Is Your Bible Amplified?

In this regular feature, Dave and Tom respond to questions from listeners and readers of The Berean Call.Here’s this week’s question:Dear TA and Dave:I understand and share your disdain for paraphrased versions of the Bible, but I do not believe that the Amplified Bible is a paraphrased version.I presently use the large print Amplified Bible that states on the front cover that it captures the full meaning behind the original Greek and Hebrew.The introduction explains the text of the Amplified Bible is easy to understand, and is made even easier to understand by the inclusion of informative footnotes which give historical background, archeological information and solid traditional scholarship, both academic and devotional in character.Numerous Bible translations are among the sources cited in the footnotes, as well as some of the greatest lexicographers of all time, and some of the best of the Bible commentators.I would appreciate any information that you or Dave have concerning the Amplified Version.

Tom:

Well, Dave, this may be more of a dynamic equivalent version than a full paraphrase, but nevertheless, it’s still commentary, it’s still not a literal translation, and if somebody is going to use a Bible like this, I think, and you give me your perspective, somebody is going to use a Bible like this they need a word for word, literal translation to compare it to.I know you’re not thrilled with commentaries, and so on, and rightly so, but what do you think?

Dave:

Well, I agree with you, Tom, that this is not as bad as, certainly it’s not like The Message, Where he’s not even trying to make a translation, he just put his own ideas in there.

Tom:

Right, and he’s making an appeal to the culture, to reflect the culture within a so-called Bible version or translation.

Dave:

Yeah, but the Amplified—well, supposedly, it’s giving you synonym after synonym after synonym, but it also enlarges, and I would say that’s getting into the paraphrase.

Tom:

Dave, one of the reasons this individual wrote to us was, you know, I did a 15-page critique of, The Purpose Driven Life, and in it Rick mainly quotes The Message, but he also quotes from the Amplified Version.This is an example from, The Purpose Driven Life.Rick Warren quotes the Amplified Version, and I’ll give you an example.This is Philippians 4 :13:“I am ready for anything and equal to anything through him who infuses inner strength into me, that is, I am self sufficient in Christ’s sufficiency.”Now Dave, I don’t know what that means, especially the last phrase:I am sufficient in Christ’s sufficiency.But this is a paraphrase, at least in this particular example.

Dave:

Well, Tom, what it actually says is, “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.”Well, I think he is taking a bit of liberty there, the Amplified I mean, takes a bit of liberty.Why do we have to have all of these words?Isn’t this trying to explain what it means?

Tom:

Wait a minute, what is, I am self sufficient in Christ’s sufficiency?Do we need that?

Dave:

It doesn’t say that, self sufficient is contrary to everything the Bible teaches.So you can’t say, I’m sufficient through Christ’s sufficiency, because if I am self sufficient I don’t need Christ’s sufficiency, and if His sufficiency makes me self sufficient it seems like it’s working against itself.

Tom:

Right, so there is, in a sense, an appeal to the culture, an appeal to which certainly The Message does time and time again, it’s self oriented.Not that the whole Amplified Bible is that way, but we are supposed to be making things more understandable, and I think they confuse things.

Dave:

Right.The objection that the listeners has with this question that—well, the Amplified Bible doesn’t amplify things, really.Amplification is adding to it, amplification is not translation.Now, if you want to give alternate words—well, this word could also mean this and that, but the whole purpose of the translation is to give the sense of the meaning in that context.And although there may be several different alternate meanings to a word there would be only one that would really fit there.So Tom, getting back to where we began, the Amplified Bible is not as bad as the other ones, but it certainly is an amplification, which is giving your opinion of what the text means.And in some cases, I mean, the example you just gave us, that is not just giving us alternate words, it’s not just giving us synonyms, it’s changing, I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me, I am sufficient in my eye I am self sufficient in Christ’s sufficiency, and it doesn’t fit.Why must I think that I am self sufficient?No, Tom, that phrase, through Christ, is so important.Paul uses it over and over an over, we have access through Christ, we have redemption through His blood.Everything we have is through Christ, and that doesn’t make me anything in myself and it certainly doesn’t make me self sufficient.Otherwise, hey, I am now self sufficient, I don’t need Christ anymore—He infused some sufficiency into me and now I am self sufficient.Tom, we’renot trying to split hairs, but we are putting out that, let’s stick to the Bible, what it says, the plain text.

Tom:

Again, for those who feel they learn better through reading somebody else’s opinion, commentaries, and so on.If you need to do that our encouragement is, at least get a literal Bible, that is, a literal translation so you can compare what other people think to what the word of God says.

Dave:

Amen.