Yet in most Bible translations, at least those leaning in the median and formal categories, there is an extreme reluctance to use contractions. They are evidently considered too informal for literary language and translation teams will go to various lengths to avoid them, including switching from passive to active voice and/or rearranging the phrase.

The simple example of Romans 12:2 will suffice as illustration:

The directness of replacing “be” with “do” in the TNIV (and HCSB and ESV) may be easier on modern ears than the KJV’s passive phrasing, but which is grammatically correct in the Greek? I wonder if a gentler modernization would be “Do not be conformed to this world…” (cf. ISV), but of course that sounds somewhat clunky unless we use the contraction, “Don’t be conformed to this world…” But then we’re back to the contraction issue.

And of course, never mind the rhetorical cadence that has been discarded from the KJV, e.g. “be not conformed”//”be ye transformed”. To keep that effect, you’d need to also use active voice in the secondary part of the phrase:

Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but transform your life by renewing your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is-his good, pleasing and perfect will.”

But whoops! That sounds like it might assign too active a role to ourselves in our transformation, so we need to keep the passive voice so that we remain the object of transformation, not the transformer.

Next, switching language to avoid the passive ‘not” leads to the result that the balance of the passage is thrown off. In the KJV, the “be not conformed” is an introduction to the meat of the passage, which is be transformed in order to know the will of God. (I’m reminded of the HCSB’s translation of John 3:16, “For God loved the world in this way: he gave…”)

In modern translations, we instead end up with a “if/then” logical arrangement: if you don’t conform, but are transformed, then you will know the will of God. The change in logical balance and use of an active command “Do not” shifts the emphasis of the argument from the positive being transformed to the negative not conforming.

Finally, with all of the above in mind, here’s an attempt at modernizing the effect of the KJV, while avoiding the “unnatural” negative:

Don’t be conformed to the practices of this world. Instead, be transformed by the renewing of your mind so that you might know the good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

HT: the Preface of the God’s Word translation.

We are all (overly) familiar with the phrase “open the eyes of my heart” from contemporary praise and worship music. In this verse, the phrase from the HCSB FE is found in translations ranging from the NASB to the NIV. The underlying Greek is: ophthalmos hymōn dianoia. Literally, “the eyes of your understanding” (cf. KJV) or “the eyes of your mind” (cf. Jerusalem Bible). So the new HCSB is perhaps moving in a more literal direction rather than more idiomatic, with “perception” as their optimally equivalent translation of ophthalmos (“the eyes of the mind”).

In some ways, this makes the entire verse a little more consistent, drawing together “perception”, “mind”, “enlightened” and “know” all as descriptions of a rational reader. The metaphorical “eyes” and “heart” are put aside, losing the emotional reference in English, as well as the image of “inward eyes” (REB) that are “flooded with light” (NLT), allowing the person to see the hope and share of their eternal inheritance.

So… is “the hope of his calling” to be seen in our hearts or known in our minds? Where does hope reside in English?

The Wheelers are trapped in a milieu of stifling conformity, he commuting daily amid a crush of cattle in gray flannel to earn their bread, she tied tight in an apron at home, baking it.

A nicely turned sentence, I thought.

But for you who fear My name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings; and you will go forth and skip about like calves from the stall.

The impish choice of “go forth and skip about” in the NASB piqued my curiosity, as frankly I would have expected the more mundane rendition of “leap about” (cf. ESV, NRSV, NIV, NLTse). The NEB/REB is perhaps a stronger fit with the rodeo image: “you will break loose like calves released from the stall.”

The underlying Hebrew verb is puwsh, which according to Strongs either means (1) to “spring about” or (2) “to scatter” or “be spread”. The Latinate translation variants, N/KJV and the Jerusalem Bible, interpret “be spread” along the lines of growing bigger, e.g. “you will grow fat like stall-fed calves”, which creates an entirely different image altogether. Veal anyone?