One of the interesting aspects of translating the New Testament is when you come across passages that are quite poetic in nature. Two of the most well-known passages that fit this description are the “Christ-hymns,” so-called because they appear to be an ancient hymn that was sung by the Church, even predating Paul’s own writings. These hymns appear at Colossians 1:15-20 (see my translation here), and Philippians 2:5-11. One of the questions that will creep into the minds of translators is essentially, “Ok, so how do we handle this?”  In other words, do we attempt the capture the poetical nature of the passage? Do we translate it as is, but set it apart with indentions to show that it was a hymn? Of course, there’s no right way to do this, and it comes down to a matter of preference. Personally, I enjoy both, for differing reasons.

The ISV (International Standard Version, NT finished, OT almost finished) has decided to translate these (and other) passages according to literary genre.  This means that not only is the text indented to show that it is poetry- it is translated as poetry itself.  In order to give some of you who might have read such a translation before a chance to see it, I will quote the passage from the ISV (note the triplet structure), a basic translation, and from the Greek for those who like to compare.

So what do you guys think? As far as literary style and form goes, I love the ISV’s rendering. The only problem I have with it is that the ISV went with the traditional rendering of ἁρπαγμὸν (harpagmon), “grasped,” which doesn’t really convey the meaning of the word well to modern ears. As I show in my translation, it is actually along the lines of having an advantage over. It’s understandable, of course. I wouldn’t want to have to try and fit that into meter.