In church today we sang the song, “the name of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous run into it and they are saved.” I checked the updated NIV text, and it has been changed from “strong tower” to “fortified tower.” (The change is in the TNIV as well).
This brings up an interesting issue. It is one thing to change people’s “favorite verse,” but to change a song’s text, now that’s serious.
I am only half joking. “The name of the Lord is a fortified tower” doesn’t quite fit the cadence.
The LXX has εκ μεγαλωσυνης ονομα κυριου, which word of word is, “out of majesty the name of Lord is strength.” Tower” is from the Hebrew MGDL.
The real question is, “What’s a strong tower”? A tower that possess the quality of strength? What does that mean? A tower that is built with a strong door? Strong straps?
If we think about it, we can probably get the point of the proverb, but is there any value in forcing the reader to work this hard? (The NLT has “strong fortress,” and that locution does work for me.)
So I understand why the TNIV shifted to “fortified tower.” We can easily see a tower, perhaps up on a hill, that has thick walls and an enforced door. A tower that provides safety for its inhabitants.
Which is of course the point of proverb. God is a fortified tower to which his children run, knowing that he will keep them safe.
William D. [Bill] Mounce posts about the Greek language, exegesis, and related topics at Koinonia. He is the author of numerous books, including the bestselling Basics of Biblical Greek, and is the general editor for Mounce's Complete Expository Dictionary of the Old and New Testament Words. He served as the New Testament chair of the English Standard Version Bible translation, and is currently on the Committee for Bible Translation for the NIV. Learn more and visit Bill's blog (co-authored with scholar and his father Bob Mounce) at www.billmounce.com.
Hey Dr. Mounce,thanks for posting this.
this song brings back a lot of memories of singing it in my christian primary school and learning the verse the verse through our friday chapel services. The Lord is our refuge of strength - trusting Jesus and his power in our temptations, troubles, and sorrow God will protect us. thankful for this reminder
Posted by: Scott McKenzie | Monday, February 14, 2011 at 11:43 AM
Hey, Dr. Mounce, I love it that the Holy Spirit has prompted you to jot this little goodie down because I've been ruminating on the 'strong tower' concept for some time. I'm an archaeology student at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, and last year I did some super big and heady exegetical paper for which I looked up every occurrence of the word MGDL (as well as some of its fun synonyms), and then pounded through them all in the LXX, too, just for good measure. At the end of what was almost a very long and very boring paper about grammar and lexicography, I finally realised what the tower WAS! I realised what the strong tower meant to David as he hid from Saul in the wilderness - that it likely wasn't a fortress built with hands, or even the fortification of the mountain caves in which he hid, but that it was the fortification of God's ancient, eternal, everlasting hand of protection and provision in the face of whatever he might come against. When the writers refer to earthly things as the MGDL, this is but a shadow of the MGDL that God provides. This changed my whole perspective on the concept of the 'strong tower' in the Old Testament (and I can't tell you how many 'Strong Tower' themed praise and worship tunes I downloaded while I was writing that paper!).
So I think that you're right, sometimes it's good to shift the language a little bit to wake up the senses. Sometimes 'strong' just isn't 'strong' enough for us to wrap our minds around! After all, when we change the word in the English translation, we have to get over the fact that we're not changing the actual inspired words of Scripture, we're only trying, as translators and interpreters, to help make the meanings of those inspired words more clearly understood.
Posted by: Jaye Barnes | Wednesday, February 16, 2011 at 01:00 AM
Re:
"εκ μεγαλωσυνης ονομα κυριου, which word of word is, 'out of majesty the name of Lord is strength'” --
I see the words for "out of," "majesty," "name" and "Lord": which of the four is "strength"?
Posted by: Kate Gladstone | Thursday, February 17, 2011 at 03:39 PM
Excellent post, Jaye!
Posted by: Irving Salzman | Thursday, February 17, 2011 at 05:25 PM