Page 198 - Way of Life Encyclopedia of the Bible Christianity. Based on the King James Bible

DYNAMIC EQUIVALENCY

DYNAMIC EQUIVALENCY DENIES THE NATURE OF Dynamic equivalency ignores God’s warnings about
THE BIBLE. adding to or taking away from God’s Word.
The Bible is Revelation from Heaven. God delivered Consider the following Scriptures: Re. 22:18-19; Pr.
the Bible message as Revelation from heaven and it 30:5-6; Je. 26:2; De. 4:2; Eze. 3:10-11.
must be treated as such. It is God’s Book, not man’s. Those who follow dynamic equivalency acknowledge
Even the very culture in which the Bible was given was these warnings and often have clever ways of explaining
chosen of God and is not to be changed. See Ga. how their paraphrases do not disobey these warnings. In
1:11-12; 2 Pe. 1:21. Examples: Moses (Nu. 16:28), the end, though, it is clear that the warnings are simply
David (2 Sa. 23:2), Ne. (9:30), and the Prophets (Je. ignored.
1:9; 30:2; 36:2; Eze. 1:3; Ac. 3:21). DYNAMIC EQUIVALENCY SUBSTITUTES MAN’S
The Bible is verbally inspired. See 1 Co. 2:12-13; Mt. THOUGHTS FOR GOD’S WORDS.
5:18; Ac. 1:16. This means that the words and details of In section two we considered this fact in some detail.
Scripture are divinely chosen. The writers of the Bible We will repeat some of the examples used there and
were not simply given general ideas and then left to include a few others:
their own resources in phrasing them. The words and
forms by which the message was communicated were Ro. 3:25—“blood” (KJV) = “death” (TEV).
settled in heaven from all eternity, purified seven times. Re. 5:5—“Root of David” (KJV) = “great descendant of
Though no one would deny that in translating the Bible David” (TEV).
there must be some freedom to change the form of the Is. 1:18—“Snow” (KJV) = “Coconut” (United Bible
original in order to properly communicate the message Societies translation).
of the original, such freedom definitely does not extend Jn. 14:6—“I am the way, the truth and the life” (KJV) =
to the liberties taken in dynamic equivalency “I am the way by which people come to know God and
translations. so obtain real life” (Indonesian Common Language
Third, the Bible contains the deep things of God. See 1 Bible).
Co. 2:10. Bible language is sufficient to communicate The following examples are from Bible Translations for
eternal and divine Truth. “But God hath revealed them Popular Use by William L. Wonderly. We quoted earlier
unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, from this United Bible Societies’ publication:
yea, the deep things of God.” Bible language cannot be Ph. 2:6—(KJV) “Who being in the form of God,
compared with any uninspired writings of man. This is thought it not robbery to be equal with God” = (Today’s
Divine Revelation and contains very Truth. Dutch Version) “Although he had a divine form, he did
There are those who use dynamic equivalency and not value being like God.”
yet profess to believe the doctrine of the Scriptures we Ja. 1:17—(KJV) “the Father of lights” = (TEV) “God,
have described briefly in the above study. Lynn the Creator of the heavenly lights.”
Silvernale, the ABWE missionary mentioned earlier, is 1 Pe. 2:10—(KJV) “now have obtained mercy” =
one example. I find this very strange. The entire theory (Spanish CL) “God has compassion on you.”
of dynamic equivalency was built by men who do not
hold a high view of Scripture. When one considers the Ep. 1:17—(KJV) “the Father of glory” = (TEV) “the
very nature of Scripture, it becomes impossible to make glorious Father.”
the kind of changes that dynamic equivalency calls for. Ga. 2:9—(KJV) “perceived the grace that was given
DYNAMIC EQUIVALENCY CONFUSES SPIRITUAL unto me” = (TEV) “recognized that God had given me
ENLIGHTENMENT WITH NATURAL UNDERSTANDING. this special task.”
Consider the following Scriptures: 1 Co. 2:14-16; Jn. The following examples were given to us by Ross
16:8-13; Mt. 13:9-16; Lk. 24:44-45; Ac. 11:21; 16:14; Hodsdon, formerly with Wycliffe Bible Translators:
Pr. 1:23. “Lamb” = “seal pup” (Wycliffe translation in Eskimo).
Dynamic Equivalency fails to recognize the root “Son of man” = “older brother” (Wycliffe translation,
problem in regard to man’s inability to understand the Makusi language, Brazil).
Word of God: spiritual blindness, not cultural ignorance “Fig tree” = “banana tree” (Wycliffe translation).
or lack of literary education. This type of thing is wrong. When one departs from
Example: Ac. 13:44-48. Here the Jews, in whose the principle of a literal translation, the mind of the
cultural setting the Bible was primarily written, rejected translator and the culture and understanding of the
the Scriptures, while the idolatrous Gentiles accepted it. people become the authority rather than the actual
Culture and language were not the problem; rebellion of words of Scriptures.
the heart was the problem. This remains true today.

198 Way of Life Encyclopedia of the Bible & Christianity