Unfortunate and Scary
I cannot think of any one major prospective that I have known of John Piper's and immediately thought that I disagreed? I know that my disagreeing with him is of no consequence to him or any other person in the world, but yet it troubles me. I so look up to Piper I just hate to see something come to the fore that I certainly (at this present time anyway) completely disagree with. He strongly dislikes the NIV and thinks that its use in preaching "undermines good God exultant preaching". Is that not a really weird position?
About the NIV he says, "I feel what I am about to say with a passion built up over 25 years. I have longed that there be something more readable than the NASB and more literal than the NIV. The NIV is a paraphrase with so much unnecessary rewording and so much interpretation that I could not preach from it." He goes on to say, "My biggest concern has to do with preaching. When a paraphrase becomes the standard preaching, reading, memorizing Bible of the church, preaching is weakened—robust expository exultation in the pulpit is made more difficult. Preaching that gives clear explanations and arguments from the wording of specific Biblical texts tends to be undermined when a Bible paraphrases instead of preserving the original wording on good English. And when that kind of preaching is undermined, the whole level of Christian thinking in the church goes down, and a Bible-saturated worldview is weakened, and the ability of the people—and even the pastors themselves-to root their thoughts and affections in firm Biblical ground diminishes."
I appreciate, as always, his agressive God-centered Christ exultant world-view, but I find it oddly placed or applied here in the NIV issue. The NIV is not by any means my choice or favorite translation, but yet I think that I could certainly preach from it without undermining "robust expository exultant" preaching. Ahh...I hate disagreeing with Piper. It really is unfortunate and scary.
About the NIV he says, "I feel what I am about to say with a passion built up over 25 years. I have longed that there be something more readable than the NASB and more literal than the NIV. The NIV is a paraphrase with so much unnecessary rewording and so much interpretation that I could not preach from it." He goes on to say, "My biggest concern has to do with preaching. When a paraphrase becomes the standard preaching, reading, memorizing Bible of the church, preaching is weakened—robust expository exultation in the pulpit is made more difficult. Preaching that gives clear explanations and arguments from the wording of specific Biblical texts tends to be undermined when a Bible paraphrases instead of preserving the original wording on good English. And when that kind of preaching is undermined, the whole level of Christian thinking in the church goes down, and a Bible-saturated worldview is weakened, and the ability of the people—and even the pastors themselves-to root their thoughts and affections in firm Biblical ground diminishes."
I appreciate, as always, his agressive God-centered Christ exultant world-view, but I find it oddly placed or applied here in the NIV issue. The NIV is not by any means my choice or favorite translation, but yet I think that I could certainly preach from it without undermining "robust expository exultant" preaching. Ahh...I hate disagreeing with Piper. It really is unfortunate and scary.
posted by adam at 4:04 PM
4 Comments:
Indeed AT. I would have to say I disagree with him here. The NIV has definitely been my favorite translation over the past three or four years, and though I've known of Piper's preference for the ESV, I'm disappointed that he makes such a strong statement against such a strong translation. What's unfortunate and scary is that so many young guys take what he says without question, and may blindly disregard the NIV because Piper doesn't like it.
By the way, was this a recent statement? What's the context?
I actually got the article from Valentine a few weeks ago. I am not sure where he read it. I am guessing that is was off of DGM. I quoted it exactly as it was forwarded to me. Sorry for the lack of documentation. I hate that too. :)
I with you on Piper's literary philosophy, but I think it is pretty cool how God allows these kinds of disagreements. I think it is healthy for us to have distances from different leaders we respect. I think it demonstrates that, in our minds, there is a difference between the opinion of an esteemed servant and that of our Lord (who uses the TNIV).
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