D.A. Carson and Circulated Emails

July 2nd, 2004  |  Published in Religion  |  2 Comments

While reading an excerpt from D.A. Carson’s The Limits of Functional Equivalence in Bible Translation—and Other Limits, Too (available as PDF or HTML), I noticed the following disturbing comment:

In one circulated email, Grudem comments, “The TNIV mistranslates the masculine singular pronoun autos, substituting plural pronouns, thus losing the teaching that Jesus has fellowship. . .” [emphasis mine]

Circulated email? He does not provide a footnote for it citing that Grudem granted permission to publish it, and he does not quote an actual public monograph that Grudem wrote. That doesn’t seem right (or scholarly, something I normally respect Carson for) to quote Grudem from a “circulated email” in a public work without his permission. He also quotes this “circulated email” one other time (but then uses “e-mail” in case you are searching). Very disappointing.

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  1. Amanda says:

    July 3rd, 2004 at 1:27 pm (#)

    I don’t Josh but I’m assuming that a “circulated e-mail” means that the e-mail was published on a public mailing list which one would subscribe to. Do you believe that this was a private e-mail that was published?

    He probably would NOT have to seek permission to publish it but would need to provide a reference such as “E-mail written for Theo-Trans List-Serv by W.A. Grudem 1/1/03″ or whatever the appropriate format the publisher expects.

    Honestly, this sounds like “fair use” to me and, thus, he would not need Grudem’s permission. Without a doubt, the reader is unfortunately left with no further information to track down the “circulated e-mail.” If I were you, I’d contact Grudem and Carson and find out just where this e-mail was published.

  2. Josh S says:

    July 6th, 2004 at 6:26 pm (#)

    Interesting… it might have been on a listserv, but “circulated” makes me doubt that. I would guess it was either a letter Wayne Grudem sent around or something he wrote and then it got passed around. But I might check with at least Dr. Grudem to see what this is all about, as it seems like he would want things clarified.

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