Sarx

Makes the heart Cackle

23 August 2008 - 23 אב 5768 by Huw

O & READ Some of the reviews of the Orthodox Study Bible. Some have not read the book - but almost all of them are suffering from “Orthodoxer than Thou”. I particularly like the one that seems to remind us that canonically we’re not supposed to use English. Yup.

Tags: orthodoxy, piety

Posted in uberfrum

6 Responses to “Makes the heart Cackle”

on 23 August 2008 - 23 אב 5768 at 7:50 pm1Ian

It’s so sad one must laugh. Lord, have mercy.

While I must admit the NT & Psalms one frustrated me at times [I felt it was more a 'how-to-convert' or 'how-to-convince-evangelicals' tool, at least that is the impression I got from the various short essays], the very fact us Orthodox could get together and do anything in less than 500 years is cause for celebration! [add smilies as appropriate, my tongue is firmly planted in my cheek with that last comment].
on 24 August 2008 - 24 אב 5768 at 1:12 am2Fr. Ernesto

In at least one of the comments, there is no way the “reviewer” could have actually looked at the complete Orthodox Study Bible.

1. He claimed that the Psalms were numbered Protestant fashion.
Answer: They are not.

2. He claimed that the Old Testament was a pastiche of New King James Old Testament with additions as necessary.
Answer: It is not. It is a new translation from the Septuagint. In fact, the book names and chapter numberings follow the LXX to the point that I had some of my people get lost during a Bible Study because they were using a different version. This is pointed out in the preface to the OSB.

3. He wondered why a “Protestant” publishing house was used, and claimed that this could explain the “evangelical” tone in the OSB.
Answer: Actually the CEO of Thomas Nelson Inc. is a deacon in good standing at an Orthodox parish in the Nashville area. Thomas Nelson was evangelical, but there has been a slow change in them, and they now publish Orthodox materials as well.

I could go on, but as you can see, there is not only little reality in that type of review, but it actually borders on outright untruth, as points 1 & 2 are simply a matter of checking the content and preface of the OSB.

Frankly, there are some things about the OSB that can be critiqued. But critiquing it and deliberately misrepresenting it are two different birds.

Finally, Ian is correct. The target audience of the OSB is not the educated Orthodox. It is either the uneducated ethnic/cultural Orthodox and the converts. This is why the material is presented in modern culturally adequate phrasing. This is not a bad thing, except for the person who did argue (I read the reviews) that somehow it was not appropriate to use English.
on 24 August 2008 - 24 אב 5768 at 12:44 pm3Gregory

Both editions of the Orthodox Bible Study may not be perfect (show me any human effort that isn’t in need of any improvement), but there’s one thing I can’t help noticing about the more virulent criticisms of this project: they come from people or groups that have not even attempted to do anything of the sort; to date, they’ve been content to retrofit Protestant or Roman Catholic editions of the Bible for their liturgical and catechetical needs. If they know it all and can do better, then they need to get to work and show us how it’s done, rather than sitting on the sidelines and criticizing others.
on 24 August 2008 - 24 אב 5768 at 5:36 pm4Huw

One of the uberfrum sects *has* produced a NT that is a literal (and I mean that) translation from the Byzantine text filled with footnotes and patristic quotes. It’s almost a word for word translation and therefore, horrid. We used to carry this in our parish bookstore at St Raphaels. It was useless.

There is also the EOB. I know nothing about this - the whole thing seems new. I found it in a google looking for the Holy Apostles edition above. At least it’s free!
on 25 August 2008 - 25 אב 5768 at 12:46 am5Gregory

I think the Dormition Skete (?) New Testament came out after the Orthodox Study Bible New Testament and Psalms — in reaction to it. Expensive as it was, I was advised not to spend sparse money on it, as I was told the translation was wooden in the extreme and thus virtually unreadable and useless.

Thanks for the EOB link. I hadn’t heard of this project and didn’t recognize any of the names associated with it either. But it looks interesting and promising. From the little bit I read of the PDFs, I have to say — not bad at all, thus far!

This is the sort of thing SCOBA ought to be doing, but there you have it.
on 29 August 2008 - 29 אב 5768 at 3:32 pm6Byrd

The “reviewer” that I read who said that English is not allowed has demonstrated on an EO forum that he knows nothing about the history of the English language or that the Gospels, worship and prayers were translated into various Anglo-Saxon dialects more then 1000 years ago (to give the number he cites.) I have had interactions with him before and he does not, for the most part, seem to understand reading in context among other things. Imho his views may be ignored with no loss of any valuable information.