It was Martin Luther’s determination in the early 16th century to make the Catholic church’s Latin version available to his fellow German-speakers in their own language that contributed to Rome’s ultimately unsuccessful efforts to put him on trial for heresy. I would like to have seen many more examples of different translations of the same passage juxtaposed - that would have brought it to life. The Word: How We Translate the Bible—and Why It Matters makes for both daunting and rewarding reading.

Unlike some scholars, he gives fair weight to translations that “take the text to the reader” by finding ways to express in a target language what might otherwise remain meaningless, or even misleading (like the words “alien” and “talent” in the New Revised Standard Version).However, I think his three illustrations (נפש vs ψυχη, ישוע vs σωτηρία, and אמונה vs πίστις) are rather weak. For much of the history of Judaism and almost the entirety of Christianity, however, believers have overwhelmingly understood scripture not in the languages in which it was first written but rather in their own - in translation. Studying The Word to understand the Word will not imperil, but enhance, the value that we seek and find within the holy writings. For instance, he suggests Christian Bibles should use the LXX, not the Hebrew, as the OT basis, since it's a better fit with the apostles (269). Far from a mere academic exercise, biblical translation has shaped how we answer faith’s most enduring questions about the nature of God, the existence of the soul, and the possibility of salvation.

This Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible was especially important in the establishment of Christian theology. Well, the sacred text does not have a single completely reliable source text; the best (relatively) complete Hebrew text is only a thousand years old, and appears lacunary when compared to the Greek (Septuagint) version, which in some ways better prefigures Christianity (which in itself may not confirm its authenticity). They read the Hebrew Bible as a story of disobedience and falling: Adam and Eve fell, and then Christ reversed the effects of that fall. Translating words into another language requires careful thought but, ultimately, God’s word reaches us in a ‘person to person’ communication that is “alive and active” (Hebrews 4:12).

Arguably this information is available elsewhere, in the preface of the different versions for example, and the scope of this book is discussion of the issues of translation, rather than a reference work.