NET Bible

[WeRSauron]

I recently got the NET Bible. “NET” stands for “New English Translation”; the NET also coincides with the fact that it began as an online translation/version of the Bible. As a matter of fact, although buying a hard copy costs more than $30, downloading it is free. For more info, one can go to http://www.bible.org/.

Because of having it online, it is full of commentary, scholarly explanations, notes, etc. I’m personally impressed.

Has anyone else gone through the NET Bible? Any opinions about how good/useful it is?

WRS

[FriarTed]

I’m looking over it now & I am impressed! ESP WITH THE NOTES!

[C_K_Dexter_Haven]

I only looked over Genesis 1 and 2, but found the translation reasonable and the notes on translation fairly comprehensive.

Since this is about translation rather than content, I’m going to move it from GD to Cafe Society. Somewhat arbitrary, I confess, but I think it will get more relevant comments in Cafe Society… and I’ll be able to track it (would I let personal interest influence moderating decisions? well… sometimes. For border-cases.)

[Brandus]

I hate this version. It has been used by the church as a weapon against gays with it’s rendering of 1 corinthians

6:9 Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived! The sexually immoral, idolaters, adulterers, **passive homosexual partners,5 practicing homosexuals,**6 6:10 thieves, the greedy, drunkards, the verbally abusive,7 and swindlers will not inherit the kingdom of God.

It is absolutely inexusable and an injustice to use the term “homosexual” here, which as a word was not in existance until the late 1800’s in Germany. It was devised as a medical term to explain same-sex attraction. The translators have an obvious bias which is out-of-touch with Paul’s original message.

[El_Zagna]

@Brandus

I The translators have an obvious bias which is out-of-touch with Paul’s original message.

Jeez, Brandus, did you even bother reading the footnotes?

5 tn This term is sometimes rendered “effeminate,” although in contemporary English usage such a translation could be taken to refer to demeanor rather than behavior. BDAG 613 s.v. malakov" 2 has “pert. to being passive in a same-sex relationship, effeminate esp. of catamites, of men and boys who are sodomized by other males in such a relationship.” L&N 88.281 states, “the passive male partner in homosexual intercourse-‘homosexual.’ …As in Greek, a number of other languages also have entirely distinct terms for the active and passive roles in homosexual intercourse.” See also the discussion in G. D. Fee, First Corinthians (NICNT), 243-44. A number of modern translations have adopted the phrase “male prostitutes” for malakoiv in 1 Cor 6:9 (NIV, NRSV, NLT) but this could be misunderstood by the modern reader to mean “males who sell their services to women,” while the term in question appears, at least in context, to relate to homosexual activity between males. Furthermore, it is far from certain that prostitution as commonly understood (the selling of sexual favors) is specified here, as opposed to a consensual relationship. Thus the translation “passive homosexual partners” has been used here.
6 tn On this term BDAG 135 s.v. ajrsenokoivth" states, “a male who engages in sexual activity w. a pers. of his own sex, pederast 1 Cor 6:9…of one who assumes the dominant role in same-sex activity, opp. malakov”…1 Ti 1:10; Pol 5:3. Cp. Ro 1:27." L&N 88.280 states, “a male partner in homosexual intercourse-‘homosexual.’…It is possible that ajrsenokoivth” in certain contexts refers to the active male partner in homosexual intercourse in contrast with malakov", the passive male partner." Since there is a distinction in contemporary usage between sexual orientation and actual behavior, the qualification “practicing” was supplied in the translation, following the emphasis in BDAG.

[amarinth]

It’s even less poetic than the NIV.

That’s hard to do.

And whoever translated the Psalms has some serious issues with exclamation points.