A Handbook on the Gospel of John
Overview
What if you were responsible for translating God's Word into a language that never had a Bible before? Can you imagine the burden you would feel to do a good job?
God takes His Word pretty seriously, and you would certainly do everything in your power to make sure that you were not putting words into God's mouth, but that you were providing a text that clearly communicated God's Word as closely to the original as possible.
This challenge to understand the heart of the original Scriptures, in order to put the original text into a new language, was the impetus for the United Bible Societies to create handbooks for Bible translators working on this very thing. The United Bible Societies' Handbook Series is a comprehensive verse-by-verse guide to understanding exactly what is being communicated by the author in the original Scriptures.
Key Features
- Exegetical, historical, cultural, and linguistic information on the original text
- Verse-by-verse guides
- An essential tool for Bible translators
Top Highlights
“Though the Greek term logos may be rendered ‘word,’ it would be wrong to think it indicates primarily a grammatical or lexical unit in a sentence. Greek has two other terms which primarily identify individual words, whether they occur in a list (as in a dictionary) or in a sentence. The term logos, though applicable to an individual word, is more accurately understood as an expression with meaning; that is, it is ‘a message,’ ‘a communication,’ and, as indicated, a type of ‘revelation.’ A literal translation, therefore, more or less equivalent to English ‘word,’ is frequently misleading.” (Page 7)
“GeCL ‘In the beginning, before the world was created’ ]. John wants his readers to understand that at whatever point the creation began, the Word already existed.” (Page 6)
“The term the Word has a rich heritage, by way of both its Greek and Jewish backgrounds. For the Greeks who held to a theistic view of the universe, it could be understood as the means by which God reveals himself to the world, while among those who were pantheistic in outlook, the Word was the principle that held the world together and at the same time endowed men with the wisdom for living. In the Greek translation of the Old Testament, the Word could be used both of the means by which God had created the world (Psa 33:6) and through which he had revealed himself to the world (Jer 1:4; Ezek 1:3; Amos 3:1).” (Page 7)
“The fact that the jars are stone, rather than earthenware, is important. According to Jewish law, earthenware jars, if contaminated, had to be broken, but contaminated stone jars could simply be washed.” (Page 59)
Product Details
- Title: A Handbook on the Gospel of John
- Authors: E. A. Nida, B. M. Newman
- Series: The United Bible Societies' Handbook Series (UBSHS)
- Publisher: United Bible Societies
- Pages: 678