Recovery Version Bible English with Footnotes

Beloved Amodeo

I don't know much about this version of the Bible other than its existence and popularity among the Chinese. It appears to be curated and employs an approach to translation building on existing translations and is extensively footnoted, is outlined and includes maps. Amazon information here https://www.amazon.com/Bible-Recovery-Version-contains-footnotes-ebook/dp/B00AA2PY5O/ref=sr_1_4?crid=1XLGHMVUB2QQT&dchild=1&keywords=recovery+bible&qid=1598132889&s=digital-text&sprefix=recovery%2Cdigital-text%2C257&sr=1-4 

For the NT it depends on the NA26. There was no comment as to the sources used for the OT. In fact the OT is not mentioned. But, it is apparent that the OT books are offered in the translation. The Chinese version is discussed and requested here https://community.logos.com/forums/t/175532.aspx?PageIndex=2  and it is offered in prepub here https://www.logos.com/product/128486/xin-jiu-yue-sheng-jing-hui-fu-ben-the-chinese-holy-bible-recovery-version-with-references 

I'm curious about the English version and advocate for Logos to offer it for sale to us English speakers. If anyone else knows more about this version and can offer more information I would be anxious to hear about it.

Schamma

The man behind the Recovery Version is Witness Lee. See:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witness_Lee

Some of Lee's heresies are exposed here:

https://contrast2.wordpress.com/2010/09/25/the-false-gospel-of-witness-lee-and-the-living-stream-ministries/

MJ. Smith

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1113048#Comment_1113048

Schamma said:

Some of Lee's heresies are exposed here:

https://contrast2.wordpress.com/2010/09/25/the-false-gospel-of-witness-lee-and-the-living-stream-ministries/

The forums are intended to be a safe place for all Logos users - so we don't call others' beliefs heresies. Our focus is on the Faithlife tools not the beliefs of those who use them.

Kolen Cheung

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1113048#Comment_1113048

Schamma said:

The man behind the Recovery Version is Witness Lee. See:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witness_Lee

Some of Lee's heresies are exposed here:

https://contrast2.wordpress.com/2010/09/25/the-false-gospel-of-witness-lee-and-the-living-stream-ministries/

Yours is an old view. If you follow their development, you'd know that those who accused them as heresies has been openly retracted their view and apologized.

I'm not a big friend of how they treat other Christians. They has been relentlessly hunting down whoever dare to accused them as heresies and sue them in courts and also publicly defend themselves. Ironically, often the reasons people identifying them as heresies are due to misunderstanding (their view is indeed very complicated and some of them appears to look like a heresy but on deeper study you will find that they has been constructing their theology very carefully that does not contradict the "popular believe".) And they will expose and public shame them about their inferior understanding.

They are zealous people no doubt but they are not heresy.

Also, next time before you accuse other people as heresies, be very careful and consider those within their congregations. Imagine you have been going Church there for years until someone told you you've been to a cult all this time. Imagine the kind of fear and anxiety they experienced for years. And then in the end they find out "oh it was just a misunderstanding" but harm is already done to them. It has happened not only to this particular example but also on others, e.g. some particular branch of a certain denomination were identified as heresies but then they loosely claimed that the whole denomination is a heresy and many lives are upended because of this mistake and no apologies were made.

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Kolen Cheung

Beloved Amodeo said:

I don't know much about this version of the Bible other than its existence and popularity among the Chinese. It appears to be curated and employs an approach to translation building on existing translations and is extensively footnoted, is outlined and includes maps. Amazon information here https://www.amazon.com/Bible-Recovery-Version-contains-footnotes-ebook/dp/B00AA2PY5O/ref=sr_1_4?crid=1XLGHMVUB2QQT&dchild=1&keywords=recovery+bible&qid=1598132889&s=digital-text&sprefix=recovery%2Cdigital-text%2C257&sr=1-4 

For the NT it depends on the NA26. There was no comment as to the sources used for the OT. In fact the OT is not mentioned. But, it is apparent that the OT books are offered in the translation. The Chinese version is discussed and requested here https://community.logos.com/forums/t/175532.aspx?PageIndex=2  and it is offered in prepub here https://www.logos.com/product/128486/xin-jiu-yue-sheng-jing-hui-fu-ben-the-chinese-holy-bible-recovery-version-with-references 

I'm curious about the English version and advocate for Logos to offer it for sale to us English speakers. If anyone else knows more about this version and can offer more information I would be anxious to hear about it.

The OT is according to BHS (see https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/聖經恢復本, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recovery_Version).

Although the author is Witness Lee, they in fact has a committee of people translating it and attributed to Witness Lee. Among the translators I think there's at least 1 Greek scholar but I don't know much about that.

This translation is almost solely used by their own congregation only. Among many names, often they are called just the "local churches". Very few people outside of them uses that translation. (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Local_churches_(affiliation))

One interesting thing about this translation is that, as far as I know, this is the only bilingual translation of the Bible in Chinese and English. i.e. both the English and Chinese version of the RcV are translated in parallel. e.g. the CUV is translated in reference to King James Version. So you could consider CUV and KJV together as a parallel translation, but they are not translated by the same committees in the same era.

Their translation are more literal. So you can compare that to something like the Darby translation or the 呂振中擇本. It is more difficult to read but better for bible study.

However, since their committees are "their own people", the theological point of view is confined to their own ones. Unlike many other translations that is aimed to be in broader evangelical view.

Note that Witness Lee died in 1997 but the OT is finished in 2003. Also, since Witness Lee's death, their publications are "getting strange". Some people (especially local-churches "outsiders") who enjoyed Witness Lee's work would like to access his writings before he died, before their endless "revisions" that keep expanding the volumes.

Also note that while Witness Lee is heavily influenced by Watchman Nee, and Witness Lee himself claimed to be Watchman Nee's successor in a way, he does not represent Watchman Nee (who died in 1950s.) Majority of Chinese Christians do not question Watchman Nee's theology (the only controversial part of Watchman Nee's theory is the dissection of spirit-soul-body (靈、魂、體) where other believes that it is just spirit/soul and body (靈魂、體). But Witness Lee's theory has many controversial sayings such that in the early days many accused his as heresy.

Also note that in the Mainland China there was a cult called 常受主派, but Witness Lee himself has no ministry within Mainland China. They are a cult who worship Witness Lee. Some people misidentify them to be the same thing and hence called them a cult also.

Feel free to ask more if any.

Fun fact: in the Western world a decade ago Reverse Interlinear Bible appeared and is popularized. But a few decades ago a brother within their committees was already working on the RcV NT reverse interlinear bible. Unfortunately Witness Lee don't like this project and banned it and that brother left. Otherwise the reverse interlinear idea may have been popularized much earlier (however I don't know may be there's even earlier works on such concept already.)

Kolen Cheung

Can someone from Faithlife delete the duplicates?

When I first submit this the system has some problem so I keep resubmitting. And now all of them show up here as duplicate.

Mike Binks

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1122892#Comment_1122892

One can delete duplicates oneself for a short while after posting. Once that time has elapsed they are pretty much engraved in the fabric of time and space.