Sunday, May 15, 2016

Translation and commentary may be challenging

Bill Tammeus, author and former Faith columnist for The Kansas City Star, writes "A new way of translating Matthew", referencing Thomas Moore's GOSPEL The Book of Matthew: A New Translation with Commentary, Jesus Spirituality for Everyone. Tammeus includes, "It's an engaging work, made more so by the various ways in which the translation choices surprised and at times even bothered me. But here's a pretty good rule: If a new translation of the Bible doesn't in some way challenge your thinking, it's probably not worth the effort."

Tammeus also states, "What Moore brings to the effort that is different is his commentary, done in the form of footnotes that appear one page to the left of the text. It seems an odd way to offer footnotes, but if my experience is typical, the reader pretty quickly gets used to it and eventually finds that having the footnotes directly across from the text instead of below it is an advantage."