Scott Tibbs
blog post
May 14th, 2005
Back to Archived blog posts.
I occasionally hear people bring up the point that there are "several versions" of the Bible. Usually, this is an argument against the Bible.
It is true that there are several translations of the Bible into other languages. There are many translations into English. The New International Version is probably the most popular English translation today. My church uses the New American Standard Bible, and I prefer the King James Version for my own personal use.
While there are several translations of the Bible, the point of those translations is (or at least should be) to get as close to the original Greek and Hebrew as possible. Some translations do a better job of getting as close as possible close to the original texts than other translations.
Languages can be very different from each other. It is not possible to do a direct translation from the original Greek and Hebrew because grammatical rules are different language to language. (When I took German in college, I found it much easier to translate German into English than the other way around, because I am much more familiar with English grammar than with German grammar.) Nonetheless, people translating Scripture must be very careful to get as close to the original writings as possible.
I believe that the Bible, in the original manuscripts, is the inerrant, inspired Word of God. If the Bible is "edited for content" by people translating it, they bring God's wrath upon themselves.
For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book. -- Revelation 22:18-19