Introduction to CCU Bible

Welcome to the CCU Bible.

This is a wiki site which allows faculty and students to continuously edit the texts we're working on. This means that we're always honing the translation, making it better, adding notes, keeping it up to date with research. Another site which does something similar (not quite like us though) but which has a complete version is the NET Bible from bible.org.

Obviously not all of the Bible is available and at first only very little of it. As time goes on, we will eventually build up a list of books from the Bible which have been translated into English.

The value of our translation is that it is designed to give English readers access to raw elements of the original Hebrew and Greek. All translation requires interpretation. The more interpretation, the more like English it feels; the less interpretation, the less it feels like natural English. We want to give readers a way to work as closely with the original languages as we can without getting in the way of their own interpretation process, but note that this means our translation is not going to be very smooth and will feel a bit awkward in places. It also means that we're letting the readers be their own interpreters by our doing only the amount of interpretation necessary to get it into English.

You may be wondering what we mean by "interpretation" in translation. A good example is in Galatians 5.17. The NASB (New American Standard) chose to translate the Greek word sarx as "flesh"; whereas the NIV chose to render the same word as "sinful nature." The reason for the difference comes down to the level of interpretation involved in the translation. The NASB has a very "hands off" approach and so offered a literal translation. The NIV has a more "hands on" approach, choosing to do a bit more interpretation to help readers along and so rendered an interpretation of the Greek word sarx rather than a literal reading.

The problem arises when a translation is given which represents an interpretation based on a theological assumption different from the reader's and the reader is unaware of that. Here "sinful nature" represents a certain theological position not held by a large number of Christian readers; thus "flesh" provides the reader with the opportunity to be more involved in the interpretation process.