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How We Got Our Bible: Translation

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At the heart of the Christian faith is the belief that the God of the universe desires to make Himself known to humans and has ultimately done that through sending Jesus Christ, the Son of God, not just to suffer and die for our sins and live a perfect life for us to have righteousness but also to live a righteous life that God requires in order to reveal God’s will to us. Because of this truth, we believe that God wants each person to be able to know His will and thus to be able to read it in the Bible; God does not want to remain far off but wants to enter into our world and lives, even entering into a particular circumstance and time when Jesus came.

While Jesus came at a particular time and culture, God is not just the God of that culture, time, or language – so we believe that the Word of God should be translated into the language of each and every person so they can read God’s Word and know God through what Jesus has done for them – in order to put God’s will into their lives. This belief separates Christianity from Islam, which does not believe that the Qur’an can be translated, and was also a key point of difference between the Roman Catholic Church and Protestant Churches during the period known as the Reformation, as the Reformers desired to translate the Bible into the language of the people so that they could read and understand the Bible for themselves rather than only through the mediation of the church. During this period, there were various individuals who gave up their lives and reputation to translate the Bible into the language of their land, including people such as John Wycliffe and William Tyndale who helped to translate the Bible into English. Ironically, William Tyndale prayed while he was being put to death, “Lord, open the eyes of the king of England” – and within a year of his death, King Henry VIII granted permission for the Bible to be printed in English and less than 100 years, the King of England not only allowed English translations of the Bible but actually commissioned one, the King James Version, which would be the main Bible for English speakers for over 300 years! In the 20th century, more English translations of the Bible would be made as people increasingly found the King James English to be foreign to the way we speak and scholars starting finding more manuscripts of the Bible that helped clarify wording in a few spots, leading to the great variety of English Bibles we have today.

It is important to note in the translation process that the translators are always going back to the original languages (Hebrew and Aramaic for the Old Testament and Greek for the New Testament) and the earliest manuscripts to make sure that we have the most accurate translations; they are not making translations of translations. At times, they might use an older translation as a starting point for a new translation (for example the English Standard Version used the Revised Standard Version [RSV] as its starting translation), but this is in an attempt to have continuity so that the verses sound similar to what we are used to; they are seeking to improve the translation so it makes more sense to us but recognize they are not starting from scratch. Since the English language is constantly changing, there is a need to do revisions and updates in the translation of the Bible to make sure that it still makes sense to us. Finally, it should be noted that the various translations that we have out there all use the same Greek and Hebrew readings as their guide for translations.

This discussion of the original languages might spark the question of whether you need to learn Greek and Hebrew to really understand the Bible. The way that I like to put it is that reading the Bible in English is like waiting a normal TV, while reading it in the original languages is like watching an HD TV. Let’s be honest, we didn’t need HD TVs to really watch our shows; they are nice, but I could follow the game or the show fine when it was in “normal” television. There might be some things that I notice on an HD TV though. Similarly, there are certain things that you might notice about a passage when you read it in the original language, which is why we have pastors learn the languages, but this knowledge is not NECESSARY for you to read and understand the Bible; an English translation is fine and reliable!

At times, people ask why there are some many translations of the Bible in English. When people ask me that, I try to point out a number of things. First and foremost, we should be thankful that there are any and that there are so many – many cultures do not even have one or only have one. If you only have one and it does not make sense to you, you don’t have another translation to consult – but when there are multiple translations (like in English), you can see another translation that might put the words in a way that makes more sense to you. Second, the reason that there are so many translations is that they have different audiences in mind and different approaches on how to render God’s Word into English. What I mean is that some Bible are designed for a lower reading level while others have a higher educated target audience. Some try to keep the sentence structure as close to the original as possible while others ask, “How would we say that same point in English” without concern for the same order or amount of words (if possible) in the original. All try to be faithful, but do so in different ways tied to the nature of translation. Finally, translation is always something of an art and not a science, as no two languages are exactly alike. For example, some languages have 3 words for a concept that another language might only have 1. Therefore, there will be different ways that we could express the idea of the original language in our language.

So, what is the best Bible translation? Faith Church uses the ESV (English Standard Version) in our worship services because we like the way it tries to balance the forms and structures of the original languages with the nuances of the English language. We want to have a single translation used in our services by our pastors, teachings, and worship leaders so we are all on the same page. That said, I would answer that the best Bible translation is the one that you will read. The only bad translation is the one you won’t read!

Hopefully this series has not just answered some questions you might have had about how we got our Bibles but has given you a greater awareness of the importance of God’s Word for your life. It is not enough to know how we got the Bible – we need to know the Bible. It is not enough to read these posts – we need to read the Word, as that will be what changes us. Thanks be to God for moving the writers to record His words for us, for leading people to collect these books together, to pass them along and make copies, and to translate them into our language today!

Questions related how we got the Bible or other theological issues? Contact Pastor Brian atTheology@faithchurchonline.org.

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