6
translations.
15
With this in mind, it seems odd first that KJV departed from its predecessors,
and second that nobody followed. I prefer to think that the KJV went back to the plain sense
of the Hebrew text. "As the fining pot for silver, and the furnace for gold; so is a man to his
praise." Why then did the English revisions that came after the KJV depart from it? Perhaps
they found the KJV translation obscure, felt a need to elaborate, and looked to sources such
as Tyndale, the LXX, and the Vulgate for clarification.
Modern English Translations:
Since the beginning of the twentieth century, several individuals and committees have
undertaken translations from the original languages (the date given below refers to the
release of the OT). All but the NET Bible interpret the function of the crucible/furnace as
"testing," and nearly all continue the tradition of the passive voice in the third clause, that is,
that a man is tested by praise. Several also resolve the ambiguity of the genitive, one way or
the other.
Moffatt (1924): The smelter for silver, the furnace for gold, but a man is
tested by his praise.
Moffatt uses the passive voice, like the many English revisions before him, but to his credit
he preserves the ambiguity of the genitive.
An American Translation (NT is Goodspeed, OT is a committee under J. M.
Powis Smith; 1927): As the smelter is for silver, and the furnace for
gold, / So a man is tested by his praise.
Smith has essentially the same as Moffatt.
Modern Language Bible (Berkeley) 1969 revision: The crucible is for silver,
and the furnace for gold, and a man is tested by what he praises.
Verkuyl also has the passive voice, but he interpreted the genitive as subjective. The Bible in
Modern English and the Emphasized Bible are the only other English versions to do the
latter.
J B (1966): A crucible for silver, a furnace for gold, a man for testing the
words of flatterers.
Departing from other English versions, the Jerusalem Bible correctly translates the syntax of
the final clause, though it makes the function of the crucible explicitly "testing." It also takes
the genitive to be objective--the man is receiving false praise.
NEB (1970): The melting-pot is for silver and the crucible for gold, but praise
is the test of character.
The New English Bible actually inverted the nouns in the last clause, rather than using a
passive verb. Rather than the Hebrew order, "a man [is the test] of praise," it reads, "praise is
the test of character." The result is similar--it would be the same as saying, "the character of
a man is tested by praise." Thus, it is essentially the same as the majority of English
versions. It can be argued that the interpretation of the genitive is ambiguous--it could refer
to the praise the man gives or receives--but the natural sense of the construction leans
toward the objective.
TEV (1976): Fire tests gold and silver; a person's reputation can also be
tested.
The TEV seems to have translated the concept of objective praise by the
word "reputation."
If this is the case, then it is saying that the praise a person receives can be tested (by the
15
According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_James_Version_of_the_Bible, "At least 80% of the King James New
Testament is unaltered from Tyndale's translation."