Amplify that Bible!

[Vince Massi]

It happened again. On the way to Bible study today, we stopped at a junk shop. They had an Amplified Bible, attached to a high-quality leather case, for $1.25 (20 pesos). Different parts were translated from 1954 to 1964, and it was printed in 1972. Regular size print, no footnotes.

My wife confiscated it, but I'll post some research on it later.

 

[Vince Massi]

Okay, here's a little research. Written by an elderly school teacher who did not know the original languages, the Amplified Bible (AB) is based on the 1901 American Standard Version. Using a variety of inferior Greek texts, the AB amplifies words by repeating them with different shades of meaning. The author got these shades of meaning by studying commentaries and word studies.

Most of the time, she got it right. If you didn't know that "believe" means "completely trust, completely accept," for example, you could learn a lot from this translation. In a few cases, she got it wrong.

I found a nut site that condemns the AB by showing that it says more than the KJV. Upon carefully reading the criticized verses, however, I saw that the woman (the elderly school teacher) did not contradict the KJV--she correctly amplified it. A more intelligent site at http://www.bible-researcher.com/amplified.html shows some errors in the AB.

 

[Vince Massi]

Looks like the Amplified Bible is not a major issue here (or anywhere else).

Criticism that the AB adds to the Bible are false. It plainly states that it is amplifying a word by giving its various meanings.

One commentator pointed out that while a word may have shades of meanings, the context often eliminated some of those shades, but the author does not.

 

[Twisted]

Looks like the Amplified Bible is not a major issue here (or anywhere else).

There are dozens of translations that match the worthlessness of the AB.  No big deal.