As everyone who reads the Bible in translation knows, there are variations among the different versions. No two translations ever produce the exact same English rendering of a particular passage. I am well aware of this, but found myself flummoxed by it the other day.

I was looking for the verse in the Bible that says, “Love keeps no record of wrongs.” I was fairly certain that it was in 1 Corinthians 13, so I pulled out the ESV that I had next to me. The phrase I sought was no where to be found. So, I reached for the NRSV on my shelf. It was still not there. Figuring I must have misremembered the reference, I started up my Logos software to find the passage. I searched for “record” in the NRSV, but got no hits. I searched for “wrongs,” but none of those passages was remotely similar to the passage for which I was looking.

It wasn’t until I pulled up 1 Corinthians 13 in all versions that I found the problem. I was right: the verse I was seeking is in 1 Corinthians 13. But only the NIV translates this particular phrase as “Love keeps no record of wrong.” Here is how the last phrase in v.5 is rendered in different translations:

“It is not irritable or resentful” - ESV

“[It] thinketh no evil” - KJV

“[It] does not take into account a wrong suffered” - NASB

“It keeps no record of wrongs” - NIV

“It is not irritable or resentful” - RSV and NRSV

I found it interesting that the version I remembered is the NIV. That is the translation I used in high school and college. I switched to the RSV in seminary, and then to the NRSV when that came out. The NRSV is my primary text now, although I have a small ESV next to my bed. Apparently all the memorization I had done in high school took precedence in my memory over the academic work I have done since then.

A quick look at the Greek text I have on hand suggests that the NIV and NASB come the closest to the Greek. I suspect that there may be a textual variant here that the ESV and NRSV are following, because I don’t see how they can get “irritable or resentful” from the Greek, but then again NT is not my specialty. I don’t have the tools here in my apartment to check out any textual variants, but perhaps some other biblioblogger who reads this blog can explain where the ESV and NRSV get their reading.

Follow up: Rick Brannan at PastoralEpistles.com and Rico Blog sent me an e-mail to let me know that “resentful” is merely a one-word translation of the longer phrase that the NIV translates as “It keeps no record of wrongs.” The NRSV usually doesn’t do things like that, so it hadn’t occurred to me (though it should have). “Resentful” seems a fairly poor way of rendering what the Greek says. I suppose that someone who pays attention to how they have been wronged would be resentful, but that is not the first word that would have come to mind. Thanks for the solution, Rick!  Thanks also to Doug Chaplin, who left the same info in a comment while I was updating the post with the information Rick sent.

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