"Preferred by us"? We will
not adjust the ISV to reflect reader preferences. We will adjust the ISV to
reflect a correction of translational errors or improvements in our
scholarship. Now, as to your subjective
opinion that we have "watered down" the translations of "word of...", has it
occurred to you that maybe your posture with respect to the spiritual gifts
may be too strong to begin with? Why not consider that the
ISV brings to these passage a more doctrinally unbiased rendering than the
renderings that you "prefer" (to use your words, not ours)?
One of the philosophies of
translation of the ISV is to render ambiguities in the original Greek with a
similar ambiguity as is held by the original Greek. The ISV's rendering of
what you call "words of wisdom", "words of knowledge," etc. is an excellent
rendering of this commitment to NOT bringing a translational bias to a
specific passage. For your information, the Greek words in this passage (logos
sophias and logos gnoseos) refer to general statements, not
necessarily to specific statements. That's why the ISV renders them as "a
message of wisdom" and "the ability to speak with knowledge".
The traditional
Charismatic position is that the "word of wisdom" and or the "word of
knowledge" refers to direct supernatural knowledge that would normally be
outside of the scope of observation of the recipient. Peter's confrontation
of Ananias and Saphira is usually cited as an example of a "word of
knowledge" about their sin.
This view is poorly
supported by the Greek. If Peter's knowledge reflects anything, it reflects
a hrema (a specific word) rather than a logos (a general speech) of
knowledge. Too bad there's no spiritual gift in the NT called a "hrema of
knowledge". Peter's action is more
likely an instance of discernment of spirits. At any rate, the ISV
translated the Greek phrases accurately, with none of the doctrinal biases
that you "prefer" (your choice of words, not mine).
Before we go on, I should
tell you that the information presented above reflects no doctrinal bias
against Charismatics. There is no Greek grammatical evidence in the NT
itself that directly states any of the gifts have ceased. None will cease
until the perfect or complete comes about which Paul writes in 1 Corinthians
13:9-10.
As The ISV Foundation's
director, I have a background of long exposure to the Charismatics and to
the non-Charismatics, so I know the pitfalls of both sides of the debate.
This may be one reason why I'm suited to direct the ISV translation's
sponsor. I knew John Wimber at the Vineyard personally (having served as a
Greek consultant to him until his group began to stray into too much stress
on experience in the mid-1980's). And I'm an acquaintance of long standing
with Dr. Charles Swindoll, former President of Dallas Theological Seminary, a
classic "non-Charismatic" institution.
I'm comfortable dealing
with both sides of the debate because I can challenge them both to keep
their finger on the original Greek text, not on the English language
traditions of men reflected in Bible translations.
By the way, the ISV
served for several years as the
official Bible translation for the Vineyard's online Bible study site,
hosted by Dr. Winn Griffin, who has endorsed the ISV.
