Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Ben Wink on the KJV and TLH

Ben Wink



Ben Wink has left a new comment on your post "WELS Playing Hamlet on Their Next Bible Blunder":

You'd think that a translation that has proved itself over the course of 400 years would be a clear winner, but apparently not.

Or a hymnal (TLH) that has been around for 70 years (another anniversary this year!)

There's got to be someone getting a piece of the action in switching translations like this right? I mean going from the NIV to the NIV2: The Sequel or the ESV is just adding more water to weak tea already isn't it?

I remember a shut-in that I had on my internship that refused to listen to any Scripture that I had in my devotions unless it came from the KJV. She was from Italy and when she came over to the US after WWII, she learned how to speak and read English from the KJV and it always remained a crucial part of her faith.

So I picked up a KJV for doing those devotions. Got a nice red-letter one from a local Christian bookstore and it was the original KJV translation. I am certainly glad that the Lord used this shut-in believer as the reason why I now have my KJV.

There is something to be said about being connected to other believers who have read these same words for centuries. I feel the same way whenever I get a chance to use TLH or a TLH version of a traditional hymn or even just saying the traditional version of The Lord's Prayer or Nicene Creed.

Fixing something that isn't broken just for the sake of fixing it is pointless and redundant. Sure it will increase book sales, like a new not-needed hymnal would, but that's about it.

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GJ - A steady seller is a flow of money in book publishing. The NIV publisher (Murdoch) will not allow the old NIV to be used in the present and future WELS/LCMS textbooks. Poor them - they are forced to print everything new again. No recycling allowed.


For WELS and Missouri, it is like having a big taxation passed, without any votes.