Translating Truth

I got a new book tonight...Well, actually I borrowed it, but at any rate it is in my hands waiting to be devoured. I just started reading the forward, written by J. I. Packer, and a quote jumped off the page at me. At this point I'm sharing exactly where I am in the book, so I can't comment anymore on it until later on, but I wanted to share this quote before I forgot.

Back in Britain, almost two generations ago, I heard it declared that the minister's first priority is to teach, and his second priority is to teach, and his third priority is to teach. More than fifty years of not doing this have inevitably hastened the decline of interest in the Bible and in effect promoted the sense of its irrelevance to modern life.

Facing this pervasive shrinkage of Bible knowledge and influence, many in the churches hoped that simplifying and streamlining public worship would bring people back to the life of devotion and that simplified and streamlined versions of Holy Scripture would bring people back to the habit of Bible reading. Neither hop has been fulfilled in today's post-Christian West, nor seems likely to be.

- Pg 9-10, Translating Truth

Isn't that generally the argument for using these easy read versions of the Bible? That if it is easier it will be read more? I have often suspected that this isn't the case. Now, I'm not calling for everyone to go out and purchase a KJV, I think a Bible is a very personal choice that needs to be decided upon between the reader and God. That being said, I don't like many/ most of the translations out there for various reasons and quite honestly when people have these "easier" translations I don't see them reading it. People complain that the KJV is outdated, but really, who cares at this point? I'd bet that many, if not most, of the people who sit in various churches on Sunday wouldn't know Exodus from Ezekiel. The vast array of translations haven't gotten the job done that they propose to do, Bible illiteracy is at an all time low despite the fact that the availability of the Word is at an all time high. It is sad, but true.

Anyway, I don't really have a point, I just thought I'd put that out there.