A few weeks ago, I spoke with a friend’s
granddaughter, a youth leader in her church. She was starting to
process big questions about what she reads in the bible and was
unsure where to turn. I suggested that a commentary may be a
good start. In-depth commentaries are works of biblical
scholarship.
We often confuse translation with interpretation, which can be
two different things. When studying scriptures for informing
preachers and teachers, linguistic background is very important.
Reliable commentary will usually include the history of a
particular passage, its attributed authorship, the general
dating of the original text and the historical/cultural context
at the time of its writing.
Writers of commentary usually turn to specialists in ancient
texts to address the details of translation so that they might
offer a more truthful interpretation of the text to the preacher
or teacher. At the same time, the translation must also make
sense to the reader. (For an informative and entertaining read
on the history of biblical translations, I found the History of
Biblical Translations at
historyworld.net.)
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