"Paradigm-Collapse Trauma" and the end of Biblical Minimalism.

If you know me, you know that I have great interest in Biblical Archaeology. I'm very interested in the everyday life of Biblical people. The more we know about them the more we understand the Bible.

So through the years, my reading has sent me deeper and deeper into the sometimes arcane world of Biblical Archaeology. Like most disciplines, there is the over simplified view promoted to outsiders and the multifaceted few understood by insiders. It does seem that the media generally like to promote the over simplified view of "scholars" who promote a low view of scriptures and ignore evidence to the contrary.

Here is a very interesting article on the collapse of the low view of Biblical chronology. To sum it up, the Bible is much more historically accurate than it is often assumed by those influenced by these "scholars."

The Birth & Death of Biblical Minimalism By Yosef Garfinkel BAR 37:03, May/Jun 2011

http://www.bib-arch.org/bar/article.asp?PubID=BSBA&Volume=37&Issue=03&ArticleID=06&Page=0&UserID=0&

What about the NIV 2011 edition?

I've used the NIV 1984 edition since it was published. There are many good things to say about it. For those who remember those days, we were stuck in the "Living Bible" & "Good News Bible" mode with nothing really appropriate for public worship. When the NIV came out it satisfied a hunger for a dignified, modern language Bible suitable for study and public reading.

The NIV 1984 edition was not without its problems but compared to everything else it was going in the right direction. I've often said, "Reading the NIV is like getting into bed and finding that someone had put sand on the sheets." Most of the problems were in the area of irritations more than anything. (Although I know that the decidedly Reformed bias cannot be ignored, it was on most counts a usable translation.)

Now after fits and starts with failed NIV updates the NIV 2011 edition is being forced upon us. It really isn't a usable translation and unfortunately because it still bears the moniker NIV many people will be confused and think that they are purchasing the same Bible that they have come to love over the last generation.

Rather than try to catalogue the issues here is a link to Paul McCain's blog that has a compilation of articles on the NIV 2011 edition. You may not agree with all the arguments presented but when all is said and done it becomes clear the the NIV 2011 edition does a disservice to the translators of the original edition.

Why the New NIV is Bad News for Confessional Lutherans

http://cyberbrethren.com/2011/05/04/why-the-new-niv-is-bad-news-for-confessional-lutherans/