different types of conflict, get to the root of it, and deal with it in a biblical and godly way. Keep in mind, the author is my dad, so this is probably not a completely unbiased review, but I…
The Neglected Weapon Against Hate
The other day I was talking to a Cameroonian friend in my living room who told me that she had saved up enough money to go down to a local medical clinic. After a battery of tests, it was concluded that she had malaria and typhoid. She went to the clinic pharmacy, and, in reading the price tags of the prescribed medication, was relieved to find that she had enough money. She started to pay for the medication when the clerk behind the counter increased the cost for no apparent reason. Now unable to pay for the needed medicine, my…
Thinking Through Bible Translation with Wayne Grudem
by Dave As mentioned in my last post, I read through Grudem’s essay “Are Only Some of the Words of Scripture Breathed Out by God?” this week. The essay can be found in the book Translating Truth: The Case for Essentially Literal Bible Translation. Thanks to Dr. Jim Hamilton and Crossway for uploading this chapter online. As a budding Bible translator I found his article to be very thought-provoking and helpful. It is also not overly academic and quite understandable. The article is written in defense of Bible translation that focuses on translating “every word” (the essentially literal translation method)…
The Good, The Bad, and the Different
As we think about moving to Africa, one of the many things we have to consider is money. Turns out, Americans view money very differently overall than Africans. Consider the following story from the book African Friends and Money Matters: “Three single men were renting an apartment together, sharing the cost of utilities. One of the three, Mr. Ekwa, was designated to collect the agreed upon amounts from the others each month and to pay the electric bill. Just before the due date on one occasion, Mr. Ekwa had a personal bill that had to be paid before the due…
Bible Lessons from a Spy
I have been reading my Father’s Day gift recently, it is a book called Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy. It is a biography of Dietrich Bonhoeffer and with a title like that I could hardly resist! Bonhoeffer was a pastor and a leader in the German resistance to Hitler, earning him the title of ‘spy’. His life was ended by the Nazi’s in a concentration camp as a result of this resistance. I have been so inspired by Bonhoeffer’s example and even though I am only 40% through the book, I thought I would post something he said that has…
