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More About The Holman Christian
Standard Bible (HCSB)
The Southern Baptist BibleLaurence M. Vance, Ph.D. Vance
Publications
TheHolman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB), published by the
Southern Baptists, is nowcomplete. The Gospel of John was released
first, in 1999. Then the entire New Testament was
ublished in 2000. In 2002, an UltraTrim edition of the New
Testament became available thatincluded Psalms and Proverbs. With
the recent addition of the Old Testament, the HCSB is
ow complete. Or is it?
hen the UltraTrim edition of the New Testament was published,
certain changes were made
in the text of the New Testament. The changes were not drastic
enough to warrant calling ithe New HCSB, but there were some
changes nevertheless. It is this revised New Testamenthat has been
paired with the newly-prepared Old Testament.
The HCSB is not the only Bible to make subtle changes in its
text. However, like the otheribles that do so, the HCSB has no
record of any of these changes in its Introduction. It seems
as though the publisher does not want the public to know when it
makes changes to the text ofa Bible it publishes. If the publisher
of any Bible that has had its text changed is contactedabout
changes, no specific passages are ever given in reply. In order to
find out if any changeshave been made, the different editions (and
sometimes printings) of the Bible in question mustbe collateda very
tedious process.
One way to tell if a new edition or printing of a modern version
has changes in its text is tocheck the copyright date. If the
publisher is honest, there will be several copyright
datescorresponding to the different editions or printings that have
changes. The HCSB has fourcopyright dates: 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003,
so at least the publisher is honestjust don= t writeand ask for a
list of changes.
hy, then, did the publishers of the HCSB make some changes to
the text of the HCSB? Forhe answer we must go back to the turn of
the last century. The Twentieth Century New
Testament, one of the earliest translations into "modern
English," was one of the first (if nothe first) modern versions to
shorten "only begotten" to just "only" (John 1:14, 18, 3:16, 18;eb.
11:17; 1 John 4:9). This change was followed by the Weymouth New
Testament (1903),
heMoffattNew Testament (1913), and the GoodspeedNew Testament
(1923).
ecause these versions were never very popular, it was not until
the publication of theevised Standard Version (RSV) New Testament
in 1946 that the reading "only" was reallyoticed. The New Testament
of theNew American Standard Bible (NASB) of 1963, like theew
Testament of its predecessor theAmerican Standard Version (ASV) of
1901, did not
follow this trend. However, the publication of theNew
International Version (NIV) NewTestament in 1973 rekindled the
debate since it replaced "only begotten" with "one and only."
ecent modern versions, like theNew Living Translation (1996) and
the English StandardVersion (2001) follow the RSV. TheInternational
Standard Version (1998) replaces "only
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(HCSB
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begotten" with "unique" in all six passages. TheNew Evangelical
Translation (1988) replaces"only begotten" with "only" in Hebrews
11:17 and "one-and-only" in the other five passages.
The HCSB originally read just "only" in John 1:14, 18, 3:16,
3:18; Hebrews 11:17; and 1 John:9. In the revised HCSB, every place
but the passage in Hebrews has been changed to "one
and only" with a footnote that reads "Oronly begotten." Hebrews
11:17 is rendered "unique."
Trying to go half way between the Authorized Version and the
typical modern translation isypical of the HCSB. As I pointed out
in "The Southern Baptist Bible," the Introduction to theCSB
presents the translator= s philosophy. After mentioning theformal
equivalence
approach, and how "a literal rendering can often result in
awkward English or in aisunderstanding of the original," and the
dynamic equivalence approach, and how it too has
its problems because a modern translator cannot "be certain of
the idea in the original author=s mind," the Introduction informs
us that the HCSB uses the optimal equivalence approach,"which seeks
to combine the best features of both formal and dynamic equivalence
byapplying each method to translate the meaning of the original
with optimal accuracy." The
CSB follows most modern versions when a portion of a verse is
changed or omitted (Mat.5:22, 19:9; Mark 1:2, 9:49; Luke 2:33, 4:4,
22:64; John 3:13, 8:59; Acts 18:21; Rom. 8:1,
14:10; 1 Cor. 10:28; 2 Cor. 4:10; Gal. 3:1; Eph. 3:14; Col.
1:14; 2 Thes. 2:2; 1 Tim. 1:1, 3:16;Tit. 1:14; Heb. 2:7; 1 Pet.
4:1; Rev. 8:13, 14:5, 22:14), but does not follow them when itcomes
to omitting an entire verse (Mat. 17:21, 18:11, 23:14; Mark 7:16,
9:44, 46, 11:26,15:28; Luke 17:36, 23:17; John 5:4; Acts 8:37,
24:7, 28:29; Rom. 16:24).
lot of ink has been spilled about the Greek word monogenhv"
(monogenes), rendered
"only begotten" in those places in the Authorized Version when
it refers to Jesus Christ (orsaac, a type of Christ). The fact that
it is a compound word made up ofmovno" (monos),
"only," and gevno" (genos), "kind, stock, nation," is
irrelevant. The fact that gevno" is not
from gennavw (gennao), "beget," is immaterial. Every use of the
word monogenhv" in the
ew Testament describes a relationship between a parent and a
child. Jesus Christ is not the
only son of God or the one and only son of God (Gen. 6:2; Job
1:6; Luke 3:28; John 1:12).The translation ofmonogenhv" as "only
begotten" differentiates Jesus Christ from a human
only child (Luke 7:12, 8:42, 9:38) and augments the relationship
he has with God the Father(Acts 13:33; Heb. 1:5, 6, 5:5; 1 John
5:1; Rev. 1:5).
hat will be the next thing changed in the HCSB? Don= t look for
the publisher to advertiseany changes that it makes in the text. It
might hinder those who continually refer to thechanges in the
editions of the Authorized Version.
Laurence M. Vance, Ph.D., is a teacher, an author, a publisher,
afreelance writer, the editor of the Classic Reprints series, and
the
director of the Francis Wayland Institute. He holds degrees
inhistory, theology, accounting, and economics. The author of
sevenbooks and two collections of essays, he regularly
contributesarticles and book reviews to both secular and religious
periodicals.Dr. Vance's writing interests include free market
economics,government spending and corruption, the socialism and
statism ofconservative pundits and Republican politicians, Baptist
theology,English Bible history, Greek grammar, and the folly of
war. He is aregular columnist for LewRockwell.com, and blogs
forLewRockwell.com, Mises.org, and Antiwar.com. Dr. Vance is
amember of the Society of Biblical Literature, the Grace
Evangelical
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