Southside Oracle Archive

Vol. 54, No. 6                  SOUTHSIDE ORACLE                  April 6, 2007

The Bulletin Board

            Our Hearts and Minds Seminar last Saturday was a fine success with good attendance from Southside and other congregations. We appreciate the lessons by John Alan Turner. He also preached at both services last Sunday.

            Our annual Men's Retreat at Camp Matawa will be April 20 & 21. Those who can go should sign up on the sheet on the men's bulletin board. This is a fine program and we encourage our men to attend if possible. See Dale Ketterhagen for additional details or pick up one of the brochures in the foyer.

            The Sick - Bob Shilts entered Waukesha Memorial Hospital Thursday of last week.

            There will be no Praise and Palate Sunday night as scheduled.

            Daryl Miller will preach at the morning services Sunday. Monroe Hawley will bring the lesson at the 6:00 o'clock service.

ATTENDANCE RECORD

(*) first service, 185; second service, 91

            As a result of the work of the search committee, the elders are inviting three preachers to visit us in the near future to consider working with us as a minister of the gospel. Each of them will preach for us on a Sunday and an opportunity will be given for them to get acquainted with the congregation. Specific information will be given soon.

            Congregational Meeting - We will have a congregational meeting on April 22 at 1:00 p.m. For that Sunday only our schedule will be changed. Bible classes will begin at 9:30 a.m. We will have a single morning worship at i1:00 o'clock. There will he a sandwich lunch after worship followed by the congregational meeting from 1:00 to about 2:30 p.m. There will be no evening warship that Sunday.

Calendar of Events

April 6 - 8 - York College High School Days

April 14 - Hampton Avenue Men's breakfast, 8:30 -11:00 a.m.

April 17 - Christian Workers' Meeting, 9:00 a.m.

April 20, 21- Southside Men's Retreat, Camp Matawa

April 22 - Combined morning worship followed by congregational meeting

April 22 - Sunday Night Live for youth, Mandrake Road Church, Madison, 4:30 p.m.

May 11- Mother/Daughter Banquet, 6:30 p.m.

May 12, 13 - Wisconsin Christian Youth Camp youth rally.

Modem Speech Translations

(Ninth in a Series)

            In recent years there has been a proliferation of new English translations of the Bible. Some, such as the New King James and the Revised Standard Versions are essentially revisions of the King James and its successors. However, most of the recent versions are entirely new translations. Some are mostly the work of a single person such as the New Testament in Modern English by J.B. Phillips. This is mostly true of Good News for Modern Man (or the T.E.V.) published by the American Bible Society, primarily the work of Harry Bracher. These versions are vigorous and very readable. As the work of one person they also tend to reflect the biases of the translator.

            Other modern versions include The New English Bible (1961), which has a number of British expressions, and the New International Version (1973), the work of nearly 100 conservative scholars. The N.I.V., which has undergone several revisions, has been extremely popular and uses modern speech, which takes a middle approach between the highly literal New American Standard and the free speech of Good New for Modern Man, which is more interested in capturing the ideas than in precisely rendering the Word. Some translations designed to put the Scripture in simplified speech are the New Century Version, God's Word, and the New International Children's Version.

            Three other versions should be noted. The New World Translation (1950) was produced by the Jehovah's Witnesses and reflects the doctrinal biases of that body. The Living Bible by Kenneth Taylor is a widely used paraphrase of the Bible. The Message by Eugene Peterson is a paraphrase to a greater degree than The Living Bible. It gives the idea in a paragraph, essentially rewriting it to reflect what the translator thinks it means. Paraphrases can be studied with value if one first understands that they are essentially commentaries rather than translations.

            One other observation. In recent years there has been an explosion of specialty Bibles. Most of these are some kind of study Bible. They are simply versions such as the King James or New International with added comments, concordances, etc. They are not different translations. For example, the Life Application Bible is the N.I.V. with comments of a specific kind designed to help the reader. Next week we will make some suggestions for choosing a personal Bible.

Monroe Hawley

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