Lecture

I just found a lecture from Ben Witherington (Renowned NT professor at Asbury Seminary in Kentucky) talking about our topic for this week - choosing a translation. Take a look - good information.

http://media.asburyseminary.edu/flash/courses/nt520/choosingtranslations.php

What’s With All the Translations…

Sorry with the delay in the posting…..course load is heavy this quarter.

Last time we talked about how the Bible came about and how it was assembled by the early church. This week, let’s look at a common question……why are there so many translations?

Walk into any bookstore and you will find a multitude of bibles on the shelf. Life Application bibles, Youth bibles, devotional bibles, study bibles, study bibles that applies to the devotional life of youth bibles…….you get the picture. These are merely different versions of scripture that publishers promote to try to capture a particular corner of the market. Many of these bibles have comments within the text that help the reader understand what is going on. For example, the NIV Study Bible gives many good comments as to what the particular text is saying. Whereas, the Archaelogical Study Bible gives many comments on the archaelogical evidence that has been discovered regarding to specific passages in scripture. Regardless, these are simply different bibles that help the user read the bible through a particular lens.

What I want to talk about today is different translations of scripture. If you look on the side of your bible you will find letters like these…..NIV, TNIV, KJV, NKJV, RSV, NRSV, NCE, AMP, NASB, NLT, The Message, and so on…………………What are these and why are there so many?

To understand this……….let’s go back to the beginning.

The bible was originally written in three different languages: Hebrew (the vast majority of the Old Testament), Aramaic (a sister language to Hebrew used in ½ of Daniel and two passages in Ezra), and Greek (all of the New Testament). Now most people do not know all three of these languages, therefore, they must be translated into languages we do know. Jewish scholars first did this in the 3^rd century BC by translating the Torah (1^st 5 books of the OT) into Greek. Later the entire Hebrew Bible was translated into Greek, called the Septuagint. The Vulgate is a 5^th century translation of the bible into Latin. This has progressed throughout history giving us a total of over 2,400 languages in which the bible has been translated.

Fortunately for us, the bible has been translated into English so that we too may read God’s word. However, not every translation is the same. Part of the work of the translator is to interpret what the original text was saying and conveying that into English. Take 1 Corinthians 7:36 for example:

NIV translates this as

- If anyone thinks he is acting improperly toward the virgin he is engaged to, and if she is getting along in years and he feels he ought to marry, he should do as he wants. He is not sinning. They should get married.

NAS translates it as

- But if any man thinks that he is acting unbecomingly toward his virgin daughter, if she is past her youth, and if it must be so, let him do what he wishes, he does not sin; let her marry

KJV says

- But if any man think that he behaveth himself uncomely toward his virgin, if she pass the flower of her age, and need so require, let him do what he will, he sinneth not: let them marry

NLT says

- “But if a man thinks he ought to marry his fiance because he has trouble controlling his passions and time is passing, it is all right; it is not a sin. Let them marry

RSV

- If any one thinks that he is not behaving properly toward his betrothed, if his passions are strong, and it has to be, let him do as he wishes: let them marry--it is no sin.

As you can see, the translators of these different bibles have interpreted this verse in different ways and used different wording to convey that meaning into English. This is because translators have a decision to make in how they are going to translate the words. The translator must ask himself or herself, “Am I going to stick exactly word for word with the original text and simply repeat what it says? Or am I going to capture the meaning of what the original language was trying to say?” Leaning too far on either end of the spectrum can leave the bible difficult to read or implying meanings that were never meant to be implied.

For example, if we were to translate John 3:16 just as it appears in the Greek it would read as follows:

“For thus loved God the world, that the Son, the Unique One, he gave, that everyone believing in Him may not perish but have life eternal.”

At the other end of the spectrum, The Message translates it as:

“This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life.”

As you can see, there is a lot of work and technique that is involved when translating the bible into a specific language. From my standpoint, the best translation remains as faithful as possible to both the literal and the meaning.

Popular Literal Translations
KJV, NKJV, NASB, NASU, RSV

Popular Translations that convey meaning
NLT, GNB, Living Bible, The Message

There are some that have found a balance between both of these, they include:
NRSV, NIV

So when you see all of the different translations on the bookstore shelf, what you are seeing is the attempt of the translators to give you insight into the literal form of the text as well as the meaning behind the text.

Why do you need to know this? Because in selecting a bible translation to study, one needs to be aware of the methods that the translator used in creating the translation. Based on this, your understanding of a particular passage may change. Thousands of times in the Old Testament the King James translators followed the Hebrew word order so strictly that is does not produce an easily understandable English version. Other differences you will find is the ways weights, money, and measures are used. Are the original words used for are the modern equivalents used. Another difference, which has made the news lately, is conveying gender within scripture. For example, in the King James Genesis 1:27 reads, “So God created man in his own image…”. But in the TNIV is says, “So God created human beings in his own image….”. The purpose of this is to avoid excluding women from passages that are spoken to or about people in general.

Another factor in considering a translation is the question, what sources were used in the creation of the version. As we all know, we do not have the original letter that Paul wrote to the Galatians nor do we have the original Gospel that Matthew wrote………….in fact we do not have the originals of any part of the bible. All we have are copies of the originals. In ancient days, scribes would sit down and copy (by hand) a particular letter, Gospel, etc. These copies are called manuscripts. This continued all the way up to the invention of the printing press. So whenever someone needed a copy of the scripture, it was done by hand. Some of these copies are very old and some are more modern. However, problems with this method did exist. Sometimes scribes would make a mistake with a letter or a word, then that mistake would be copied over and over and over again. Sometimes scribes would take the liberty of adding text to the original. Take a moment to open up your bible to the ending of the Gospel of Mark. If you have some type of study bible, you will see a note that states something to the effect that Mark 16:9-19 are probably not part of the original text that Mark wrote. More than likely this is because some scribe and some point in time decided he wanted to add to what Mark said, he thought this sounded better. Therefore, when it was copied and copied and copied and copied, eventually it worked it’s way into the scriptures.

The way to combat this is through a process called textual criticism. Textual criticism looks at all of the copies that we have and tries to determine what the actual text said. Today we have over 5,000 of these copies (either whole or partial) of the New Testament alone. No two of them are exactly alike. So through textual criticism, scholars sift through all of these copies to find what the majority of them say……this becomes the text that is used. The versions that are different become the variant reading of the text. If you look through your bible you will probably notice certain words that have a note at the bottom of the page that says something like “Other ancient authorities read…….”. This is the variant reading.

A direct impact of this comes in the King James. The King James Version was published in 1611 and the only Greek Manuscripts available at the time were late copies that had accumulated the mistakes of 1,000 years of copying. Other, modern translations, have utilized older manuscripts that have been discovered since 1611. Therefore, the Greek that is used in the modern translations is, arguably, better than that of older versions.

So how do you choose a translation? First and foremost, you need to decide what this bible is going to be used for. If it is going to be used for daily devotions, casual reading, or any of the such…….I suggest that you choose the version that you are most comfortable with. If you grew up with the King James, then by all means, buy a King James. I did not grow up using that version, so the “thou’s” and “thee’s” are difficult for me to get by. If you are more comfortable with a modern translation, then buy a modern translation. A good recommendation for this would be the NIV Quest Study Bible.

If you are purchasing this bible to be one of your sources for exegetical study of scripture, then your focus is on how the scripture was translated. The New Revised Standard or New American Standard are great choices for this. The NIV is acceptable for exegetical study, although it would not be my first choice. Whichever you choose as your primary text, make sure you do not exclude other versions for further insight. For example, I use the New Revised Standard for my in-depth study and then change that over to NIV for Sermons (simply because 90% of the people in the pews are using the NIV – and I want to connect with them. If there is a word that I do not like how the NIV translates it…..you will hear me point that out). However, there are times when a different translation may give you more insight into a word or phrase that your primary translation does not give.

This is probably more information that you wanted to know but I think it is important to understand what you are reading and how it was developed.

Next Week ….. We will be looking at The Types of Literature in Scripture.

In His Grip

Kevin

Why?

Why?

Each week preachers fill the pulpits of churches around this country and proclaim truth out of one source, God’s Word. Everyday we are told that we need to get into this book and read it, understand it, allow it to fill our lives. We are told that God’s Word is like an All You Can Eat Buffet, never ceasing to fill us up for eternity.

But many people today say, “Well if the Bible is so great, then why are more people not reading it?” Good Question. Here are some responses that I have heard.

3. “It’s Old and Boring” – Many people say the bible is not relevant to my life today but that’s simply not true. Yes, the Bible was written many years ago and in a different culture than what we live in but it continues to have profound impacts on people’s lives today.

2. “I Forget To Read It” – These people get fired up at church on Sunday morning about the Bible, but by the time Monday rolls around, they are occupied with other things. The Bible gets lost in the shuffle.

1. “I Don’t Understand It” – Many, many, many people do not read the bible because they feel they do not understand it. This happens for a number of reasons. Maybe they start reading in the wrong place. Starting in Genesis 1 is great until you get to this person beget this person….this person beget this person….this person beget this person…..on and on and on. Before long you are lost. Other people want to start in Revelation. Starting in Revelation is like a first grader trying to do calculus. You have to know that 2+2=4 before you can move to the next level. Others pick up a bible for the first time and use a translation that is difficult to read.

This is where I want this blog to go. How do I understand what I am reading? Where did it come from? What’s the difference between an Epistle and a Gospel? Why are there so many translations? What about other books that I see on TV but are not in the Bible? How do I understand a passage more in-depth?

These are all topics that we will get to but today we will look at, Where did the Bible come from?

So where did the Bible come from? Did God do a flyby and just drop it down out of the sky? Did God sit down at his big oak desk with scrolls and a quill and begin churning out page after page of text? Did people on Earth just have a great idea and claim it was from God (Some Cable Networks want you to think this). In fact, we believe that the Bible is the inspired word of God. Inspired means God-Breathed. God-Breathed the words of the Bible into his human authors. Yes, there were human authors but the words that were written were the very words of God. Just like a sailboat catches the wind that carries it along the water, the sails of humans caught the words of God in their hearts and minds and recorded them on the paper, which we know as the Bible.

Now I need to further clarify the word inspired. There are many different theories of inspiration today:

- Intuition – this is the thought that the inspired word of God is like a gift given to an individual. Like an artist has a gift, or natural ability, to paint beautiful scenes…. this theory states that the authors of scripture had a natural ability to write these words on paper. The problem with this theory is that the authors of Scripture are then no different than great philosophical thinkers such as Plato and Buddha. There is more to it than that. God is in it…not just man.

- Dynamic – the dynamic theory emphasizes the combination of divine and human elements in the process of inspiration and the writing of the Bible. The Spirit of God works by directing the writer to the thoughts or concepts, and allowing the writer’s own distinctive personality to come into play in the choice of words and expressions. The writer is then expressing a divinely inspired thought in his own words.

- Verbal – the verbal theory insists that the Holy Spirit’s influence extends beyond the direction of thoughts to the selection of words used to convey the message. The work of the Holy Spirit is so intense that each word is the exact word God wants used at that point to express the message. (This is the View We Hold)

- Dictation – the last theory of inspiration is dictation or that God actually dictated the Scriptures to the authors. Passages where the Spirit is depicted as telling the author precisely what to write are regarded as applying to the entire Bible. Think of the author being in some kind of dazed trance just writing out the words God has told him. It wasn’t like John said, “Okay. Now let’s do Chapter 3 verse 16. ‘For’ – Okay, got it. What’s next? – ‘God’ – God it. Next? - ‘so – Got it. – ‘loved’ – Got it. – ‘the’ – Next? – ‘world’ – this is Great stuff God!” The authors of Scripture were more than administrative assistants to God.

The Verbal theory of inspiration is where I stand. While I believe that each word contained from Genesis 1 to Revelation 22 is the exact inerrant words that God wanted used at that time we can also see the different styles of writing coming out of each of the authors of scripture.

Now there is no doubt, you have heard of other writings that are not included in the Bible. You have probably seen these big television productions about the discovery of The Gospel of Judas, The Gospel of Mary, and others. In fact there are hundreds of other writings from various time periods that are not in the Bible. Maybe you are asking why are those not in the Bible and why are the ones we have in there? This is called Canonization.

Canonization is the word that used to describe the process of how the church went through all of these writings and decided what were the individual books of Scripture were and which were not. The word “canon” actually means “measuring rod”. So the canon of Scripture is the collection of books that measured up. Now in the process of canonization there were 4 categories that religious writings were placed:

1. Homolegomena – One Word – These were the books that everyone accepted as being the word o God.

2. Antilegomena – These were the books that were initially spoken against. People said, We are not sure about this one. Should it really be in the Bible? These were, Song of Solomon, Ecclesiastes, Esther, Proverbs, Ezekiel, Hebrews 2 Peter, 2 and 3 John, Jude, and Revelation. Most of the doubts centered on authorship but eventually were recognized as sacred Scripture.

3. The third category of writings you have probably heard of, called the apocryphal books. Apocrypha means “hidden” or “hard to understand”. These were also in the pile of books that were examined and measured against God’s authorship. There are 14-15 of these books and a battle exists to this day with the Catholic church as to whether or not these should be recognized. These books, which do not always agree with the canonized books, are used in Catholic bibles and substantiate their teachings on purgatory, prayers to the dead, and others. While we can gain some historical insight to different time periods, these should not be considered books that God wrote.

4. Finally, there is pseudepigrapha which were writings clearly define as not being Gods word without argument. These included stories of Jesus as a little boy doing tricks for his friends, just to give an example.

God wrote a Book. The Holy Spirit communicated the words. Men wrote them down. The early church pulled them all together. This is the book that we should be reading, studying, memorizing, and guiding our lives. If you allow God to work, this book will transform your life.

In His Grip

Kevin