Just took textual criticism courses in school, and have read much material...
Not against the various greek texts, as really do not see any major doctrines being affected here!
I have studied Nida extensively and oppose his translation theory. It's neo-orthodox. But I'm looking at his book The Theory and Practice of Translation, p. 53, and can't see where he denies the substitutionary blood atonement there. Enlighten me.
Also, I think you are misunderstanding his statement in Message and Mission that God's revelation is "not absolute" (p. 225). He explains that "it is not absolute in the sense that there is nothing more or that we know everything about God" (Ibid).
I am not a defender of Nida--far from it. I just think we should quote our opponents accurately, and truly understand what they are saying. This is a common fault of arguers on bibliology--they often misquote and misrepresent their opponents. (I am not saying you intentionally did so. You may have simply gotten your insight from someone else. If so, perhaps you should state your source for these Nida quotes.)
Caveat: I do see footnote 19, which would explain why liberal Bratcher translated haima as "death" originally in the TEV, the first DE translation. But I don't see any specific denial of the substitutionary blood atonement.
in # 109 you say that the N/A Greek text is "superior" to the TR
in # 109 you say that the N/A Greek text is "superior" to the TR. I said no, because the underlying Greek text used by N/A is more corrupted than the TR. The two principal Greek manuscripts of the NT are the Codices, Sinaiticus, and Vaticanius, both of the middle 4th century. Fred Kenyon in his "Handbook to the Textual Criticism of the New Testament", informs us, that at the time these 2 mss were copied, the Emperor Constantine requested from Jerome, 50 copies of Scripture be produced on vellum for the Churches. This work was carried out at the library at Caesarea, and undertaken by two scribes, Acacius and Euzoius (p.41). Both these "scribes" were followers of the arch-heretic, Arius, who denied the Holy Trinity and Deity of Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit! Can they be considered "faithful" copyists? It is like asking a JW or Mormon to translate the Bible, and say without any doubt, that it is the Word of God!!!
Thanks for pointing this out, I have here quoted from third-party Christians, who I expected would be accurate and honest in their writings. clearly, from what you are saying, they have not been :(
The thing about the reference about the blood is that Nida is discussing something called transformational grammar on that page, and if your source did not know what that was, he would misunderstand. Here is the actual quote your source was probably referring to: "Blood is literally an 'object word,' but it refers here not to an object, but to an entire event, with which the object blood is associated. That is to say, though it is literally an object, it really refers to an event." So he is not denying the blood atonement, simply explaining the connotation of "blood" in Eph. 1:7, which he himself translates on the same page: "God redeemed us through Christ's shedding of his blood, and God forgave our sins."
In his hermeneutics class, my son references how D. A. Waite quotes Hort & Westcott, and then shows the students how Waite completely misrepresents the men. My son is not a Hort & Westcott defender, but simply uses this to teach that we must quote our opponents accurately if we are to be ethical. Then, that applies to Scripture. We must quote Scripture accurately, in context, or we are not handling God's Word correctly.
could not agree more. If we truly want to represent the God of the Bible, and His Word, then we must be 100% truthful at all times, even if it disagrees with our thinking/theology.
well, I am not a KJVO person. I have the Hebrew, Greek, LXX, Syriac, Latin Old and Vulgate, Coptic, and many English versions. I also have the 27th and 28th editions of the UBS Greek text, and that of N/A, Souter, Wordsworth, Lachmann, Tischendorf, Tragelles, etc etc, lest I be accused of some bias! I also have the 3 JW versions for checking up purposes!