It’s Here! The HCSB Second Edition Interview

[Read this article at the new site: www.anwoth.org.]

Introduction

I’ve finally been able to finish the long-awaited interview about the updated HCSB. Let me explain a couple of things before launching into the actual interview. The interview is divided into three sections–questions about translation, questions about format and questions about marketing. Dr. Blum, the General Editor for the HCSB, answered my questions in the first two sections. For the third section, I spoke with Robin Patterson, Bible and Reference Marketing Manager for B&H Publishing Group. Both of these individuals were very helpful in answering questions.

There is a fourth section at the end of the interview with links to some very valuable resources that Dr. Blum made available during the interview. Be sure to check them out.

I couldn’t ask every question some of you had suggested because of time, but I hope the interview below provides some helpful insights into this updated edition of the HCSB as well as this translation’s future. Enjoy!

Questions About Translation

(answered by Dr. Blum)

The first set of questions focuses on translation choices in the Holman CSB and the changes that we can expect to see in those choices in the 2009 update. While many people find the Holman CSB to be one of the best—if not the best—English translations available today, this first edition does have some peculiar translation choices. In our first interview, Dr. Blum mentioned several changes that would be made in this update, including the switch from “deluge” to “flood” in Genesis 9. These questions are meant to address some other passages in that vein:

Will: Ephesians 2:2 in the current editions reads, “in which you previously walked according to this worldly age, according to the ruler of the atmospheric domain, the spirit now working in the disobedient.” The updated edition, as I understand it, reads, “in which you previously walked according to the ways of this world, according to the ruler who exercises authority over the lower heavens, the spirit now working in the disobedient.” Is this a change in the right direction? It almost seems a little verbose and perhaps moving away from translation and into commentary.

Dr. Blum: A lot of people did not like the translation, “ruler of the atmospheric domain.” They thought it was a little strange.  Our replacement in this instance may be a little verbose but we are still the leanest of all translations.

Will: I know the Holman CSB is intentionally not gender neutral, but tries to be “gender accurate,” but will there be any changes to reflect a more gender-inclusive English, such as translating “adelphoi” as “brothers and sisters” or correcting what seems to be an inconsistent use of man/men versus human/humanity?

Dr. Blum: We would have to go over the gender issues and see if we differ from the Colorado guidelines, but I do not think so. [Note: You can find the Colorado guidelines here: http://www.bible-researcher.com/csguidelines.html.] We believe we are more accurate in gender translation than versions such as the TNIV which have gone too far in the opposite direction. For example, Psalm 1 says, “Blessed is the man.” The TNIV has used a plural there instead of the singular. We would say that the singular is important in this case. The Psalm is about an individual standing against the crowd and the culture. Patrick Reardon’s book, Christ in the Psalms, indicate that some of these psalms ultimately point to the righteous man, which is Christ. So there is a lot of Christological interpretation in the Church of the singular in the Psalms. We feel that that would get lost if we used a plural.

Will: Will there be footnotes on “languages” in 1 Cor. 12-14? The charismatic community is a little frustrated that there’s not so much as a footnote showing “tongues” as a possible translation choice.

Dr. Blum: “Tongues”  is an old way to describe a “language.”  If a charismatic wants to say he/she speaks in a “heavenly language” or in an “ecstatic language” or an “unknown language”, they can do so.  Why call it a “tongue” since this is not common English usage today? You can’t just say “languages or tongues,” because we then have to define tongues. We don’t say that someone is a major in the German tongue, we say he is a major in the German language.

Will: Will the CSB ever stop capitalizing pronouns referring to deity? You said in our last interview that this was a publisher’s decision, not a translator’s or editorial decision, but there is always an interpretive choice to be made when capitalizing those pronouns, and people would like to be able to make that choice for themselves.

Dr. Blum: Capitalization of pronouns was a publisher’s decision at the start of the project.  It is like using red letters for Jesus’ words, which not everyone likes. I don’t think you’re going to change either of those with publishers.

Will: Will the Psalms still use “happy” instead of “blessed”? If so, what is the reason for choosing that translation? This seems to be a pretty dramatic (and perhaps unnecessary) break from other translations.

Dr. Blum: “Happy” reflects the Hebrew text.  This is more accurate than “blessed” which translates a different Hebrew word.  See the NRSV translation.  “Happy” has been correctly translated since the 1930s in the Moffatt translation, in the 1930 American translation by Goodspeed and in the New English Bible of 1970. So we would ask why some translations do not carefully check the original languages.

Questions About Format

(answered by Dr. Blum)

The next set of questions focuses on formatting suggestions that people have made and questions they have.

Will: It seems that not many readers like the small lower corner brackets? Will the update be getting rid of them? As we discussed in our last interview, the very nature of the translating task would make lower corner brackets or italics or some other similar convention unnecessary.

Dr. Blum: The update will not be getting rid of the brackets entirely, but many have been taken out.

Will: Will the update finally get rid of the bullets? They tend to be very distractingly large.

Dr. Blum: The bullet note feature is retained and expanded but the physical size of the “bullets” will vary with the printings and the typeface.

Will: I know you said in our last interview that B&H’s research showed that people want red-letter editions, but will we see more black letter text throughout with the updated version or will it still be limited to the Minister’s Bible?

Dr. Blum: The Study Bible will be a black letter edition as is the current Apologetic Study Bible

Will: What new features, if any, will be debuting with this new study Bible to be released in October?

Dr. Blum: The Study Bible will have more visuals in the text and in color.

Questions About Marketing

(answered by Robin Patterson)

I asked several questions to Robin Patterson, Bible and Reference Marketing Manager for B&H Publishing about the marketing of the HCSB. Questions included the HCSB website, the potential for a blog, iPhone and PDA apps, etc. I wanted to know what B&H Publishing was doing to promote what I believe is one of the best English translations available. Rather than putting these in a Q&A format, I just let Robin tell her story. Here is a little background about Robin and some of her thoughts on marketing the HCSB:

I moved into this role in October of 2008 after spending much time in the organization watching the translation launch and subsequent marketing.  I am completely passionate about this translation and realize there is a need to gear up many areas of our marketing emphasis as we go forward.

On the marketing design, as we look forward to release of the HCSB Study Bible this fall, we are building a custom site that will include a section for editors and contributors to begin blogging about the progress on the study Bible and the translation overall. This will also include sections like “how to use a study bible” tutorials, video trailers, chapter downloads, etc. My personal goal is to have several of these components up by the end of February.

We are aware that WordSearch has the 2nd edition up right now, and we will be updating the translation on our site prior to the Bible release in October and are currently working to that end.

For the translation branding itself, our corporate brand will be HCSB, much like NIV, ESV and NLT have become the identifiers for those translations, with descriptive copy for the translation to be Holman Christian Standard Bible when we need to amplify the HCSB moniker for identification. As we go forward with branding, we realize that we need to establish a consistency in logo, title, and how we reference the translation.

Here are some other things that are also currently happening:

• The 30-day pastor’s challenge where pastors can register for a paperback edition of the HCSB, complete a survey, and receive a bonded leather edition.
• An emphasis on the seminary campuses – Dr. Blum will make 6 campus visits this year to educate about the translation and the upcoming study Bible.
• The Apologetics Study Bible continues to allow us to introduce the HCSB to users in a niche product environment where B&H “owns” this category of Bibles. The feedback from those who have bought the Bible and been exposed to the translation has been positive.
• A renewed launch of the translation leading up the to study Bible to include advertising at key conferences, in Christian consumers magazines, and at trade shows.

Resources

HCSB Comparison — This is a paper that Dr. Blum presented at ETS comparing the HCSB with other major translations. Brief, but very insightful. Here is the paper’s abtract:

The Holman Christian Standard Bible is a new modern translation based on the latest Hebrew and Greek texts.  It was produced with the Accordance Bible software program and widespread use of the internet. Electronic editions of BDAG, K-B, reference tools, and translations greatly aided the development of the HCSB. Over one hundred scholars participated in the translation. The HCSB uses what we call an optimal equivalence translation philosophy and seeks to be gender accurate. In comparison with existing translations, the HCSB has improvements in accuracy, vocabulary choices, formatting, and style. It is the leanest modern translation with a word count of 718,943. It has more footnotes and textual information than any major translation and has a system of Bullet Notes to aid the reader. Yahweh is used in passages where the name of God is discussed in the OT, and Messiah is used in NT passages for the translation of christos where the subject is the Israelite deliverer. The result is a Bible that is accurate for study and reads well for personal use and corporate worship.

Click here to download this paper.

Improving ESV — Since the ESV is one of the other popular translations today, Dr. Blum thought this paper, presented at ETS by Mark Strauss from Bethel Seminary in San Diego, would be helpful as well. Here’s a little excerpt from this one:

I like the ESV. I am writing this article, however, because I have heard a number of Christian leaders claim that the ESV is the “Bible of the future”—ideal for public worship and private reading, appropriate for adults, youth and children. This puzzles me, since the ESV seems to me to be overly literal—full of archaisms, awkward language, obscure idioms, irregular word order, and a great deal of “Biblish.”

Click here to download this paper.

More Resources

It looks like the HCSB is back on the CBA’s best seller list! (HT: Christian Insight)

Also, don’t forget to check out Christian Insight’s side-by-side comparison of the HCSB first edition and second edition.

Here are more of my articles on the HCSB.

Browse through Rick Mansfield’s site. He has a lot of good stuff on the HCSB.

You can read the HCSB online at Biblegateway.com or at B&H’s website.

Here is the link to the original interview I did with Dr. Blum.

---

Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)

• Updated HCSB to Lose Lower Brackets
• Want to See a HCSB and HCSBse Side-by-Side Comparison?