1. Why Do We Need a Gen Z Translation?

What is the purpose? The purpose isn’t altogether clear in all cases. Some people are simply trying to engage younger audiences by cultivating curiosity about how a given verse might be rephrased using GenZ slang. However, this approach can potentially lead to confusion, as the original meaning of the text may be lost in the process.

Does the current context necessitate a new translation or a new translation strategy? Again, when Luther translated the Bible into German, people did not have widespread access to other study materials. Luther determined, then, to change certain words so that they were intelligible to people without other resources. GenZ is not without other resources, nor are they incapable of interacting in non-GenZ slang. At best, a GenZ Bible has limited utility. My guess is that if A.I. wasn’t making it easy to create this sort of translation, no one would have gone to all the trouble.

2. Does the GenZ Translation Properly Represent the Bible?

For example, consider the following translation of Genesis 1:2 from GenZ.Bible: “But then, the Spirit of God started doing its, cruising over the oceans.” The use of “it’s” is problematic. Not only does it add to the original Hebrew, but it also diminishes the personhood of the Holy Spirit. We can see similar challenges in the rest of the translation of Genesis 1. For example, the Hebrew phrase generally translated as “God saw that it was [very] good” is changed to “lit” (1:4, 10, 18, ), “super cool” (1:12), “[all] good” (1:21, 25), and “totally awesome” (1:31). 

As such, the GenZ translation makes it difficult to (a) recognize that the underlying Hebrew is the same and (b) see the other places the saw-good pattern is used in Genesis (e.g., Gen 3:6; 6:2). Based on Genesis 1 alone, it seems likely that the GenZ translation will sacrifice the broader biblical narrative because it isn’t consistent in its translation of various words and phrases.

Other translations face similar challenges, though not to the extent of the Gen Z Bible. For example, “good” is a feasible translation in Genesis 3:6 in which the woman sees that the fruit of the tree is “good” for food. In Genesis 6:2, however, some versions shift away from “good” to something like “attractive.” While the translation makes more sense as a description of the “daughters of men,” it does tend to mask the “saw-good” pattern that is evident in the Hebrew. 

3. The Gen Z Bible Is Not Translated from the Original Language.

It is worth noting that the GenZ Bible I used above was not translated from the Hebrew and Greek texts but from the King James Version. We might say that the GenZ Bible, then, is truly a rephrasing rather than a translation. It is “updating” the language of a previous version to include various GenZ terms. While other translations like the ESV also use previous translations (i.e., the Revised Standard Version) to do their work, the ESV also works with the original Hebrew and Greek text in ways that aren’t particularly transparent in the GenZ Bible translation. 

We might say that the GenZ Bible, then, is truly a rephrasing rather than a translation. It is “updating” the language of a previous version to include various GenZ terms. While other translations like the ESV also use previous translations (i.e., the Revised Standard Version) to do their work, the ESV also works with the original Hebrew and Greek text in ways that aren’t particularly transparent in the GenZ Bible translation. 

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