I recently read NT Wright’s The Kingdom New Testament, which is a contemporary translation of the New Testament.

I think this is the first book by NT Wright that I did not like.

Some of the sections are great, but for the most part, his contemporary translation of the New Testament suffered from the same two problems that most other contemporary translations suffer from.

Contemporary Translations are So… Contemporary

The first problem with contemporary translations is that they are contemporary.

What I mean is this: Since culture and language changes so rapidly, what is “contemporary” now is no longer “contemporary” a few years from now. Contemporary translations of the Scriptures have a short shelf-life. Some contemporary translations from the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s sound almost ridiculous today.

As I read NT Wright’s contemporary translation, I cringed at some of his word choices, as some of his phrases are already out of date. For example, in Matthew 23 when Jesus pronounces woes upon the Pharisees, NT Wright uses the phrase, “Woe betide you.” Maybe this is a British phrase, but I cannot recall hearing anyone ever use it. I looked it up online, and it was very popular in the 14th century, and was still in use by some in Great Britain up until about 20 years ago, but almost nobody uses it today. So NT Wright’s contemporary translation is already out of date in this instance, and there were numerous places this happened. One more example is in Matthew 2:8, where Herod says to the Magi: “Off you go.” I’m sorry, but no king then or now would speak with such informality.

When a contemporary translation fails at being contemporary, it ends up sounding silly. It is almost better to have a woodenly literal translation that sounds archaic, but is at least consistently archaic.

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Till We Have Faces is my favorite novel by C. S. Lewis. He wrote that it was his favorite as well, though when the book came out, it was not well received by the public, and never gained much notoriety. Even today, few people even know that he wrote the book.

I think that part of the problem is that even among those who have read the book, few understand what it is about. I am by no means a C. S. Lewis expert, but as I try to read through other things that C. S. Lewis has written, I have stumbled across some statement by him about this book, which I think sheds some light on its meaning.

Let me attempt to share this meaning with you, without destroying the plot of the book too much.

The book tells the story of three princesses, Orual, Redival, and Psyche. As their father the King had no sons, Orual was destined to become Queen, but she was very ugly. Redival, the middle sister, was beautiful, but was also lascivious and vain. However, the third sister, Psyche, was blessed the beauty and the temperament of the gods. She was not only beautiful, but was wise and kind. I cannot really tell much else about story without ruining it, except maybe to say that after much pain, tragedy, and betrayal, Orual becomes Queen and rules for many years.

Near the end of her life, she writes a complaint against the gods. She claims that though she has done nothing but serve and honor them her entire life, they have given nothing in return but pain, grief, and destruction. She recognizes that she is powerless before them, but she feels that if there is one thing she can do against them, it is to make her complaint known by writing it in a book, and making it available for people everywhere to read. That book is the first part of C. S. Lewis’ Till We Have Faces. 

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