Berean Bible Translation(s)

G

Georgiadis

Puritan Board Freshman
Yes, plural!


The study translation (BSB) has been finalized and made available online at BibleHub. Print copies are slated for later in the year and the online release of the entire literal translation (BLB) is scheduled for January 2021. The BLB's New Testament draft is already available online.

In many ways the BSB reminds me of a slightly more traditional CSB, landing somewhere between the ESV and the NIV '84... maybe? Just wondering if anyone has done a more in-depth review. I can't find much information about it outside of their website. There was a post on the board back in 2017 but it didn't generate much of a discussion and is now locked. Maybe I should take that as a hint.

Berean Bible

Has anyone done a review or analysis of the Berean Bible? It looks like they have a few versions. They only have a NT right now and the OT is supposed to be out in August. Http://www.bereanbible.com
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The two big players driving the translation appear to be BibleHub and the Discovery Bible software team - both valuable in their own right. However, besides the committee page on berean.bible I don't know much more.

I'd really appreciate any insight about who's behind it and whether or not it's moving forward as planned. First impressions appreciated too!
 
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I'm checking into the translation now. I had always seen it when looking up verses on Bible Hub, but it never really caught my attention. The advisory committee of the translation includes Grant Osborne and Eugene Merrill, so it has some legitimate scholarship about it.

I will perhaps give more thoughts after I sift through it for a day or so.
 
One thing that stood out to me was that they have a public review process. Perhaps that’s standard these days but this is what they wrote on the site:
The Berean Bible Translation Committee has employed an open process where translation tables are freely available and all comments are welcomed and considered.
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My first observation: Translations that do not work hard to have easy accessibility on all electronic media are doomed to irrelevance. Crossway has done this very well with the ESV, hence its great success. The BSB, on the other hand, has an okay (and just "okay") website, and the PDF version of the BSB looks like someone just printed the Bible Hub website itself. Very, very bad. Now, I understand Bible Hub cannot compete with the resources and funds of a publishing house like Crossway, but still. It is not difficult these days to produce an attractive PDF of any book.

The moral: A translation that is not easy to access use will not be accessed or used.
 
@NaphtaliPress, thank you, brother!

There was a recent YouTube interview with Dr. Gary Hill, the man who organized and oversaw the production of the Berean Study Bible. It's only about 20 minutes long, but I found it to be very informative. I figured some of you Bible translation nerds like myself would enjoy it. After watching the video, I am impressed and more confident that the Bible Hub translation project is a good and sincere endeavor that will only get better.
 
I read this online. It's from BibleHub regarding the translation process and committee. Dr. Gleason Archer sounds like a pretty smart fellow and though he is no longer living, it sounds like his notes live on through the BSB.
Thank you for your interest in the Berean Bible. Advisors are listed on the website, but I think you're probably asking about the others who worked on the translation. The core team was the Bible Hub and Discovery Bible team. The text was seeded initially with existing materials from the Bible Hub interlinear and tools, and discovery Bible materials including the extensive notes of Dr. Gleason Archer.

I am not sure whether a full team roster can be released, but we will certainly give consideration to this idea. There was a combination of subcontracted work, volunteer work, vast user submissions, and some additional higher level help who did not want to include their names due to affiliations with other major translations.

Dr. Merrill (OT) and Dr. Osborne (NT) brought in a wide scope consensual view on handling translation policies. Dr. Hill also coordinated translation policies in view of the work of Dr. Gleason Archer, co-author of the Discovery Bible. Dr. Archer's 26 years of work with Dr. Hill on the Discovery Bible Project (along with their consulting team including Drs. Stanley Horton, John Rea, Thomas McComiskey, Walter Kaiser, and Jerry Horner) proved invaluable to the process of setting the policies reflected in the Berean translations.

Most importantly, the above have have affirmed the inerrancy of the of Greek and Hebrew Grammar as applied to Scripture translation, and the classical understanding of the Divine inspiration and inerrancy of the Scriptures as the plenary God-breathed Word.

The project was centrally coordinated by Bible Hub. The structure was different from the traditional translator per book structure. This plan enabled a consistent treatment of the Bible as a whole. Separate books were never submitted, just a translation table for the whole Bible that was centrally managed and widely distributed for evaluation and input. Through this process, consistency across parallel passages was maintained, along with concordancy where feasible.

This approach also enabled a project without major financial commitments to be recouped, so that permissions can be freely given. Whereas the cost to produce one major translation was reported to be $10 million, the cost for the BSB was in the range of a quarter million dollars. The cost was fully funded by through advertising revenue to the Bible Hub site. There were no individual or corporate donors or sponsors.

Throughout the process we have made it a priority that the translation be free of specific denominational ties and also independent of any current publisher. Essentially, it is the goal to provide a straight translation of the Scriptures that is free of denominational bias and also free of any political considerations.

Additionally, we have posted and shared translation tables to keep the process as transparent as possible. These tables are available on the Berean Bible site, and will soon include the preliminary versions of the interlinear and literal with the BSB tables. Moreover, we are always open to adding translators and committee members, and of course grateful for all public comment.

Please feel free to let us know any other questions or suggestions."
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Now, I'm sure many translations would claim that they are free of denominational bias and political considerations - but it looks to me like Berean Bibles has put their money where their mouth is by offering free licensing, openly transparent translation tables, public input, and all at a fraction of the cost incurred by a major publisher. In other words, they don't owe anything to anybody.

I've been reading it steadily over the last few months and am very pleased with it. I hope it catches on.
 
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