Bible Gateway Blog

Last month we revived our Tour of the Bible series to examine the Major Prophets. Today, we’ll take a look at the so-called Minor Prophets—and we’ll conclude our tour of the Old Testament while we’re at it. In case you missed them, here are the previous installments of our Tour of the Bible:

There are twelve Minor Prophets, each of whom is given a separate book in Protestant and Catholic Bibles. In order of their appearance in the Bible, they’re Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi. They’re described as “minor” not because they’re less important than the books of the Major Prophets, but because they’re shorter in length (most of them can easily be read in a single sitting). Together, their indictments of Israel’s drift away from God set the stage for the New Covenant that will be ushered in with the person of Jesus Christ.

Let’s take a brief look at each of the Minor Prophets in turn.

Hosea

Hosea had the dubious honor of having his life used as a living moral object lesson for Israel—instructed by God to marry an unfaithful wife, he spoke movingly and earnestly about God’s sorrow at Israel’s “adulterous affairs” with false gods and His willingness to forgive.

Joel

Joel’s recorded prophecies are short but direct. He described God’s coming judgment as an “invasion of locusts”—a clear and terrifying image for Iron Age Israelite society. However, Joel is best known for predicting the “pouring out” of the Holy Spirit which would occur hundreds of years later at Pentecost, as described in Acts 2.

Amos

Amos was a simple shepherd called to deliver a message nobody wanted to hear: Israel had grown complacent, spiritually lazy, and hypocritical. Injustice, in the form of slavery, greed, and mistreatment of the poor, was commonplace. Amos’ criticisms still strike home two thousand years later:

Hear this, you who trample the needy
and do away with the poor of the land, saying,
“When will the New Moon be over
that we may sell grain,
and the Sabbath be ended
that we may market wheat?”–
skimping on the measure,
boosting the price
and cheating with dishonest scales,
buying the poor with silver
and the needy for a pair of sandals,
selling even the sweepings with the wheat.

Obadiah

Obadiah consists of just one chapter. Obadiah’s message is quite specific to his time, describing the judgment that awaited the nation of Edom, which had done nothing to help Judah in her hour of need. Edom’s actions would be revisited upon them: their land and wealth would be lost just as Judah’s had been.

Jonah

The most famous of the Minor Prophets, Jonah was famously swallowed by a whale while attempting to flee God’s call. Jonah’s prophetic message is directed not at Israel, but at the sin-choked foreign city of Ninevah—a reminder that God’s love and forgiveness was not limited to one nation or ethnic group. God’s endless compassion could reach even the Assyrians, whose cruelty and military power had made them the terror of the ancient world.

Micah

Micah’s was a familiar message: Israel and Judah had turned away from God to follow false prophets and hypocritical religion, and disaster was coming if they did not repent. Micah tried to remind his audience that what God truly desired from men and women was not religious ritual, but faithful living. What God wanted wasn’t hard to understand:

He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.
And what does the LORD require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
and to walk humbly with your God.

Nahum

One of the more obscure prophets, Nahum foretold the ruin of the mighty Assyrian empire, which had hauled Judah into slavery and exile. His words were a warning that no city or nation was so powerful as to be beyond the reach of God’s judgment.

Habakkuk

Habakkuk strikes a markedly different tone than many of the other prophets. Instead of preaching judgment, he asked questions—tough questions, like “Why does God allow evil to exist?” and “If God is sovereign, why do wicked people prosper?” He brought these questions to God in prayer and found consolation in God’s strength and power. Habbakuk shows us that ancient believers wrestled with the same difficult questions about sin, evil, and suffering that Christians ask today.

Zephaniah

Prophecying during the reign of king Josiah, Zephaniah warned Judah that if they did not turn away from false religion and pagan practices, God’s judgment would fall on them. But God’s day of judgment is portrayed not just as a day of suffering, but as a time of rejoicing, when God would return to rescue the oppressed and restore the broken. The wicked had cause to fear judgment, but the faithful could look ahead to it with hope.

Haggai

Haggai served as a prophet while a small remnant of Jews, returning from exile, were struggling to rebuild Jerusalem and the temple. His message was one of encouragement and hope—God was still with His people, even though they had fallen far from the glorious days of David and Solomon:

“Who of you is left who saw this house in its former glory? How does it look to you now? Does it not seem to you like nothing? But now be strong, Zerubbabel,” declares the LORD. “Be strong, Joshua son of Jozadak, the high priest. Be strong, all you people of the land,” declares the LORD, “and work. For I am with you,” declares the LORD Almighty. “This is what I covenanted with you when you came out of Egypt. And my Spirit remains among you. Do not fear.”

Zechariah

Zechariah was a post-exile prophet like Haggai, and also directed his message to the surviving remnant returned from exile in Babylon. Zechariah stands out as an Old Testament messenger who spoke clearly about the promised Messiah, Jesus Christ:

Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion!
Shout, Daughter Jerusalem!
See, your king comes to you,
righteous and victorious,
lowly and riding on a donkey,
on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
I will take away the chariots from Ephraim
and the warhorses from Jerusalem,
and the battle bow will be broken.
He will proclaim peace to the nations.
His rule will extend from sea to sea
and from the River to the ends of the earth.

Christians believe that this unusual prophecy was fulfilled on Palm Sunday.

Malachi

Also preaching to the returned exiles, Malachi offered a less happy mesage: after all they’d been through, God’s people still fell into disobedience. Israel’s priests and leaders were leading their flock astray, and only a faithful few remained who lived in accordance with God’s law. The book of Malachi concludes the Old Testament with a reminder of humanity’s need for a Saviour—and a promise that “for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its rays.”

And so ends our review of the Old Testament. The prophetic books that conclude the Old Testament set the stage perfectly for the New: although there is hope mingled with the messages of judgment, the overall picture they paint is of a people desperately in need of a divine mediator to save them from their sin. It’s easy to get lost in all the “doom and gloom,” but a careful reading of the prophets shows that God’s desire in every situation was for His people to renounce evil and return to Him. Things look grim for God’s people—but something marvellous is on the horizon.

When our Tour of the Bible resumes with the New Testament, we’ll see the Good News that God has in mind for his lost and wandering children.

It’s the Fourth of July, which means that if you live in the USA, odds are you’re on your way to the nearest beach, park, or backyard cookout to celebrate Independence Day.

American Christians are understandably proud of their nation’s history of religious tolerance and freedom. An ocean of ink has been spilled over the years debating the influence of Christianity on America’s founding people and documents—and no doubt citizens of other countries can point to ways in which Christian ideals did or didn’t shape their own laws and cultures. But today, as many of us fire up the grill and look forward to fireworks, it seems fitting to remember that Christians have a profoundly different understanding of their own “citizenship” than the rest of the world does. Philippians 3 declares:

But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.

The national borders in which we live our lives on earth are of only passing importance in the grand scheme of eternity. There is only one kingdom to which we are ultimately called, and sharing Christ’s invitation to become a citizen there is one of the noblest duties we can perform.

That said, there’s plenty to celebrate and be thankful for today. Enjoy your day off of work, time spent with your family, and any festivities you have planned today!

I’ve been giving Mel Lawrenz’s most recent Everything New devotional some thought this week. In “Putting the Pieces Back Together,” Mel provides a powerful description of the order with which God originally imbued Creation—and the subsequent loss it suffered as a result of the Fall.

Eden was a place of perfect harmony. But as soon as we—in the persons of Adam and Eve—took our lives into our own hands, that harmony was disrupted and we were plunged into a new reality of brokenness:

Life would be easier, wouldn’t it, if all its pieces held together. If they always made sense. If nothing ever broke off. If no part were ever lost, or twisted, or detached….

Imagine life in Paradise. Eden was the wonderful opening chord of life, complete harmony with nothing in excess, nothing missing, nothing broken. But when that break did happen (and what an awful shattering sound it made), when human beings said, “we think we can do this on our own,” all creation shuddered and cracks spread throughout.

Our only hope from then on was that someone, somewhere would help us put the pieces back together.

When the Bible says that “in him [that is, Christ], all things hold together,” it is describing the fundamental structure of all reality. “All things” means all things. Go down to the level of the molecule, then the individual atom, and science will tell you that it is a mystery how atoms and their particles hold together. But they do. How is it that you put into your mouth meat and potatoes and vegetables, and they are broken apart, but you yourself don’t break apart? Your body keeps reorganizing itself, growing, healing. The biological pieces keep coming together, with some interruptions for illness, until that last breath moves out across your lips and the spirit departs. Only then does your body return to dust….

Our only hope of surviving in a broken, disconnected, fractured world is the fact that God created everything according to a grand pattern. The very meaning of the word “creation” is taking pieces and making a whole. Heaven and earth do fit together, even though it oftentimes seems as if they are two different universes. God created the visible and the invisible as one reality, though now we so often choose to live merely as bodies without souls. Why, at creation, did it all hold together? Why are there patterns to the pieces? It is because “all things were created by him and for him.”

We owe what little order we have in our lives to God and His original plan. Jesus Christ works to restore that order—to bring us back into harmony with God’s plan. It’s not always easy to discern anything resembling a divine plan in the often messy reality of our everyday existence… but take time this weekend to look for signs of God’s plan in your life. God can bring His order into even the most chaotic of places.

If you find Mel’s observations thought-provoking, be sure to sign up to receive his free weekly Everything New devotional, which is sent out each Tuesday morning!

Last week’s poll asked What does your church do best? Here’s how you answered:

Worship and preaching – 51%
Community and discipleship – 14%
Local outreach – 13%
Prayer – 12%
Global missions – 8%
Stewardship – 2%

Of course, no church can be accurately defined by just one trait, but it’s interesting to see that so many of you see strong worship and preaching as your church’s most distinguishing characteristic. Perhaps the everpresent reports of the impending demise of solid, Biblical preaching are greatly exaggerated?

The other result that strikes me as noteworthy is the 8% of churches for which global missions is a focus. The question of the modern church’s seriousness about global missions has been the subject of debate on prominent Christian blogs this month. It would be interesting to explore this poll result further to learn precisely how our churches support, or don’t support, global missions. (We’ll look at Biblical examples of missions, and the way we carry out the Great Commission today, in future posts.)

But this afternoon, with a holiday weekend on the horizon (at least for our friends in Canada and the U.S.), we’re shifting gears to ask a different question. Summer holidays are a prime time for road trips and vacations. This week’s question asks about your church attendance habits while you’re on the road:

Do you attend church when you're traveling or vacationing?

I attend any Biblical church I can find. (40%, 562 Votes)
No, usually not. (37%, 512 Votes)
I attend church only if I can find one that belongs to my home church's denomination or theological persuasion. (19%, 259 Votes)
I make a point of attending a church outside my home church's denomination or theological persuasion. (5%, 65 Votes)

Total Voters: 1,398

Loading ...

Share your answer here or on the right side of the page. And have a great holiday weekend!

In our post last week about family Bibles, we asked you to share stories about your own family Bible, if you have one. Many of you responded with fantastic stories about Bibles that have been passed down your family tree for generations. Here are some of those stories; all of these were shared with us via the Bible Gateway page on Facebook.

From Alice Nash:

“We have various ones from different branches of the family tree. They are all the big, older style hardcover bible with a place to write family information between the Old and New Testament. A few of them have obituaries and newspaper clippings about family in the pages and pressed flowers.”

From Catalin Radut:

“I have an old Romanian translated Bible that was given to me by my grandfather who had it pretty much all his life. It had to be smuggled in the country and he had to be careful with it because at the time the communist government would confiscate it and throw you in the dungeon just for having it.”

From Donna Jones Parratt:

“We have a special family Bible which has been passed down for many generations. It originally belonged to my great-great-grandfather who died in 1870. It was eventually given to his granddaughter, my grandmother, and she passed it on to me. My son now has it. As special as it his for the family history, it is never read as it is written in Welsh, and none of us speak or read that language.”

From Diana Loveland Noack :

“My grandmother gave me ours. It started off as an average award type Bible, but she has tracked 5 generations of our family in it as well as her own notations in the margins. She is 95 years old and I know I will treasure this Bible for my lifetime. One day I will have to decide who to pass it on too, I hope that is a hard decision because there are so many of my own grandchildren who will appreciate it.”

From Vivian Jean Ussery:

“Our family Bible was produced in 1845 and was the only thing in the house that survived Sherman’s troops torching the house. There is a burn mark on the front cover where a beam fell across it. We don’t read it because the pages are so brittle. It has a place on honor on a book table.”

From Mry Lafferty Wlsn:

“My grandfather, born in 1838, became a Methodist minister in 1863 after he was wounded in the Civil War. I have his pulpit Bible with the names of his children. Grandpa died in 1911 and it was 31 years later that I was born to grandpa’s youngest son. My dad was 67–and 30 years later I became keeper of that Bible. I cherish it and it has become the cornerstone for my genealogy. For some there are more generations between Grandpa and their generation. I later came across the person who had the pages from great-grandpa’s Bible.”

Thanks again to everyone who took the time to share! It was rewarding to hear how God’s Word has stayed with your families over the generations.

On a related side note, Linda Leone mentioned that her local town library keeps a selection of family Bibles on its shelves to aid in genealogical research—and your library may do the same! As a former public library librarian, I can attest that your public library is the place to start when you need to gather local information about your town.

Last week’s poll pried into your Scripture reading habits, asking How much time do you spend reading the Bible each day? Here’s what you told us:

5- 30 minutes: 52%
30-60 minutes: 18%
5 minutes or less: 16%
1-2 hours: 6%
None: 6%
More than 2 hours: 2%

It’s neat to see such a large percentage of people spending quality time in God’s Word each day—and to the 6% who don’t spend any time reading the Bible each day, give it a try! Whether you have two hours to spend reading the Bible before bed at night or five minutes before breakfast, time invested in God’s Word is always a blessing.

We’re switching tacks a bit with the next poll. We’ve asked about your personal Bible study habits; now we’re interested in learning a bit about your church. Specifically, we want you to identify the one thing your church really shines at:

What does your church do best?

Worship and preaching (53%, 1,208 Votes)
Community and discipleship (14%, 319 Votes)
Local outreach (12%, 274 Votes)
Prayer (12%, 267 Votes)
Global missions (8%, 184 Votes)
Stewardship (2%, 48 Votes)

Total Voters: 2,300

Loading ...

Now, we know that your church almost certainly does all of these things to different degrees. But we’re going to be cruel and force you to pick the one area that you think truly distinguishes your church and congregation.

Vote here or on the right side of the blog. And have a great weekend!

As a single male with no kids, I might not seem likely to be in the audience for Encouragement for Today, a devotional written to help women navigate everyday challenges with a Biblical mindset. Yet even though I’m not in the target demographic, every time I’ve taken the time to read Encouragement for Today I’ve been struck by how applicable the devotionals are to my life.

For example, yesterday’s devotional—written by best-selling author Lysa TerKeurst—focused on the topic of our spiritual motivations, a topic that’s been on my mind a lot recently. Lysa asks, “Do you do good things because you are loved, or so that you’ll be loved?” Asking yourself this simple question is a quick test of the motivations behind your actions. Lysa explains:

Doing something “so that we’ll be loved” is a trap many of us can get caught in. When I do something because I’m trying to get someone else to notice me, appreciate me, say something to build me up, or respect me more, my motives get skewed.

I become very “me” focused. I put unrealistic expectations on myself and the other person. And I can get stinkin’ angry when I don’t feel more noticed, appreciated, or respected.

I can get all twisted up and take my frustration out on myself and that person in an unfair way. I typically sabotage my own efforts and bend to discouragement and defeat.

But, doing something because I am loved is incredibly freeing.

I don’t view the relationship from the vantage point of what I stand to gain. Instead, I look at what I have the opportunity to give. I am “God focused” and love directed. I keep my expectations in check. And I am able to lavish the grace I know I so desperately need. I live free from regret with clarity of heart, mind, and soul.

Many of us, myself included, struggle with a perceived need to earn the love and grace that God freely offers us. But we can only extend true grace to others when we ourselves accept God’s freely-given grace for what it is. It’s that same grace which should motivate us to reach out to others.

If this resonates with you, you can sign up to receive daily devotionals like it at our Newsletters page. The Encouragement for Today website has an extensive archive of past devotionals if you want to explore further before signing up.

The newest addition to Bible Gateway’s library is actually a very old one: Wycliffe’s Old Testament, which together with the New Testament makes the complete Wycliffe Bible available online at Bible Gateway.

A 14th century copy of the Wycliffe Bible, open to the gospel of John.

The development of the Wycliffe Bible in the 14th century was a watershed event in the history of Bible translation and publication. Before John Wycliffe directed the series of translations that would become known as the Wycliffe Bible, common men and women had access to the Scriptures only through the Latin Vulgate as it was read in church services and functions. Wycliffe’s vision was to put God’s Word into the hands of everyone to read and interpret without reliance upon the clergy and educated elite.

The result was the first Bible translated into the English language. The Wycliffe Bible’s appearance had a profound impact on the history of Christianity, the philosophy of Bible translation, and even the political situation in Europe at the time.

As a glance at a typical passage reveals, the Wycliffe Bible presents a reading challenge to modern readers. Its Middle English language, while poetic and elegant at points, is marked by “old-fashioned” words and phrases and reflects a very literal translation philosophy that may catch readers off guard. But it’s well worth exploring—beyond its virtues as a Bible translation, it changed the way that Christians approached God’s Word. (I recommend reading it side-by-side with a modern translation for a vivid illustration of the way that language evolves over time.) As you read, imagine that you’re a 14th-century Christian encountering Scripture directly and personally for the first time in your life.

The introduction to the Wycliffe Bible is an excellent place to learn the full history and significance of this groundbreaking translation. You can also learn more about the Wycliffe Bible at its information page on Bible Gateway or at Wikipedia. You can start reading it online right now, beginning with the Old Testament or the New Testament.

Special thanks to Terence Noble for making the Wycliffe Bible available on Bible Gateway.

It’s been some time since the last installment of our Tour of the Bible series, so we’re picking up the thread again today by looking at the next major section of the Bible: the Major Prophets.

If you haven’t read the previous installments of our Tour of the Bible, here’s what we’ve covered so far:

The remaining books of the Protestant Old Testament are divided into two groups: the Major Prophets and Minor Prophets. These books transcribe the teachings, warnings, calls for repentance, and words of encouragement pronounced by the prophets—people chosen to be spokesmen for God. Prophets stood alongside priests as representatives of God on earth, conveying messages directly from God to the people of Israel. The prophets’ calling to be the conscience of Israel often set them against the Israelite establishment, invariably because the people and rulers of Israel had strayed from God’s commands.

The Major Prophet books are Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, and Daniel. The “major” prophets are so called not because the “minor” prophets are unimportant, but because the books of the Major Prophets are lengthier and cast a correspondingly longer shadow on Old Testament history and theology.

Let’s take a brief look at each of the Major Prophets and the messages they brought from God to Israel, Judah, and their neighbors.

Isaiah

Of the Major Prophets, Isaiah has arguably had the greatest influence on Jewish and Christian theology. Like many of the prophets, Isaiah delivered a message that few people wanted to hear: God’s people had allowed their hearts to grow corrupt, centered around empty religious practice. Isaiah called God’s people to return to true worship or face judgment. While calls for repentance and warnings of punishment characterize the first half of Isaiah, the second half emphasizes a messages of hope and forgiveness.

Isaiah is a dense book, full of fascinating detail. Because Isaiah interacted directly with several of Judah’s kings, this book describes some of the significant moments in the reigns of Ahaz (Isaiah 7) and Hezekiah (Isaiah 37), among other rulers. But Isaiah is most famous for his descriptions of God’s Messiah, among which is this passage from Isaiah 53:

Yet He Himself bore our sicknesses,
and He carried our pains;
but we in turn regarded Him stricken,
struck down by God, and afflicted.

But He was pierced because of our transgressions,
crushed because of our iniquities;
punishment for our peace was on Him,
and we are healed by His wounds.

We all went astray like sheep;
we all have turned to our own way;
and the LORD has punished Him
for the iniquity of us all. — Isaiah 53:4-6 (HCSB)

Jeremiah

Rembrandt's 'Jeremiah Lamenting the Destruction of Jerusalem'

Jeremiah is nearly as famous as Isaiah, although for a different reason. We use the word “jeremiad” to describe gloomy, doom-saying texts because Jeremiah was the archetypal “doom and gloom” prophet. Jeremiah relentlessly confronted Judah about its moral failures and predicted dire consequences if the people did not repent—consequences that unfortunately came true. Jeremiah was not only ignored, but actively persecuted for delivering his unpopular message. He lived to see God’s judgment fall on Jerusalem—a vindication that filled him with sorrow, not joy.

Lamentations

The book of Lamentations is Jeremiah’s song of mourning over Jerusalem’s destruction. But to this sorrow is added a ray of hope. While Judah’s plight seems overwhelming, Lamentations closes with the hope that God remains sovereign and may restore his people:

You, LORD, are enthroned forever;
Your throne endures from generation to generation.

Why have You forgotten us forever,
abandoned us for our entire lives?

LORD, restore us to Yourself, so we may return;
renew our days as in former times,

unless You have completely rejected us
and are intensely angry with us. — Lamentations 5:19-22 (HSCB)

Ezekiel

Like Jeremiah, Ezekiel predicted Jerusalem’s destruction as a consequence of her sin, but Ezekiel’s message was delivered in a very different context than that of his counterpart in Judah. Ezekiel preached in Babylon, the ancient superpower that had conquered much of the ancient Near East. Ezekiel’s audience was the band of exiled Israelites who had already been captured and relocated to Babylon.

Ezekiel spoke much of God’s transcendent holiness. He condemned Israel for turning away from their holy God—but like Isaiah, he had harsh words for some of Israel’s pagan neighbors as well. Although God was using Israel’s pagan enemies as an instrument of divine judgment, God was not blind to those nations’ moral outrages and would visit judgment on them in turn.

But judgment and punishment are not the most memorable themes in the book of Ezekiel. Israel had failed, but God had not forgotten them and would one day restore and redeem them. This hope in an eventual restoration is vividly portrayed in the famous story of the “valley of dry bones:”

[God] said to me, “Prophesy concerning these bones and say to them: Dry bones, hear the word of the LORD! This is what the Lord GOD says to these bones: I will cause breath to enter you, and you will live. I will put tendons on you, make flesh grow on you, and cover you with skin. I will put breath in you so that you come to life. Then you will know that I am the LORD.”

So I prophesied as I had been commanded. While I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone…. — Ezekiel 37:1-14 (HCSB)

Daniel

Daniel is a Sunday school favorite due to some of his incredible experiences, notably being cast into a fiery furnace and thrown into a den of lions. He interpreted the writing on the wall (the origin of the phrase we use today) and interpreted a king’s dreams. Like Ezekiel, he was a captive in Babylon, although God rewarded his faithfulness by elevating him to a position of respect and authority, first with the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar and then with his conqueror Darius.

Although Daniel is best known for the adventures described in the first half of the book, the second half relates a series of visions that emphasize God’s sovereignty and faithfulness.

So ends our whirlwind tour of the Major Prophets. Although the prophets are (not without reason) known for preaching doom and judgment, it’s important to note that this was not the entirety of their message. God didn’t send the prophets just to gloat over Israel’s impending judgment—on the contrary, these prophetic messages are full of last-minute pleas for repentance and promises that even amidst terrible judgment, God’s people could look ahead to the day that God would lift them out of their self-inflicted misery and restore them.

One of the most rewarding things to write about here at Bible Gateway is an addition to our online library of Bibles. Last week, for instance, we were thrilled to announce that the complete Common English Bible is now available on Bible Gateway. Our guiding vision is to make the Word of God accessible to everyone in the language and style that they can best understand, so each new Bible added is another step toward that goal. And each added version represents a highly-valued partnership with a Bible publisher that shares our vision.

But after over 15 years of adding Bibles, there are now a lot of versions in our library. I thought it might be useful to highlight a few Bible versions you may not know about and talk about what makes them unique.

One such Bible is the Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB). As you’ll see, the HCSB’s unique translation strategy sets it apart from many other English Bibles.

The Holman Christian Standard Bible is a relatively recent Bible translation; it’s been available in complete form since 2004. It’s the product of a translation team of 100 scholars from 17 denominations and draws on the latest advances in Bible translation in scholarship.

Any Bible translation faces a critical choice of direction: is the goal of the translation to provide an exact, word-for-word rendering of the original ancient document, or to communicate the meaning of the words without necessarily matching the exact Greek or Hebrew phrasing? Here’s how the HCSB translators dealt with the dilemma:

Traditionally, some [Bible translations] have placed a higher value on word-for-word accuracy (Formal Equivalence) and others have emphasized a thought-for-thought approach—striving for a greater level of readability (Dynamic Equivalence). But as the scholars who have worked on Bibles using different approaches have said, no English translation can be fully Formal or fully Dynamic. All translations are a balance of both.

The HCSB employs a first-of-its kind translation philosophy known as Optimal Equivalence, which seeks to achieve an optimal balance of literary precision and emotive clarity through comprehensive analysis of the text at every level. This process assures maximum transfer of both words and thoughts contained in the original.

You can see this translation style in action in passages like Matthew 13, which relates Jesus’ parables and quotes from the Old Testament:

Then the disciples came up and asked Him, “Why do You speak to them in parables?”

He answered them, “Because the secrets of the kingdom of heaven have been given for you to know, but it has not been given to them. For whoever has, [more] will be given to him, and he will have more than enough. But whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him. For this reason I speak to them in parables, because looking they do not see, and hearing they do not listen or understand. Isaiah’s prophecy is fulfilled in them, which says:

You will listen and listen,
yet never understand;
and you will look and look,
yet never perceive.
For this people’s heart has grown callous;
their ears are hard of hearing,
and they have shut their eyes;
otherwise they might see with their eyes
and hear with their ears,
understand with their hearts
and turn back—
and I would cure them.

“But your eyes are blessed because they do see, and your ears because they do hear! For I assure you: Many prophets and righteous people longed to see the things you see yet didn’t see them; to hear the things you hear yet didn’t hear them.”

Many other details distinguish the HCSB from its peers. For example, the HCSB uses the name “Yahweh” where most other translations use “The LORD” when translating God’s name. Here’s the HCSB’s translation of Exodus 6:6; compare it to the NIV’s rendering:

Therefore tell the Israelites: I am Yahweh, and I will deliver you from the forced labor of the Egyptians and free you from slavery to them. I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and great acts of judgment.

You can easily compare the HCSB to other Bibles using Bible Gateway’s parallel Bible reading feature. The HCSB website also has a useful comparison of several key passages in the HCSB and other major English translations.

You can learn more at the official HCSB website and at this summary of its main features. And of course, you can start reading the HCSB right away at Bible Gateway.

If you’re not familiar with the HCSB, consider using it for some of your Scripture reading this week! We’re grateful to Holman Bible Publishers for making it available on Bible Gateway, and we hope you find it a blessing to your own Bible study.

Bible Gateway Blog

Most Recent Blog Posts

Tour of the Bible, part 5: the Minor Prophets

Hosea

Joel

Amos

Obadiah

Jonah

Micah

Nahum

Habakkuk

Zephaniah

Haggai

Zechariah

Malachi

Citizens of the Kingdom

Mel Lawrenz in “Everything New”: God Restores Order to Our Lives

New Poll: Do You Attend Church While You’re Traveling?

Your Family Bible Stories

New Poll: What does your church do best?

Encouragement for Today devotions: “Do you do good because you are loved, or in order to be loved?”

Wycliffe’s Bible now available on Bible Gateway

Tour of the Bible, part 4: the Major Prophets

Isaiah

Jeremiah

Lamentations

Ezekiel

Daniel

Do you know the Holman Christian Standard Bible?

Search the Blog

Search the Bible

Facebook

Polls

Topics

About Us