[Linux4christians] NIV Bible for Linux (off list topic)

[Raphaël Pinson]

Hi all,


Let me put my two pence in this debate :)

May it's because I'm an open-source hacker, but I tend to consider the quality 
of a Bible by its copyright, too.

I believe it is an offense to the Word of God to put restrictive copyrights 
(such as the one from the NIV) on it. 

Now, as a fellow Christian hacker asked me yesterday, what is wrong with it? 
Distribution, or modification?

The Bible encourages us to share the Gospel with the world, and I can't 
imagine how many Christians there would be today - if at all - if the 
apostles had chosen to release their versions under a restrictive copyright. 
That's about freely distributing the Bible (even if that means distributing 
it under a CC license).

How about modification? The Bible states that no word in it should be changed. 
But do you really believe that God needs human laws to protect His word from 
being altered?

Many tell me that it is necessary to put copyrights on the various 
translations of the Bible so that translators be paid. Yet Jesus said we did 
not have to make ourselves sure we'd be paid, for the Father would provide 
for us, and I believe that using a human law to pretend you own the word of 
God (or a translation of it) is plain wrong. I actually know a few people who 
translated the Bible, and are not Christians (anymore - it seems studying the 
Bible from a plain scholar point of view, without findind the time to pray on 
it, didn't help them in their faith).

This brings me the following question: if these people chose to release their 
work under a restrictive copyright, choosing to trust the law of men to 
protect the things of God, I believe they were not inspired by the Holy 
Spirit. And thus, I believe that these translations can not be the best ones, 
because they were obviously inspired by Baal, more than by the Holy Spirit of 
YHWH.

There are lots of old versions of the Bible around, that have been used for 
centuries and stopped being used when new copyrighted versions came out. 
These old versions are very trustable and easy to understand, yet they are 
not used anymore. I would like to encourage Christians to publish and read 
them again. I also have a project - whenever I have time to do it and God 
leads me to do it - to create a Bible wiki, to translate the Bible from 
Hebrew and Greek texts (and Aramaic if possible) into lots of languages, 
using WikiMedia. This work would be released directly in the Public Domain to 
provide a free modern Bible.

Eventually, as Linc reminded us, it's the Holy Spirit who is the best 
translator for us, as He was the one inspiring the text in the first place, 
and no understanding of the Holy Word can be achieved without prayer.


<><

Raphaël


Le Dimanche 13 Août 2006 08:20, Lincoln Fessenden a écrit :
> Cameron Horsburgh wrote:
> > On Sun, Aug 13, 2006 at 12:00:21AM +0200, Václav Čermák wrote:
> >>    If your Bible doesn't fully support salvation by
> >>    grace only then something is seriously wrong there...
> >>    Check this:
> >>    [1]http://www.biblebelievers.com/williams_d1.html
> >>    Vaclav
> >
> > This sounds suspiciously like your choice of Bible is based on
> > your theology, and not vice versa.
>
> Well, I tell ya, if Salvation by Grace (through faith alone) is his
> theology, I can't see anything wrong with it.  It's mine too.
>
> As far as this whole bible version controversy goes, here's my take if
> any of you are interested...
> I believe that the best translations out there are the later revised
> KJV's, and for good reason.  If you actually set aside your biases for a
> moment and *read* through a few different translations, you see that not
> only are many of the passages more complete, but the language is very
> beautiful (and no, it's not difficult to understand at all, that's just
> a rubbish excuse).  Now, having said that, I also believe that you can
> also read other translations and still hear God's word.  Why, you say?
> Because even though some of them are slightly obscured in some
> translations, the Christian message and ideals are still there, and we
> must remember that it's the Holy Spirit that teaches you and gives you
> understanding on such things.  Like I said, I personally use the KJV
> mainly myself, however, I do have a copy of almost every other
> translation I can get my hands on and read and compare them all.  I
> encourage you all to do the same!  GBY!

-- 
Raphaël Pinson
<raphink at raphink.net>
http://www.raphink.info
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 191 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://www.thelinuxlink.net/pipermail/linux4christians/attachments/20060813/860bdf9f/attachment.bin