CEB: Thoughts or plans

By John Meunier on

I looked up Isaiah 55:8 in five or six translations. In everyone, it said something like “my thoughts are not your thoughts.”

Then I looked in my new Common English Bible. It says, “my plans” instead of thoughts.

Anyone out there who actually knows Hebrew who can explain the novel choice by the CEB?

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8 Responses

  1. chadwhitley

    I’m afraid that I can’t speak as a Hebrew expert, though I’ve had several courses in it. It doesn’t matter anyway, b/c my Hebrew Bible is at church, as is my lexicon.

    However, I did note that the NET Bible also translates this as “plans,” with no explanation in the notes–just the alternate rendering of “thoughts” (unusual for the NET Bible).

    I, too, would be interested in hearing a thoughtful response on that translation choice.

  2. Henry Neufeld

    The semantic range of the Hebrew word involved can support either translation. I like “plans.”

  3. John Meunier

    @ Henry, I appreciate the help. Do you think the NIV, ESV, NRSV, NASB, and NLT are all sticking with the KJV out of tradition?

    @ Chad, I like the way you’ve been wrestling with the CEB on your blog. One that caught me a while back was Acts 10:34-43. The CEB says everyone who “worships” God is acceptable to him, every translation I could find has everyone who “fears” God. And the word translated as “worships” by the CEB was translated as “fear” in nearly every instance it was used in the NRSV.

    My overall impression is that the translators sometimes choose English words not based on the original language but based on a theological point they are trying to make. I know translation is always fraught with choices, but the CEB seems to lean more toward the contemporary theology side than the original language in many cases.

    1. chadwhitley

      John,

      That IS interesting. The Greek word often translated as “fear” is a participial form of the word “phobeo/phobeomai”, which means, literally, “to fear” (it’s where we get the word “phobia”). BUT, the secondary definition (and the one my lexicon ascribes to this verse) adds a different sense to the word–to “fear” as in “to hold in reverence.” It seems a *bit* of a stretch to go from “holding in reverence” to “worshipping” something or someone, but I suppose the translators were trying to avoid the connotation of “terror” that is most naturally associated with the way that we use “fear.”

      I guess this is one of those places where there is no simple English translation that captures the sense of the original language, so translators have make the best of what they have (though we might have choose differently). :)

      Thanks for reading the blog, though! Stop by anytime!

      1. chadwhitley

        Sorry. That should read “we might choose differently.” It’s been a LONG day. ;)

  4. John Meunier

    BTW, I do see the argument for “plans” based on a reading of Isaiah 55. It was just one of those instances in which new words for a verse I know well catches my attention.

  5. chadwhitley

    Dead horse, I aim to beat thee!

    So, I spoke with my former New Testament professor, who is very well-versed in Greek and holds to a high view of Scripture. He said that there are other places in Scripture where the concepts of “fear” and “worship” are linked (e.g. Revelation 14:7 and 15:4, as well as Deuteronomy 10:20 (in the NRSV)). The reading is a novel one for this passage, but my professor said that the reason for it must have been that the translators believed that the real sense of phobomenous (in that passage) was oriented toward worship.

    Not for nothing, but if phobomenous does mean “fear” in the sense of “reverence” or “awe,” most thesauri (is that the plural of “thesaurus?”) do list “worship” as a synonym of “revere” or “reverence.” It’s possible, then, that from the English side of things, translating “reverence” as “worship” doesn’t really break any rules.

    But the Greek is tricky, since there are better words for “worship,” if that’s what the author of Acts intended to say. I guess this is one of those cases where I can’t really say “that’s WRONG!”, though it might not be how I would translate it were I in charge. I’m not really offended by it, though.

    “The Human One” for “Son of Man” still sticks in my craw. :)

  6. Fearful Worship–Acts 10:35 and the Common English Bible « The Contemplations of Chastorpad

    [...] FYI…this issue first came to my attention during a discussion on John Meunier’s blog about another passage of Scripture. You can find it here.  [...]