I'm in the middle of reading a Christian book - Rick Warren's 'Purpose Driven Life', and aside from the fact that it's overtly American (irritating, but copeable with) there is one thing that is driving me absolutely crackers about it.
He insists on using about 20 different Bible translations throughout the book, and changes from one quote to the next completely indiscriminately. According to him, the reason is that 'reading the bible in an unfamiliar version can cause us to re-consider and reappraise otherwise overly familiar words'. Well, maybe. This aim would still be acheived by just having one version throughout that is less familiar to most people than the ubiquitous NIV.
The major problem that I have with the way he uses different versions throughout is that it gives the appearance of picking the version that makes the point you want to make. Rather than genuinely getting to grips with (a faithful translation of) the original text. Consider it this way - if a non-christian friend of mine came to me, having picked 20 different bible verses from 20 different versions that showed the Bible to be inconsistent, full of lies, and not how I try to portray it - I'd just laugh at him and tell him not to be so daft. In fairness, none of my non-christian friends would even consider doing that as it would be daft to take so many verses and versions out of context. So if we wouldn't do it when trying to engage other people with our faith, why is it ok to do it when discipling to each other?
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