Literal According to Usage

[shazdancer]

Hi, everybody!

Here's an excerpt from skyrider's post on the "proud to be Way Corps" thread:

And, those "literal translations according to usage" teachings by wierwille corps nights...........word by word expounding. What an incredible waste of time........ never knew one corps person who referred back to their notes after the year was up......NOT ONE.

Oh my goodness, I remember those! But my experience differs from yours, sky. I DID know some people who loved those things, my Corps Twig coordinators.

One time, the husband was teaching our Twig, and he said, "Just change those words to read..." and he waited for me to get out my pen and write that in my Bible. Now, I NEVER crossed out the KJV words in my Bible, and my margin notes were even color-coded for figures of speech/orientalisms (red), Greek/Hebrew/Aramaic (blue), explanations (black), and literals according to usage (green). So no way was I gonna just rewrite Holy Writ on this guy's say so. I always looked this stuff up for myself. (Anal, ain't I?)

I asked him where he got his rewrite from (I can't recall the verse, but the rewrite seemed pretty far out). He said, "It's a literal according to usage," and seemed pretty perturbed that I didn't just rewrite my Bible right then and there. I assured him I would "check it out later." Do you think those words ever made it into my Ravell Wide Margin? Nah! :P

What did you think of Wierwille's "literals according to usage?"

Regards,

Shaz

[Galen]

I have a good portion of them bound together and attached inside the back cover of my Companion Bible.

It was a huge effort to collect them from everyone that we knew who had various portions, and a process of years to cut and paste them togehter onto pages, etc.

Sometimes I prefer to read the 'Young-Driver-Briggs' translation, I also have this one bible that is a comparison of 16 seperate translations [verse by verse, any variation is shown, pretty cool!].

:)

[nolongerlurking]

I remember those things. They all sounded interesting enuf at the time. Now I think they were nothing more than just one more man's take on the "original" holy writ.

I've been going to a local Lutheran Church for about 2 months now. Really great people. Humble people, searching people. Two really really great pastors. One about my age and a young one, late 20's early 30's or so. He really reminds me of one of the young Way Corps folks from my first twig. Really bright, really loving, really funny, and a really great entertaining spellbinding teacher of God's Word.

Anyhow, these guys do something I find helpful and interesting. Instead of doing their own "literal according to useage" stuff, they have different people in the congregation read the same verse from the various translations that happen to be present in church that day. After all, aren't these various translations just various people's "literal translations according to useage"? Of course they are! And many of these other translations have really opened up for me verses that I never really saw in the King James. These pastors SUGGEST that their people try a new bible version if and when the one they have been using gets to be "same o same o" for them. It can really rekindle things. Try it sometime if you haven't already.

[WordWolf]

Well,

if you want a paraphrase of the Bible verses,

yes, there are plenty of Bibles that will serve at least as well.

As for vpw's own "literals according to usage",

what they are IS paraphrases, and no more guaranteed than,

say, "The Message" or "the Amplified Bible."

Let's compare ONE VERSE and see the results.

I liked vpw's paraphrase of Philippians 4:13,

but I never replaced the verse with it or anything.

(Most of his other paraphrases I didn't care for.)

Philippians 4:13

King James Version:

"I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me."

New American Standard Bible (another word-for-word):

"I can do all things through Him who strengthens me."

New International Version:

"I can do everything through him who gives me strength."

Contemporary English Version:

"Christ gives me the strength to face anything."

The Message:

"Whatever I have, wherever I am, I can make it through anything

in the One who makes me who I am."

Hm. This is VERY interesting.

The Amplified Bible:

"I have strength for all things in Christ Who empowers me

[i am ready for anything and equal to anything through Him who

infuses inner strength into me; I am self sufficient in Christ's

sufficiency.]"

ALL of that was in that verse in the Amplified Bible,

initial copyright 1954.

Here's vpw's "literal according to usage":

"I am ready for anything and equal to anything through him who

infuses inner strength into me."

Is there ANYBODY here who thinks that vpw's "literal" of this

verse wasn't taken DIRECTLY from the Amplified Bible?

Gee, an uncredited source in vpw's background, imagine...

I wonder how many OTHER of "his" "literals" might match

the Amplified Bible so exactly...

[markomalley]

Wordwolf: I wonder how many OTHER of "his" "literals" might match the Amplified Bible so exactly (implied question mark)

Answer (IMHO/YMMV): As many as he needed to justify and validate his way of thinking.

[moony3424]

I also came across this verse when I started reading the Amplified Version (which is one of the versions that I use). I use several different versions. I always wondered why we weren't supposed to use any other than KJV.

[Keith]

Most of the literals according to usage that I have from VPW were different than the Amplified Bible. I never saw these a literally "The God Breathed Word." I have shared some of them that I have found helpful with some of my minister friends and they have liked them very much.