What Translation for Bible Memory?
00:00:00.000 | Last week we talked about Bible memorization and how to accomplish
00:00:08.000 | extended memorization of entire chapters and even whole books of the Bible. This
00:00:12.640 | conversation on memorization forces on us the inevitable question about
00:00:15.760 | translations and of course we are blessed with many good English
00:00:19.040 | translations to choose from, but Pastor John, when setting out on a major project
00:00:22.880 | like this to invest hours of time memorizing whole chapters of the Bible,
00:00:27.280 | how important is it to settle on a specific translation you will use for
00:00:31.920 | years to come, maybe for the rest of your life, or is this decision really not a
00:00:36.320 | big one? That's a great question. Here's my thought, a little history. Growing up I
00:00:44.560 | was given a King James Bible when I was small and I used it until I was 19 and I
00:00:53.240 | memorized a lot of scripture as a kid in those days and so to this day I have a
00:00:57.400 | lot of old authorized version or King James Version language in my head. When I
00:01:03.360 | was 19 I made a very significant choice and this is the choice I think you're
00:01:08.120 | asking whether people need to make and I think the answer is they do. I made a
00:01:12.240 | choice to move to a more modern translation and in 1965 when I made that
00:01:23.560 | decision I chose the RSV and I used the RSV for my personal devotions from 1965
00:01:32.040 | to the mid 90s, so 30 years or so, and I memorized from that. I would probably be
00:01:39.000 | using it to this day if it hadn't gone out of print because I had so much of it
00:01:43.840 | in my head but it went out of print. You can't get an RSV. You can get a new RSV
00:01:50.760 | but that's not the same anymore. It's changed in significant ways, some of them
00:01:54.600 | politically correct that don't help me at all. So I had to make a choice. Now
00:02:00.360 | what do I do? And that's the time in history where I really was rejoicing
00:02:06.720 | that Crossway Books had gotten the copyright to the RSV from the National
00:02:14.960 | Council of Churches and had planned to do a light revision of it to preserve
00:02:21.200 | the lineage because the lineage does go from King James through the
00:02:27.160 | American Standard Version to the new, through the Revised Standard Version to
00:02:31.760 | the ESV. So when the ESV came out I looked at it I thought this is it, this
00:02:36.720 | is the RSV with very few changes. So I was able to make that transition
00:02:42.600 | and stay in the stream of King James, RSV, ESV, and so I'm happy that I
00:02:49.720 | made both of those changes. Now I do suggest people make a settled
00:02:55.960 | change because if you're going to do significant long-term memory it will be
00:03:01.200 | very difficult to jump around in translations because the mind gets
00:03:05.160 | locked in and it needs to get locked into certain wording so that it doesn't
00:03:09.000 | have to be self-conscious as it's reciting the Bible and can focus on the
00:03:12.920 | meaning. That's one of the great values of having it become second nature and
00:03:16.800 | all those synapses in the brain just clicking away automatically with
00:03:21.600 | the words you've used so that you can focus on meaning and the people you're
00:03:25.600 | talking to. So if I were to suggest I would say if you don't want to
00:03:31.720 | take my word for it go to the leaders of your church and ask them what are
00:03:37.400 | we going to be using here for the long haul? Do you have any suggestions for me?
00:03:42.200 | I'm going to do significant memorization I don't want to have to be changing what
00:03:45.480 | would you say that we settle in on? And so I don't think you want to use a
00:03:51.400 | idiosyncratic translation so it'd be one of those you know one of the ones that
00:03:55.360 | are pretty near the center. The NIV is going to stick around for a long time
00:04:00.240 | I'm sure. The New King James is probably going to be around for a long time. The
00:04:04.800 | NASB is a little wooden but it's going to be around and the ESV has proven for
00:04:10.000 | me to be most helpful in being something you can read in public something you can
00:04:16.040 | have kids memorize and something I can memorize. It's a pretty sober,
00:04:21.960 | respectful, traditional, and yet I think modern and understandable translation. So
00:04:29.400 | that's a really good question and my own vote is for the ESV but boy it's just
00:04:35.600 | far better to be memorizing any version than to be memorizing none. Yes that is
00:04:41.400 | the most important takeaway. Thank You Pastor John. From memorizing the language
00:04:45.160 | of the Bible to talking about the language of cussing, yes cussing, tomorrow
00:04:49.040 | we'll talk about swearing and this question, "Is it ever right for a
00:04:52.080 | Christian to cuss in order to provoke others towards a noble end?" Until then
00:04:57.480 | check out DesiringGod.org to find thousands of books, sermons, articles, and
00:05:01.160 | blog posts from John Piper. I'm your host Tony Ranke. See you tomorrow.
00:05:06.200 | [BLANK_AUDIO]