I was recently reading a published sermon by A M Hunter, a highly respected and much loved Scottish former New Testament Professor here in Aberdeen. It was published in 1963 in a collection of his sermons and essays Teaching and Preaching the New Testament. I was mainly interested in the three lectures of P. T. Forsyth (another Aberdonian theologian of a previous age) but I've always enjoyed A M Hunter's writing. His wee book on the Sermon on the Mount, Design for Life is still one of my favourite books on that text.
Anyway I read several of the sermons. And, well, one of the sermons in said book has the title 'On Thinking Bigly'! He was preaching on the Magnificat, using the New English Bible translation just released the previous year of 1961: "Tell out my soul, the greatness of the Lord…" Hunter wonders if 'Christians think bigly enough', about God, about Jesus, about human potential when touched by grace. The sermon is a call for a new vision of God. Sixty years later the Aberdeen Professor's urging of Christians to think bigly could not be more relevant.
I happen to agree that the NEB largely got it right in its updating of language. Dated now, of course, and replaced 30 years later by the Revised English Bible which I use alongside RSV, NRSV and NIV which, speaking personally, has never been my favourite Bible version. I still remember my College Principal's comment that a translation should be neither evangelical nor liberal – it should be as accurate as the text and the translator can render it.
I wonder if Paul might ever have added the handy adverb 'bigly' to his impressive collection of superlatives, as in Ephesians chapter 1
Leave a Reply