All that money which could be used to fulfill the Great Commission. Many years ago I read a book evaluating various versions which said that there were over 200 English Bible translations. Now there are far more.
Our missions pastor recently went to Papua NG and preached to a people group of 3-4000 in four villages which had no part of the Bible in their language. Yet there were solid churches and nationals ready and willing to translate. But no. Let's have another English translation or revision. :(
The book I mentioned was So Many Versions? by recognized scholars Sakae Kubo and Walter F. Specht, published in 1983 by Zondervan. The number 200 was not in reference to how many translations are in print, but how many translations have actually been published through the years in the English language. And, how many out-or-print versions are available on the Internet!
I believe you would find this figure to be low if you researched it out. Regardless, there are still 3000 or more languages out there with not a single verse in the Bible.
For the record, I did not say this nor do I think it. I have used two Greek texts, a half dozen English translations, and several Japanese ones in my work as a Bible translator. I will say though, once again, there is no need for such constant revisions of the major translations. That money should be used to reach the world with the Word, since that was part of the last command of our Lord Jesus.
Dr macArthur has it spot on regarding how we really do not need to revised/update good translations nearly as quickly, as he still uses the good ole 1977 Nas as his primary text!
their own preface stated that they undertook most complete and far reaching effort to use modern English grammar and vocabulary in any English translation, so when transgender and gay way to use pronouns become the norm, will they again update to reflect that then?
Maybe there is a positive side - the proliferation of English bibles is indicative of a keen desire of the English speaking church world to know and disseminate the word of God accurately to bring it to the inhabited world.
Hopefully that's one motive. I will say that the Lockman Foundation (NASB, as you know) has sponsored foreign translations. However, they sued the Japanese translators of the version they supported there, and won their case, forcing the Japanese translation ministry to pay many yen to the Lockman Foundation for their own copyright.
I would be much more accepting of that if not for the fact that big money is behind recent versions, acting as if its just another book to get to bestsellers list!