Changes made to Ephesians in the 2009 HCSB

1. The complete Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB) was copyrighted 2003.

After six years, there was a revision to the text of the HCSB which was copyrighted 2009.

In the judgment of the editors, the 2009 revisions were not significant enough to call it a second edition of the HCSB.

Thus, the 2003 text and its 2009 revision are both known as HCSB.

In distinguishing these two texts of the HCSB, I will call one "2003 HCSB" and the other "2009 HCSB".

2. I am presently doing Bible study on Ephesians.

Ephesians is a book in the New Testament of the Bible.

In studying Ephesians, I am using the HCSB as one of my primary study Bibles.

Since the HCSB has gone through a revision in 2009, I decide to do a comparison between the text of the 2003 and 2009 HCSB on Ephesians.

The result of the comparison is in a pdf file available: here.

3. As a major translation of the Bible, the HCSB was done by a group of nearly 100 scholars under the General Editorship of Dr. Edwin Blum.

The scholarship that has gone into translating the HCSB was quite impressive.

As part of his review, Michael Marlowe has listed the editors, translators, reviewers and English stylists for the 2003 HCSB: here.

Since the scholarship that has gone into translating the 2003 HCSB was impressive, I wonder what changes were needed in the 2009 revision.

Any significant changes made in the 2009 HCSB are a good indicator that a verse deserves further study.

4. Ephesians is divided into six chapters and has a total of 155 verses.

Of these 155 verses, changes were made to 57 verses in the 2009 revision.

That is 37% of the verses.

5. Although the 37% changes in verses sounds striking, not all the changes are significant.

Some changes in the 2009 HCSB are as trivial as a change in punctuation mark.

An example is [Eph 2:10], where a '-' has been changed to a ','.

Some changes in the 2009 HCSB are changes in wording that do not affect the sense at all.

An example is [Eph 2:12], where 'with no' has been changed to 'without'.

Some changes in the 2009 HCSB are changes in wordings to clarify the meaning intended.

An example is [Eph 2:15], where 'He did away with the law of the commandments in regulations' has been changed to 'He made of no effect the law consisting of commands and expressed in regulations'.

Some changes in the 2009 HCSB are done for English styles.

An example is [Eph 5:5], where 'no __ has' has been changed to 'every __ does not have'.

6. It seems the 2009 HCSB is replacing many verses with the word 'in' with other words.

The passages are:

•    [Eph 1:13].
•    [Eph 2:6].
•    [Eph 2:7].
•    [Eph 2:21].
•    [Eph 2:22].
•    [Eph 4:1].
•    [Eph 4:29].
•    [Eph 5:19].
•    [Eph 5:26].
•    [Eph 6:1].

7. Some changes in the 2009 HCSB seems to affect the sense of the text.

Examples are:

• [Eph 1:1] 'saints and believers ' has been changed to 'faithful saints'.
• [Eph 1:11] 'In Him we were also made His inheritance' has been changed to 'We have also received an inheritance in Him'.
• [Eph 1:18] 'eyes of your heart' has been changed to 'perception of your mind'.
• [Eph 3:11] 'to the purpose of the ages, which He made in the Messiah' has been changed to 'His eternal purpose accomplished in the Messiah'.
• [Eph 3:12] 'in whom we have boldness, access, and confidence through faith in Him' has been changed to 'In Him we have boldness and confident access through faith in Him'.
• [Eph 3:20] 'you' has been changed to 'us'.
• [Eph 4:31] 'insult' has been changed to 'shouting'; 'wickedness' has been changed to 'malice'.

These verses deserve further study.

8. Finally, the unusual phrase in [Eph 2:2] 'according to the ruler of the atmospheric domain' has been changed to 'according to the ruler who exercises authority over the lower heavens' in the 2009 HCSB.

On the whole, I like the revisions made to Ephesians in the 2009 HCSB.

The revisions make an already good translation even better.

End.

On Citing the Holman Christian Standard Bible

1. The complete Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB) was copyrighted 2003.

After six years, there was a revision to the text of the  HCSB which was copyrighted 2009.

In the judgment of the editors, the 2009 revisions were not significant enough to call it a second edition of the HCSB.

Thus, the 2003 text and its 2009 revision are both known as HCSB.

In distinguishing these two texts of the HCSB, I will call  one "2003 HCSB" and the other "2009 HCSB".

2. There are four critical elements in citing a printed book:

•    Author's name.
•    Year or date of publication.
•    Title and edition of the book.
•    Name and location of the publisher.

Giving these four elements will usually uniquely identify a  printed book.

3. The copyright page of a printed book customarily includes the year of copyright and the year of publication.

These two years are the same most of the time - although  they need not be.

In citing a book, the practice is to give the year of  publication and not the year of copyright.

This is because the main purpose of citation is to uniquely  identify a book so that a reader may look it up.

One reason to look up a citation is to see if an author has  quoted the book correctly.

For this purpose, the useful information is the year of publication and not the year of copyright.

This is because a book may goes through various printings and editions with changes to the text and to the pagination of the book.

The year of publication will usually help a reader identify which printing or edition of a book an author is quoting from.

4. But in citing a work such as a version of the text of the HCSB, the reverse is true.

The useful information here is not the year of publication but the year of copyright.

A reader is interested in the text of the Bible.

There are two different texts of the HCSB.

Each can be uniquely identified by its year of copyright.

Thus, different editions of the HCSB such as the HCSB Study Bible, the HCSB Drill Bible and HCSB The Firefighter's Bible will have the identical text if the year of copyright is the same.

I will call the two texts "2003 HCSB" and "2009 HCSB".

5. Of course, texts within the Bible are located by the book-chapter-verse system.

The Protestant Bible is consisted of 66 books.

Each book of the Bible has been divided into chapters and verses.

So any text within the Bible can be located by:

•    The name of the book.
•    The chapter number within that book.
•    The verse number within that chapter.

Thus, the book of Psalm, chapter 23, verse 1 uniquely identifies the text: "The LORD is my shepherd; there is nothing I lack."

This is usually cited as "(Psalm 23:1 HCSB)".

6. As of today (May 24, 2011), the text of 2003 HCSB is available: here.

The text of the 2009 HCSB is available: here.

End.

Introduction

1. The title of this Blog is "Logos and Reason".

Logos is a Greek word.

In philosophy, logos mean reason or the rational principle expressed in words and things, argument, or justification; especially personified as the source of order in the universe. (The Free Dictionary.)

In Christian theology, logos mean the divine Word of God; the second person of the Trinity incarnate in the person of Jesus Christ. (The Free Dictionary.)

“In the beginning was the Word [logos], and the Word [logos] was with God, and the Word [logos] was God.” (John 1:1 HCSB)

I hope this Blog will exhibit reason, the source of which is the Logos of God.

2. The purpose of this Blog is to record some of my reading notes.

My interests are primarily in philosophy, religion, history, economics and Chinese martial art novels.

Most of the blog entries will be in these areas.

Reference:

"Logos", The Free Dictionary,

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Logos

(accessed May 22, 2011).

End.

Condescension for Readers

1. I am presently doing Bible study on Ephesians.

The Protestant Bible is composed of 66 books and is divided into two parts: the  Old Testament and the New Testament.

The Old Testament is consisted of 39 books and the New Testament is consisted of 27 books.

Ephesians is a book in the New Testament of the Bible.

Besides using Gordon H. Clark's Ephesians as a study aid, I am also using the following three versions of the Bible as my primary study Bibles:

•    LEB - Lexham English Bible (2010)
•    ESV - English Standard Version (2007)
•    HCSB - Holman Christian Standard Bible (2009)

2. All three versions are word-for-word translation of the Bible.

In terms of literalness of translation:the LEB is very literal, the ESV is more  idiomatic, and the HCSB is the most idiomatic of the three.

Except for a few words of Aramaic, the New Testament was written in Greek.

Since I don't know Greek, I relied on a literal translation such as the LEB to  function as a control to gauge how idiomatic are the other translations.

I use more than one version for Bible study so that, hopefully, any translation bias in one version will be compensated by the other versions.

3. The Greek New Testament does not have any punctuations.

Ephesians is a book in the New Testament written by Paul the Apostle and is  divided into six chapters.

Each chapter is further divided into a number of verses.

Chapter 3 of Ephesians has 21 verses.

The division of each book of the Bible into chapters and verses facilitates the  location of information.

4. Regarding the sentence structure of Chapter 3, Gordon H. Clark has this to say (Clark 1985, 95):

This is a horrible sentence to punctuate. Though some versions put periods at  the ends of verses seven and twelve, the first place where a period can be put  down with certainty is at the end of verse nineteen. The New American Standard breaks it up at verse three, as well as seven, ten, twelve, and  thirteen; but this is only a condescension for American readers. The thoughts run on from verse two to thirteen, and Paul then resumes verse one in verse fourteen. Too bad: That is just the way Paul's style was.

5. As an experiment, I have juxtaposed how the three versions of the Bible I  studied with have divided Ephesians Chapter 3 into sentences.

It turns out that:

•    LEB divides Ephesians 3 into 6 sentences.
•    ESV divides Ephesians 3 into 9 sentences.
•    HCSB divides Ephesians 3 into 14 sentences.

Judging by the number of sentences Ephesians 3 is divided into, it is no surprise  that the HCSB is the most readable of the three versions.

Breaking a long complex sentence into a few shorter simple sentences will  increase readability.

What might surprise some is that although the HCSB divides Ephesians 3 into  more sentences, it is still a very accurate translation.

I use LEB, ESV and HCSB as my primary study Bibles.

But by virtue of its accuracy and readability, I use the HCSB as my reading Bible.

As Gordon H. Clark has observed, breaking a long and complex sentence in  Greek into short and simple sentences in English may well be condescension to the English readers.

But I would not mind being condescended to if the result is a readable but still  accurate translation of the Bible! 

6. A pdf file showing how the three versions divide Ephesians 3 into sentences is  available: here.

The New Testament portion of the Lexham English Bible is available online: here.

(The translation of the Old Testament is still in progress.)

The entire English Standard Version of the Bible is available online: here.

The entire Holman Christian Standard Bible is available online: here.

Reference:

Clark, Gordon H. 1985. Ephesians. Jefferson, Maryland: The Trinity Foundation.

End.