When I’m doing the smaller books of the New Testament, like James this spring, I try to look at the Greek text of every verse. I also look at several different English translations.
Often, after studying the Greek, I find myself thinking that one of the other translations made a better choice than the main translation I’m using (these days, usually the English Standard Version.) When that happens I create my own version incorporating what I consider to be the best translation choices for each phrase.
I call this version the DSV, the DeGray Standard Version.
For the book of James, I’m probably going to do a DSV every week. You may notice this as I preach: the words on the screen may not agree with your Bible version.
For example, here’s the first week’s text, James 1:1-4, in the English Standard Version:
And here’s the same text in the DeGray Standard Version:
I changed ‘Dispersion’ to ‘scattered among the nations’ (from NIV) because I don’t think many people know what the Jewish Dispersion (or Diaspora) was. I changed steadfastness to endurance (from HCSB) because I felt it more fully captured the underlying Greek word, hupomone, which means patience, endurance, perseverance, or steadfastness.
I will be including the DSV for James in my heart prep post every week.
