July 23, 2023 - Where Did We Get the Bible - Translations

Where did you get your Bible? Most people know where their Bible was purchased or who gave it to them, but very few know about the work that was done to preserve and translate their Bible. Pastor Ben Hightower shares with us the history of the Bible, the difference between the major translations, and why this should matter to us.

1. The original Bible
   1. The Bible was not written in English. The Old Testament was written in Hebrew. The New Testament was written in Greek. It was not written at the same time in a book. The individual books and letters of the Old Testament were complied over centuries. We use the books and letters that Jesus used. The New Testament was compiled by the early churches who took the various gospels and letters and worked really hard to figure out which were from God and which were just letters. I’ve taught about that process before and I’ll teach about it again, but not today.
   2. Here’s where the problem arrives. They didn’t write the letters and post them on the web for everyone to see. They were manually copied on papyrus which was cheap and easy to make, but doesn’t last forever. So, it was copied over and over. Sometimes those copiers made mistakes. Sometimes they added footnotes that the next person thought was part of the scripture. Sometimes people just changed things.
   3. Pope Damascus I wanted a reliable translation of the Bible in Latin, so gave a priest named Jerome the task of compiling the existing copies and translating them into Latin. What he created was called the Vulgate. The Catholic church used it for a long time and many still do.
   4. Vulgate actually means “common”. It was supposed to be accessible to the regular believer. Eventually, though, people stopped speaking Latin and what was once accessible was now completely inaccessible. The Catholic Church liked this so much because they could say that the Bible said whatever they wanted it to say. They manipulated and lied to the people using a translation that was named for a desire to give everyone access to it.
   5. The first English translation was created by a priest named John Wycliffe. It was a game changer because regular people could hear the Bible for themselves. It was too expensive to buy, but they could actually understand the reading in church. The Catholic Church condemned this, but 200 years later, the Protestant Reformation would begin leading to many more translations all the way up to what we have today with about a dozen major English translations and hundreds of translations in other languages.
2. Why are there so many translations?
   1. There are two major reasons why there are so many translations.
      
      1. The first is that there are more than 5000 greek manuscripts (copies of the original writings). The oldest one is a portion of the Gospel of John from around 100 AD. Those manuscripts are what we translate and there are small differences between them. Nothing major. They agree on 99.5% of the text, but there are small differences. Things get added or removed or misunderstood over time. These documents are all complied to validate each other and form a complete whole.
         
         1. Greek New Testaments - Texts
            
         2. A man named Erasmus created the first Greek & Hebrew text in one volume in the sixteenth century. Up until that point, everyone used the Vulgate or a translation of it. He compiled everything he could get his hands on and translated from Latin back to Greek for the portions he couldn’t get. This allowed people to translate on their own. This text is know as the Textus Receptus or Received Text. This is the text that the first widespread English translations were created from. The KJV comes from this text.
         3. For what it was, it was great. However, there were some problems.
            1. He allowed his own beliefs to influence his compilation. He wasn’t cutting and pasting. He was copying and he changed a bit here and there.
            2. He didn’t have access to the oldest texts. He was using what he could get his hands on. The Catholic church had most of this stuff locked up so that no one else could analyze and figure out how they were lying.
            3. He was one man. He didn’t have a group of people holding each other accountable. He did what he thought was best and everyone else had to rely on his opinion.
         4. Nestle-Aland (UBS) – Critical Text
            1. It wasn’t until 1898 that we got a major update and improvement on the Textus Receptus. A man named Eberhard Nestle worked with other scholars to complie a Greek new testament using older manuscripts that had been discovered since Erasmus had made the TR. His New Testament was updated by a man and his wife named Kurt & Barbara Aland made a major update in 1966. That gives us the text that is used for almost all major translations called the Nestle-Alland Greek New Testament. There are others, but this one is the one I used in Seminary and the primary text for all but a couple of major translations.
            2. Why is this one better?
               
               1. It used older texts. Ironically, the older Textus Receptus uses newer manuscripts. Also, Erasmus didn’t have Greek copies of everything. He had to back translate. Nestle & Alland had much older copies. They also had many more copies to compare.
                  
               2. Having older and more copies allowed them to be more critical. If something showed up in a newer text that wasn’t in an older text, they could leave it out. If there were manuscripts from one region that had something that others didn’t, they would research to determine which was original. This gave us what is known as the “Critical Text”. They didn’t just accept what the manuscripts said. They examined them. They examined the fragments. They worked incredibly hard to get it right. And they did. What they created was amazing. Almost every scholar agrees that they what they complied is 99.5% accurate compared to the originals and the differences that do exist make no difference in theology or doctrine. You should know their names because they did you a great service. And it wasn’t just a couple of old men. There was an old woman in there, too.
                  
               3. They were held to a much higher standard by other scholars. Instead of picking and choosing what they liked or didn’t like, they were held to account by other scholars that forced them to be objective.
                  
               4. It is reliable because it was done in the light and it constantly under review. As new discoveries are made, the text is updated.
                  
   2. The second major reason there are lot of translations is that no language translates perfectly. There are always differences in the exact meaning of words. Every translation of every document or conversation loses something in the translation. The Translator makes a choice with every translation.
      
      1. To protect the integrity of the translation, no major translations are translated alone. There are groups of scholars that argue about each word and phrase. They must come to a consensus before they can move forward.
         
      2. The choice is “Do I translate this word for word or thought for thought”.
         
         1. Word for Word (Literal) – Taking each word and translating it into a corresponding word or phrase literally.
      3. Word for word sounds like the obvious choice, but it’s not that simple. For one thing, different languages have different structures. The use the words differently. They might add gender or number to the word through a prefix or suffix or they might use a separate word.
      4. Let me give you some examples from an exactly literal translation called the Youngs Literal Translations.
      5. Examples from YLT
         1. John 3:16 for God did so love the world, that His Son -- the only begotten -- He gave, that every one who is believing in him may not perish, but may have life age-during.
         2. Mark 6: 4 And Jesus said to them -- `A prophet is not without honor, except in his own country, and among his kindred, and in his own house’; 5 and he was not able there any mighty work to do, except on a few infirm people having put hands he did heal;
      6. The other problem with a literal translation is idioms. Take the phrase “Hit the Hay”. What does that mean? It means go to bed or go to sleep. But, what does it literally mean? It means “punch the dead grass”.
      7. If you are trying to be faithful to the word of God, do you say what the author literally said even though you know that it will be misunderstood or do you translate what the author meant knowing that you’re changing what he said?
         
   3. Thought for Thought (Dynamic Equivalence)
      1. Translators all want to be faithful to translate the word of God, but they all have to use some Dynamic Equivalence. That is a “thought for thought” translation instead of a “word for word” translation and they decide to do different things based on what the group of translators decides.
         1. 2 Timothy 2:5
            1. ESV - An athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules.
            2. NLT - And athletes cannot win the prize unless they follow the rules.
         2. Job 27:7
            1. ESV - “Let my enemy be as the wicked, and let him who rises up against me be as the unrighteous.”
            2. NLT - “May my enemy be punished like the wicked, my adversary like those who do evil.”
         3. Which one of these is most accurate? That depends. Do you mean literally translated word or best communicated thoughts? When we talk about differences in translations, we’re not talking about theology, we’re talking about different approaches to faithfully interpreting the word of God.
   4. If this make you nervous, the best way to figure out exactly what God is trying to tell you is to use multiple translations so that you can zero in on exactly what He’s saying. But, look at these differences. Do they matter? Is God unable to overcome the differences in language? I want to comfort you, not panic you.
   5. If you’ve got a question, go to BibleHub.com and put in the verse. It will list every major translation. You can read each one and they’ll be different. But, they’ll also be the same. The differences are not changes or misunderstandings. They’re an attempt to communicate using the philosophy that the translator has been led to by God.
3. Which translations do I recommend?
   1. You can pick up almost any major translation and you’ll be fine. However, I do have some that I prefer over others.
      
   2. ESV – I preach out of the ESV. It’s an incredibly reliable translation. It leans toward literalism, but also makes good choices when it comes to dynamic equivalence. It was finished in 2001, so it uses the best manuscripts available to us. If you’ve been studying the Bible for a while and are comfortable doing your own interpreting, it’s the best choice in my opinion.
      
   3. NLT – I use the NLT with new believers and kids. Not because it’s childish, but because it’s easy to read and makes really good choices with the translations. It leans more though-for-thought, but that’s a good thing if you’re new to this or not a scholar. It’s a really great choice and I’m constantly debating about whether I should switch to preaching out of the NLT.
      
   4. HCSB/CSB – The HCSB was translated by the Southern Baptist Convention’s publishing group. They made some cool choices. I really like that they went out of their way to be faithful in the Old Testament.
      1. Rabbi’s began to believe that saying Yahweh (the name of God that He told Moses to use) was sinful. So, they stopped saying it. Then, they stopped writing it. Instead, they would write “Adonai”, which means Lord. English translators made the same choice. If you see the word “Lord” in all caps in the Old Testament, the word is Yahweh, not Lord.
      2. The name Yahweh is used 6519 times in the Hebrew Bible. The KJV used the name four times and Lord the rest.
      3. The HCSB made the choice to use Yahweh almost every time. People didn’t like that, so it is no longer in print. They updated it to the CSV. It’s a good translation, but it lost what I like the most about. You can still use it online or find out of print copies.
         
   5. NASB
      1. The NASB is called the “most literal Bible”. It’s not, but it’s the most literal usable Bible. It’s harder to use, but for you hard core people, check it out.
4. Which not to use?
   1. NRSV – This is an update to the old RSV. It’s translated with a lot of politics in mind. They changed a lot to be politically correct.
   2. Message* - I’ve got an asterisk next to this one. There is nothing wrong with the Message. It’s really interesting and a good read. The problem is that it is not a translation. It’s a paraphrase. Eugene Peterson took the Bible and rewrote it for modern audiences. It could be really helpful to you, but it’s not a translation. He didn’t intend it to be used as a translation. But, it will show up on your apps. I just want you to be aware of it.
5. Why not the KJV?
   1. Many of you have a KJV, but it’s not on my list of translations that I recommend. There are reasons for that.
   2. Why was it created?
      
      1. There were two major English translations in the late 1500s. The Geneva Bible and the Bishop’s Bible. The Geneva Bible came out of the protestant reformation and was mass produced. It was the first Bible that the average person could have access to because the invention of the Printing Press made it cheap enough.
         
      2. Queen Elizabeth I of England didn’t like the Geneva Bible because it was created by people who were a little too protestant. So, she had the Bishop’s Bible Translated and required that it be used in all Church of England churches. That led to a similar situation to what we have today. The Bishops were preaching from one translation and the regular people were using a different one. They weren’t that different, but they were different enough that people started to realize that they could figure things out for themselves without the spin that the Church of England put on things. This was a threat to the power of the Church of England and the authority of the government of England.
         
      3. King James I came up with a solution to protect his power as the king and head of the church of England. A new Bible that would be a blend of the Geneva Bible and the Bishops Bible with a political slant that would support the beliefs of the church of England.
         
   3. Lots of people will tell you that it was the first or the best. Neither of those things are true. It was commissioned by a cross-dressing King who had political motives. That doesn’t mean that it’s not the word of God, it just means that it’s not superior.
      
      1. It uses the Textus Receptus. The TR is less accurate because of the reasons mentioned earlier. You can see some of the differences just by reading your KJV.
         
      2. It includes verses and word that are not in oldest manuscripts. If you listen to KJV onlyists, you’ll hear them talk about missing verses and deleted words in the modern translations that were removed to manipulate you into heresy.
         1. First, read the verses they talk about them. None are life changing. If you’re going to change stuff to manipulate people, you should try harder.
         2. Second, they’ve got it backwards. The KJV uses the TR which had verses that the older manuscripts don’t. Those missing verses weren’t removed from the Bible. They were added to the manuscripts later.
   4. Why is the KJV so popular?
      
      1. It was what the English settlers had. When King James made it the official version of England, that’s what became popular. Some still had their Geneva bibles, but you buy what’s available. They brought them with them. America was a collection of English colonies. They used the official government Bible in the official churches.
         
      2. But, then comes the American revolution. You know about the war and tea and George Washington, but one of the other things that happened was that there was no longer a reason for book publishers to pay royalties to the King of England. They could print it for free. The new government wanted to keep good relations with other countries, so they enforced copyrights on other books, but they weren’t about to send money to England.
         
      3. Which do you think the publishers wanted to print? The one that cost them money or the one that was free to print? Printers started churning out KJVs both to stick it to England and to make more money. When regular people went to buy a Bible, they chose the cheaper one. Thus, it becomes the best selling book in history. And we still don’t honor the copyright.
         
   5. People keep using it for four reasons.
      1. It’s still cheaper. A Bible costs a lot of money, but you can get a KJV for a dollar at Dollar General.
      2. It was written at the time of Shakespeare and sounds “like the Bible”. It’s what people think of when think of the Bible.
      3. It’s what they’ve always used.
      4. People who don’t understand the history have decided that it’s either the best translation or the first translation.
   6. What are the problems with the KJV?
      
      1. It uses a less accurate text.
         
      2. It’s hard to read because it is written in language you don’t use. You wouldn’t use a car from the 30s as your daily driver. Why would you use a 400 year old Bible?
         
      3. People have made such a thing about it that I don’t want to use it. I don’t want to offer validity to liars who say that it’s the preserved word of God in English. As if God decided He was going to choose a cross-dressing unbeliever who openly manipulated the translation for his own purposes as the agent of his preservation. I don’t want to make you think I support that nonsense by using it.
6. Which translation should I use?
   1. The one you will read. We can argue about texts and manuscripts and translation philosophies, but none of that should matter to the regular follower of Jesus. Those are arguments that are valid and should be had by scholars. But, you shouldn’t worry about any more than I worry about what code David uses to make the Walmart app work. The modern translations are all reliable. Some are better than others, but if you’ll pick it up and use it, do it. If you grew up with the KJV and learned all of those extra words, go for it. Pay attention to the notes in you Bible so you know when you’re reading something that wasn’t in the original. Just pick it up
   2. We are the most privileged people in the history of the world when it comes to the Bible. No one else has had the access to the variety of translations, study tools, or free access to those things that we have had. What would believers throughout history have given for what you forget to read?
   3. You need the Word of God
      
      1. Joshua 1:8 This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.
         
      2. Matthew 4: 4 But he answered, “It is written, “‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”
         
      3. Romans 15: 4 For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.
7. God gave you these words so that you might know Him better.
8. What Should I Do?
   1. Use a physical Bible
      
      1. To help you focus. Your phone is a great tool, but if you’re like me, you’ll get a text or notification as soon as you get in the zone. Put the phone away and pick up a physical book.
         
      2. To lead your family and friends. I saw a video the other day where someone talked about reading their Bible on their phone. They realized that they knew that they were reading the Bible, but no one else did. His wife didn’t. His kids didn’t. They just thought he was ignoring them and looking at his phone. He decided that from then on, he would teach his kids by example that they should get to know God through reading the Bible and he would make it clear by reading a physical Bible.
   2. Find a Plan
      
      1. There are countless plans out there to help you read the Bible. You should read the Bible and you should read it with a plan. Don’t just open to a random spot or reread your favorite verses. Get a plan and get to know God.