Try Another Translation

Every translation is already an act of interpretation. A translator faced a Hebrew or Greek sentence that does not map cleanly onto English, and chose one way to say it in a language that did not have the original writer’s exact words available. That choice is usually a good one. It is still a choice.

When a verse feels flat, or you cannot tell why it matters, open a second translation before you open a commentary. Not to find the version you like better. To see where the translators disagreed, because disagreement marks the spot where the original language was doing something English cannot say in one clean way.

You do not need five translations open at once. One is your primary reading, the one you memorize and quote. A second is a flashlight, brought out only when something in the first one will not sit still.