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Comments (133)

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  ntdef
  The New International Version (NIV) translation of the Bible is by far the worst translation on almost any metric you can think of, except maybe understanding how evangelical Christians read the Bible in the 90s and 2000s.The NIV has so many inexcusable translations that reinforce a theological worldview that matched the conversation on atonement and justification that was happening in the 90s and 2000s. There's a great catalog out there of the most egregious translations in the NIV [1]. One such example:> Romans 7:18 — The NIV here translates σάρξ (sarx) as “sinful nature” even though this implies later Augustinian doctrine on original sin that is not intended by the original writer. In contrast, the NRSV correctly chooses to translate this tricky Pauline term more literally as “flesh”.Are you interested in a readable Bible that flows well to modern English ears? The New Living Translation (NLT) is fantastic and very underrated. I recommend reading the Psalms in the NLT since much of the language of the Psalms being in a higher register in the NIV and other translations doesn't land as well, but reading the Psalms in NLT makes it much more relatable and human. I find the way it reads refreshing, and it's based on more modern scholarship.Are you interested in latest scholarly understanding of the Bible? The NRSV is the consensus version (as much as there could be one).Are you interested in understanding the Bible as American Evangelical Christians read it today? That's currently the English Standard Version (ESV), which many churches have switched to as the NIV has lost favor in Reformed circles.[1]: https://isthatinthebible.wordpress.com/articles-and-resource...
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  cvoss
  > knowing full well that [Delilah] will betray [Samson]It is not clear from the text that Samson is aware of the presence of Philistines the first three times. We are told they are lying in ambush in an inner chamber. We are not told that they make themselves known, attempt to subdue Samson, or interact with him in any way. Instead, we are told that Delilah announces their imminent presence, with no follow-through. (And why, after all, would they dare come in until Delilah has established that he is weak and harmless, given his reputation for strength and bloodthirst?)I don't believe Samson understands Delilah is betraying him. Not until the end when he's told her the real secret. Until that point, he may only receive her behavior as, at worst, a taunt and, at best, an attempt to pursue a kind of relational intimacy in which he makes himself vulnerable to her. And indeed, that's exactly where the story goes. He eventually makes himself vulnerable to her, both emotionally and physically.A shallow reading that concludes the characters must be dumb and naive to explain the ridiculousness of the plot is rarely the most appropriate reading. Frequently, the characters and nuances run much deeper, and a more careful and thoughtful reading is required. Ancient literature is stylistically terse compared to modern literature. Space on the manuscript is precious and not given over to things that the reader is meant to infer by reflection. And whenever a phrase or pattern is repeated, that means it is very, very significant. In this case, Samson's interaction with Delilah is not a one-off inexplicable behavior. It is one episode in a series of episodes, both preceding and following, where consistent patterns of behavior develop and escalate (e.g., his vengefulness, his vulnerability to women).
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  bdr
  Speaking of “witty, and learned, and wise, and humane”, this post is all of the above. The kind of writing that, before you’re even done reading, makes you eager to look up everything else the author has written.
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  rsynnott
  > I have trouble connecting with the thinkers of the Middle Ages. Their thinking seems to me to be frightened, so overcautious, so cramped and circumscribed, I can't read it without sadness for the way that medieval Christianity strangled the human spirit for so long.As I understand it, particularly for the bizarre natural sciences stuff, a lot of this is actually _Aristotle's_ fault, not Christianity's.Adding the Pseudodoxia Epidemica to my list of things to read if I ever have infinite time.
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  Joker_vD
  > After several repetitions of this, Samson decides that being shaved, blinded and crushed will be less exasperating than listening to any more of Delilah's nagging.A very off-tangent note, but I recently learned that Samson's last words, "ἀποθανέτω ἡ ψυχή μου μετὰ τῶν ἀλλοφύλων"/"moriatur anima mea cum Philisthiim", pretty much have never been translated into English literally; it's always "Let me die with the Philistines" for some reason.
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  roughly
  This is a solid collection, one that shows real intellectual curiosity. Something that would be interesting to add would be something that falls entirely out of the canon of Western philosophy - you have what is by all measures a diverse sampling of the various permutations of the intellectual procession of western thinking, but nothing reflecting traditions from outside that procession, eg Chinese, Islamic, Indian, or even Mayan or others from the Americas. It’d be interesting to pull from something entirely outside the intellectual tradition you’re well steeped in, to take a play horizontally instead of vertically.(Note this isn’t a knock on the author for staying within western tradition, which is both deep and interesting and also diverse in a way which provides a wide breadth of ways of thinking about the world; rather, getting outside the tradition entirely would provide yet another perspective on that tradition, eg its bounds and the lines it doesn’t realize its prescribing itself within even as it changes dramatically over different eras.)
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  euthymiclabs
  Pleased to see Roget's thesaurus here. It's a fantastic resource without a great digital equivalent. I've found LLMs helpful in a pinch (and it's certainly better than a standard thesaurus), but Roget's is still the book I turn to for tricky word-picking problems.
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  WalterBright
  I discovered that when I want to find the translation of a German word, it is far quicker to open a dictionary and flip to the word than open google, select the language, and type in the word.Flipping pages in a book still has not been matched by computer text.
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  whitten
  I’ve been told the Legacy Standard Bible is one where the translators tried to not use the same English word when the original Greek or Hebrew words are different.FYI: https://m.youtube.com/c/legacystandardbible
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  PeterStuer
  Slightly off topic: The title hits home. When I was young, books were a luxury item. Less rich people just used the library. But the library had a strict 7 books rental policy. Not enough for the avid reader that also needed a small programming reference library. So I had 3 steady, occasionally 4th, library card pool from family members to keep my bookshelf operational.
• MezzoDelCammin
  Comenius! I'll be damned—this is the first time I've seen anyone actually reading his Orbis Pictus. There's a country whose educational system basically revolves around Comenius (the Czech Republic). And even there I don't personally know anyone who I'd be 100% sure has actually read the whole book!
• UncleOxidant
  > It [The Bible] is full of great wisdom and great stories, and also cruelty, evil lies, and reminders that the world now is in many ways better than it was because people are better.Are people better? And if they are what made them better?
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  throw7
  NIV is what I grew up with and I kind of tired of it because of that... I have a soft spot for the KJV/NKJV.
• navigate8310
  Since you liked Orbis Pictus, you'll definitely appreciate The Way Things Work
• mandolingual
  These are indeed seven of the kinds of books I would expect to see in this kind of post shared on HN.
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  jabl
  We read some passages from Decameron back in high school. Lovely book really, I should take the time to really read it cover to cover.
• reedf1
  was expecting umberto eco after the first few - I'm sure you've either read him or desperately should!
• Alien1Being
  "I have trouble connecting with the thinkers of the Middle Ages. Their thinking seems to me to be frightened, so overcautious, so cramped and circumscribed, I can't read it without sadness"Completely misses the point of mediaeval philosophy.As an avowed atheist, I find the works of the Blessed Duns Scotus and St Thomas Aquinas intellectually fascinating.
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  alabhyajindal
  and the seven books I keep close: diary of a wimpy kid 1-7
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  Razengan
  I just need The Wind in the Willows :)
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  slowin
  > This of course is the cornerstone of Western culture and no well-educated person can be without a knowledge of what is in it.> I would like to understand the world I live in, and there is no way to understand 21st-century America without understanding the Bible.Hard disagree! Yes, many of the more odious directions society has taken have been backed by Christianity (Christian Zionism anyone?) but we're already over-exposed to this stuff as is. I'm an atheist and I hate that I've been subjected to Christian propaganda my whole life as someone born and raised in the US. It's been a constant parade of ignorance.Want to really understand the true nature of the US in the 21st century? Drop the bible and read Settlers instead: https://readsettlers.org/
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  burnto
  What an inspiring post! So much surprise and depth in each selection.
• waffletower
  A sequel that diverges from and dwarfs its predecessor -- Deleuze & Guattari's A Thousand Plateaus (translated into English) https://www.upress.umn.edu/9780816614028/a-thousand-plateaus...
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  bbkane
  > For example, Moses is easy to recognize at lower right, because of the glowing hornsI'm sorry, what? Why is Moses depicted with glowing horns?
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  mjd
  And I bet you won't guess what any of them are.
• anon
  undefined
• jeffbee
  I assume the first one is "High Performance HTTP Servers"
• verelo
  Is no one going to comment on the goggly eyes or 8mm data tape? You people disappoint me.
• jdkee
  Second Frege to Gödel. It is a great introduction to a study of the foundations of mathematics.
• ck2
  > The four em-dashes were organically cultivated and sustainably harvested
• richtersand
  He lost me at Thesaurus
• hnnbxu2nwi
  [dead]
• apercu
  [dead]
• hnfvovpje4
  Ah the classic
• xerox13ster
  Get the data off those drives now, rather than later. The longer you hope to get the data, the more hopeless it will be.
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  vehemenz
  > This of course is the cornerstone of Western culture and no well-educated person can be without a knowledge of what is in [the Bible].Knowing what's in the Bible isn't sufficient. You need to understand the full genealogy of the Judeo-Christian tradition.You need to understand Canaanite cults, the broad influence of both Zoroastrianism (via the Achaemenid Empire) and Hellenism, and how these cultures converged to form proto-Judaistic clerical class (or at least something like it), which eventually crystallized into the synagogue tradition and "modern" Jewish practice during the Hasmonean Dynasty.