Is it right to sell the word of God?

I would wish that there would be a Bible for everyone one earth and they would all be free. But it costs money to print Bibles, money to pay for those who work at the publishing houses (who have children to feed as well), money to ship the products. If we feel so strongly about it, we should donate large sums of moneys to different publishers, or better yet, just buy the Bibles ourselves and give them away. Every church I have been a part of has always been willing and cheerful to give a Bible to anybody who asked. I myself give Bibles away, especially when I am whitnessing to people. I just head down to Borders and pick them up a copy and give it to them. Bibles can be pretty cheap you know. You can get a Bible for 10 dollars as long as you don't buy the big leather bound books with maps and notes.

One of my favorite stories from my own life happened a couple of years ago. I was working at Oak Ridge National Lab and had been sharing the gospel with a coworker for a couple of weeks. I decided to go buy her a Bible. I went to Chick-fa-la and bought a lunch for $6.75, then headed to books a million and picked up a Bible for $8.00. I couldn't help but laugh to myself. "$6.75 for lunch and $8.00 for salvation!"

 

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Pete Richert:
... picked up a Bible for $8.00. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Here's a link that could save you alot of money if you give many Bibles away.
www.scripturetruth.com

They have great prices on all their products.

I have to disagree completely with the idea that selling Bibles is wrong.

What scripture supports the notion that making a profit or a living off of an activity precludes it from being righteous or wholesome? We pay our pastors...and some of them very well. We pay Christian teachers and other workers as well. Even many missionaries earn a salary and have a retirement plan.

No place nor time has had greater access to the Word of God than present day America. I suggest that no one in the US is so impoverished that they cannot afford $6-$8 for a Bible...and, like Pete exemplifies, there are many Christians who would willing give a person one without considering it a burden. As long as no authority has the ability to monopolize the market, commercial publishers probably deliver our Bibles and other materials at higher quality and lower expense than any other system ever has or could.

 

I do not think there is anything inherently wrong in charging for a Bible in order to recoup the cost involved. But I have two further thoughts: (1) Much of the multiplication of versions and types (this study Bible and that study Bible, and Bibles for this specific group or that one) is probably motivated as much by money as it is by ministry; and (2) the Lord's churches are probably to be held negligent in not being as involved as they should be in seeing the Bible is freely distributed - whatever form that takes.

 

I agree with your number (2) for sure. You qualified your number (1) but I would still comment. It may be soley for profit, but I am not usually that pesimistic. Surely the revisors and translators for the ESV felt that a revision of the RSV would serve to further the kindom of Christ, and I agree with them. I know many of those men and I can assure you that not many are wealthy and few are being paid. One of them finnally finished off his seminary loans just a year before he took out loans for his kids to begin college.

 

i think it's more reprehensible to deride God's Word as "perverse" than to peddle it for profit.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Harald:
And more so, how dare professed believers in God sell perverse translations (GNB, Living Bible etc.), at the same time marketing them as God’s very word?
Harald<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

 

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Harald:
BTW, is the ESV a Bible worth having? I could get it quite inexpensively if I hurry.

Harald<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Harald:

IMO, it is. See the thread

ESV: What Do You Think?

 

Cloud has greatly misrepresented dynamic equivalence and in so doing has done a misservice to the good translations that use it in varying degrees (KJV, NASB, NIV, NKJV). It is impossible to translate with some degree of dynamic equivalence. Even the KJV is possessed with more dynamic equivalence than one might realize. It is definitely more dynamic than the NASB for instance though not as much as the NIV. The point is that DE is not, in and of itself, wrong.

The problem with the versions mentioned above is that they are not faithful to the original language texts. It is possible to be dynamic and be faithful to the text. It is also possible to be literal and not be faithful to the meaning of the text.

 

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Pastor Larry:
Cloud has greatly misrepresented dynamic equivalence and in so doing has done a misservice to the good translations that use it in varying degrees (KJV, NASB, NIV, NKJV). It is impossible to translate with some degree of dynamic equivalence. Even the KJV is possessed with more dynamic equivalence than one might realize. It is definitely more dynamic than the NASB for instance though not as much as the NIV. The point is that DE is not, in and of itself, wrong.
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I would tend to disagree. I think there is a marked difference between occassional interpretive-translating of idioms within a formal equivalent translation, and dynamic equivalence as a philosophy of translation. As many have noted, a word-for-word translation from one language to another is not always possible, nor desirable. Yet a primary philosophy of dynamic equivalence does damage to verbal, plenary inspiration.

The difference appears to me to be one camp tries to translate as formal as possible, paraphrasing as little as possible, preserving the very words of God, while the other strives for idiomatic equivalency firstly, if at all possible.

 

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Scott J:
.........
I have to disagree completely with the idea that selling Bibles is wrong.
........No place nor time has had greater access to the Word of God than present day America. I suggest that no one in the US is so impoverished that they cannot afford $6-$8 for a Bible...and, like Pete exemplifies, there are many Christians who would willing give a person one without considering it a burden. As long as no authority has the ability to monopolize the market, commercial publishers probably deliver our Bibles and other materials at higher quality and lower expense than any other system ever has or could.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I agree with above. See my more general thoughts on the free market in the money forum in the stock market thread.

I have given a number of Bibles away. And will continue to do so. But I also buy them with "fancier" features than just a plain one. For example, I got my mother a neat, small leather one for Christmas with a clasp.
I was pleased to transfer money to receive such a well-done product. Nothing wrong with a company making a profit on what it freely offers and I freely choose.
The company would not make a profit merely by making them and offering them for sale.
I had to choose to actually pay the cash.

So,in a far more general sense, this gets into the nature of choices in a market economy. For example, if I were running a command economy here, I would probably get rid of all that money spent on golf and football. I don't care anything about either. THINK of all the money that would be freed up! If you were running the economy, you would pick a different list.
The beauty of the actual system is that it is the sum of all our individual choices.

Karen

 

Concerning my reference to the multiplication of Bible translations and types - this is just a general observation. If there were no demand for more and more Bibles, there would not be more and more Bibles. So I see it as a supply and demand situation, based on economics, not so much that people that people desire to minister in getting the word out. So to say that this is based more on money than ministry does not mean that all the motives of those involved are evil. Some may have great motives and some may not, but I do believe that economics plays a large part in Bible sales in this country.

Here is an anecdotal experience from a Christian bookstore that partially illustrates this - I was looking for a Bible to give someone at Christmas. I told the salesman specifically what I wanted. He didn't have it so he kept trying to sell me anything he had that he thought was close and didn't want to take no for an answer. Now this guy is probably a fine person, but what he was doing was trying to make a sale.

 

if ur understanding of Dynamic Equivalency is based on Cloud's, i'm afraid it's based neither on primary literature or on an accurate description of DE. there's nothing eye-opening about what he's written, or what his mentor D.A. Waite has written (i've read and/or heard them both).
pity, too, for when the fuel of zeal is added to Cloud's basic misunderstanding, one starts making dangerous statements against the ministry of the Holy Spirit.

if u'd like to take a look at primary literature, there are many eye-opening links available at www.post1.com/home/amarillo/heresy.htm


[Moderator/Administrator: Last warning. If you mis-represent me and my position again you will be banned from posting to this forum.]

[ January 12, 2002: Message edited by: Thomas Cassidy ]