Book Review: The Second Testament by Scot McKnight

Scot McKnight teaches New Testament at Northern Seminary and has written many books including a few commentaries in the New Testament. His latest project is his translation of the New Testament simply titled, The Second Testament.

Before I go any further, I want to take time to address the different schools of thought in Bible translation. The first is the literal approach where the translators of the Bible attempt to translate the Bible from one language to another as word-for-word as they can. Translations that are considered literal are the New American Standard Bible, English Standard Bible, Legacy Standard Bible, King James Bible, and New King James Bible.

Next, we have the dynamic equivalence which looks more into what is the meaning of the text rather than the literal translation of that passage. Granted, some of these translations do take into account of the original language but they are guided by what they believe is the intent of the author. Some of those translations include the New International Version, Christian Standard Bible, and New Living Translation.

Finally, we have paraphrase. A Bible paraphrase is when one person translates the Bible. The most famous paraphrase is the Living Bible where Dr. Kenneth Taylor took the King James Version and translate it so his daughter can read the Bible without all of the complex words associated with the King James. What the translators of paraphrases attempt to do is make the Bible readable using words that are not associated with the original languages of the Bible. Other paraphrases include The Message and the problematic Passion Translation. 

Where does The Second Translation fit into these categories. After going through and knowing what the author was intending to do with this "translation," it is a paraphrase. This is a not a translation. Knowing that McKnight leans to a more liberal theology, I should not have been surprised. Plus, as mentioned earlier, a paraphrase is when one person translates the Bible and uses words not associated with the original languages of scripture. Therefore, I cannot call The Second Testament a translation.

I received this book from InterVarsity Press in exchange for a honest review.