{"id":9505,"date":"2018-08-28T04:14:01","date_gmt":"2018-08-28T11:14:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/realfaith.com\/uncategorized\/different-translations-scripture\/"},"modified":"2023-10-01T10:28:53","modified_gmt":"2023-10-01T17:28:53","slug":"different-translations-scripture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/realfaith.com\/what-christians-believe\/different-translations-scripture\/","title":{"rendered":"Why are there different translations of Scripture?","gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"rendered","format":"text"}]},"content":{"rendered":"
For centuries the Eastern church had the Bible only in Greek. The Western church had the Bible only in Latin. Since most people were not fluent in these languages, they were unable to read the Bible themselves. One of the great developments of the Protestant Reformation was to return the Bible to the people of the church.<\/p>\n
The Reformers wanted the people to have the Bible in their own language. Martin Luther and John Wycliffe are just two of the men who risked their lives to translate the Bible into German and English. William Tyndale was charged with heresy and condemned to death because he translated the Bible into English. According to Foxe\u2019s Book of Martyrs, he \u201cwas tied to the stake, strangled by the hangman, and afterwards consumed with fire,\u201d simply because he wanted people to be able to read the Bible.1<\/p>\n
Today many translations of the Bible are available. At least part of the Bible has been translated into at least 2,454 languages, at least one of the two Testaments exists in at least 1,168 languages, and the full Bible is available in at least 438 languages.2 The amount of money and effort that has been invested in translating God\u2019s Word is simply amazing. Subsequently, every time we pick up a copy of the Bible in our own language we should have a deep sense of awe and gratitude.<\/p>\n
During the past four centuries there have been hundreds of English Bible translations, and dozens are actively used today. They fall into three major categories.<\/p>\n
Word-for-word translations have advantages for studying because of their closeness to the original, though they sometimes become a bit stilted stylistically because the biblical languages use different patterns of gram- mar and expression from English. Arguably the best contemporary word-for-word translation is the English Standard Version (ESV). The King James Version (KJV) is also a word-for-word translation, and remains the best-selling English translation. It sounds very reverent to many people, but it is difficult for some people to read because it uses old English. Other good word-for-word translations in modern English include the New King James Version (NKJV) and the New American Standard Bible (NASB).<\/p>\n
A favorite thought-for-thought modern English translation, the New International Version\u00a0(NIV),\u00a0 is\u00a0 also\u00a0the\u00a0 most\u00a0 popular.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Others include the New Living Translation (NLT) and the Contemporary English Version (CEV).<\/p>\n
All faithful translations try to achieve a balance of four elements:<\/p>\n
While some translations are better than others, it is important to note that translations have various strengths and weaknesses and that the student of Scripture benefits from enjoying multiple translations. Furthermore, rather than fighting over translations, Christians should praise God for every good translation and trust God the Holy Spirit to use them to transform our lives as we enjoy them.<\/p>\n
Nonetheless, it is preferable to use the English Standard Version or another good word-for-word translation as your primary study tool, while also using other translations as secondary resources for your studies. The English Standard Version is perhaps the best version for accurate Bible reading, studying, teaching, and preaching. Noted theologian and ESV general editor J. I. Packer reflected, \u201cI find myself suspecting very strongly that my work on the translation of the ESV Bible was the most important thing that I have done for the Kingdom, and that the product of our labors is perhaps the biggest milestone in Bible translation in the past fifty years or more.\u201d4<\/p>\n
Lastly, while Christians should enjoy multiple good translations, they must be careful of corruptions. Corruptions are \u201ctranslations\u201d of Scripture that clearly seek to undermine the very teaching of Scripture. These translations are very poor and should not be used as credible translations for study. These include the Jehovah\u2019s Witness translation called the New World Translation, which was written in large part to eliminate the deity of Jesus Christ. This is in no way a translation but rather a terrible corruption of Scripture deceptively masquerading as God\u2019s Word.<\/p>\n
Do you have a nice copy of a good Bible translation? <\/em><\/p>\n For centuries the Eastern church had the Bible only in Greek. The Western church had the Bible only in Latin. Since most people were not fluent in these languages, they were unable to read the Bible themselves. One of the great developments of the Protestant Reformation was to return the Bible to the people of … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false,"gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"rendered","format":"html"}]},"author":6,"featured_media":12,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tpgb_global_settings":"","_eb_attr":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"13885,17735,18075,17286,17881,16214","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[305],"tags":[],"ministries":[404,196,197],"topics":[211],"series":[],"tpgb_featured_images":{"full":["https:\/\/realfaith.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/RealFaith-MD.jpg",350,314,false],"tp-image-grid":["https:\/\/realfaith.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/RealFaith-MD.jpg",350,314,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/realfaith.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/RealFaith-MD-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/realfaith.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/RealFaith-MD-300x269.jpg",300,269,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/realfaith.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/RealFaith-MD.jpg",350,314,false],"large":["https:\/\/realfaith.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/RealFaith-MD.jpg",350,314,false],"default":"https:\/\/realfaith.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/the-plus-addons-for-block-editor\/assets\/images\/tpgb-placeholder.jpg"},"tpgb_post_meta_info":{"get_date":"August 28, 2018","category_list":{"category":[{"term_id":305,"name":"Christian Beliefs","slug":"what-christians-believe","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":305,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":143,"filter":"raw"}],"post_tag":false,"post_format":false,"ministries":[{"term_id":404,"name":"Real Classes","slug":"real-classes","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":404,"taxonomy":"ministries","description":"","parent":0,"count":63,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":196,"name":"Real Men","slug":"real-men","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":196,"taxonomy":"ministries","description":"","parent":0,"count":677,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":197,"name":"Real Parenting","slug":"real-parenting","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":197,"taxonomy":"ministries","description":"","parent":0,"count":256,"filter":"raw"}],"topics":[{"term_id":211,"name":"Bible","slug":"bible","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":211,"taxonomy":"topics","description":"","parent":0,"count":195,"filter":"raw"}],"series":false},"author_name":"Mark Driscoll","author_url":"https:\/\/realfaith.com\/author\/pastormark\/","author_email":"hello@realfaith.com","author_website":"https:\/\/realfaith.com","author_description":"It's all about Jesus! Read More<\/a>","author_facebook":"","author_twitter":"","author_instagram":"","author_role":["administrator"],"author_firstname":"Mark","author_lastname":"Driscoll","user_login":"pastormark","author_avatar":"","author_avatar_url":"https:\/\/realfaith.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/mark-driscoll-96x96.webp","comment_count":0,"post_likes":0,"post_views":0},"tpgb_post_category":{"category":"Christian Beliefs<\/a> ","ministries":"Real Classes<\/a> Real Men<\/a> Real Parenting<\/a> ","topics":"Bible<\/a> "},"gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"link","format":"url"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/realfaith.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9505"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/realfaith.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/realfaith.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/realfaith.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/realfaith.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9505"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/realfaith.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9505\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40994,"href":"https:\/\/realfaith.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9505\/revisions\/40994"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/realfaith.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/realfaith.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9505"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/realfaith.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9505"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/realfaith.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9505"},{"taxonomy":"ministries","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/realfaith.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ministries?post=9505"},{"taxonomy":"topics","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/realfaith.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/topics?post=9505"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/realfaith.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/series?post=9505"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}1John Foxe, Foxe\u2019s Book of Martyrs (Charleston, SC: Forgotten Books, 2007), 234.<\/h6>\n
2United Bible Society, \u201cStatistical Summary of Languages with the Scriptures,\u201d 2008, http:\/\/www.ubs- translations.org\/about_us\/#c165.<\/h6>\n
3The Standard Bible Society, \u201cTranslation Philosophy,\u201d 2009, http:\/\/www.esv.org\/translation\/philosophy.<\/h6>\n
4Crossway, \u201cThe ESV Bible Reaches Five-Year Milestone,\u201d September 26, 2006, http:\/\/www.crossway. org\/page\/news.2006.09.26.<\/h6>\n","protected":false,"gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"rendered","format":"html"}]},"excerpt":{"rendered":"