selected one, and based the transla tion and the explanations upon it. Some will contend that it is the translator’s job to select the correct meaning of a word, and then to ren der it into the most suitable and ac curate English word. The difficulty with this is that the reader is left in the dark as to what the translator has done. In this Amplified version, at least, he is more aware of the prob lems that faced the translator. It is true that he is not usually in a posi tion to judge, yet the variety of trans lations tend to show that translators are not all perfect judges either; oth erwise, why would they come up with so many varieties of renderings? They cannot all be equally valid. It would be a mistake to take this version, or any other, for that mat ter, as the last word in translations. There is no substitute for a pains taking examination of the original in the light of all the helps that linguis tic science can afford. There is still general agreement among evangeli cal scholars that the American Stand ard Version is the most accurate that we have in English; even so it is not perfect, and has lost something of the beauty of the King James Authorized Version. One should use the Amplified, as he should use any of the modern- language versions, as a help to the understanding of the Bible, and not as his only version for constant read ing and study. When properly used under the guidance of the Spirit, it can be a real help. — 1214 pages; fabricoid; Z o n d e r v a n Publishing House, Grand Rapids; $4.95. This volume is the second to be published in a projected series of eight on the Old Testament. (Between the Testaments was published previously) Here Dr. Pfeiffer seeks to go into more detail than is possible in a one- volume work. He explores the subjects commonly dealt with, and ranges into daily life, social and business prac tices, the theology of the patriarchs, divine revelation as a phenomenon in that age, and non-Biblical world lit erature of the age. Of course, one of the first problems he has to tackle is the historicity of the patriarchs in these accounts. Fol- THE KING'S BUSINESS The Patriarchal Age By Charles F. P feiffer
The Amplified Old Testament Part II: Job - Malachi The Amplified New Testament has sold over three quarters of a million copies. It has been highly praised and moderately criticized. Before look ing at the Old Testament (Part I is yet to come), one should review just what this version is designed to do. We all know that most words have more than one meaning. In the con ventional translation the scholar is compelled to select the one meaning he feels best fits the particular pas sage, and then to find the best Eng lish word to render that meaning. The Amplified version gives tjie read er the benefit of knowing the shades of meaning conveyed by the original words, whether Greek or Hebrew. In the case of the latter, particularly, it has been said that few languages can say so much in so little. Heretofore the commentator or expositor has had to supply for the Bible student a clar ification of the richness of these words. A good example of the way this works is to be found in Proverbs 11: 30b, “ He that winneth souls is wise.” This is not a translation of the Heb rew, which says literally, “ He that takes lives is wise.” The trouble with this is that in English “ to take a life” is an idiom for “ to murder.” The Amplified version renders .this as follows: “ And he who is wise cap tures human lives for God [as a fisher of men] — he gathers and receives them for eternity.” This version attempts to identify every speaker. This is a help in some passages, where, in the older versions, it is left to the reader to determine. It also identifies references to Christ wherever they are certain; and it at tempts “ to present every story of the Old Testament as wholesomely read able for the young as for the old” (Introduction). This probably refers to the Song of Solomon, as well as to other passages. Although in the New Testament there is more amplifica tion than in the Old, in the Song of Solomon there is a great deal of in terpolation in italicized type. On some pages this runs to more than the text itself. One wonders whether this vio lates the affirmation in the introduc tion that “ this version is free from private interpretation.” Of a number of possible interpretations of this enig matic book, the translator admittedly
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