All About Bible Translations

The Bible we know today is a compilation of many different texts. Most of these were originally written in Hebrew or Greek, which isn't very helpful for English speakers like myself. So, in order for us to read the Bible, someone else must first translate it into a language we can understand.

Yet, as useful as these translations are, they also raise a lot of questions. Why are there so many translations? Which one is best? And why would God's divine Word even need to be translated?

Hopefully this page can provide some answers - or failing that, some food for thought on this subject.

If you're hoping for a simple answer, I'm afraid that there isn't going to be one. Every Bible translation has its own unique history and origin. Sometimes a new translation is just a revision of another, older translation. Other times people have created translations so that new archeological discoveries are taken into account. And occasionally, new translations are designed to bring the Scriptures to a new audience (such as special Bibles written for children).

If there's a translation you'd like to know more about, search for it on Wikipedia or Bible Gateway. These websites usually have detailed information about a translation, or links to where to find it online. Alternatively, if you have a physical copy, check for an introduction or foreword section.

On a similar note, while the vast majority of Bibles are created with the intention of bringing God's Word to more people, a small handful of translations were, I'm sorry to say, created to service an agenda. These adulterated versions of the Bible are generally easy to spot, as their content often contradicts better known translations or they word things in strange ways that doesn't sound like normal English.

In all honesty, the best translation is the one you're most comfortable with using. Everyone has their own preferences, just like how every translation has its own strengths and weaknesses. If you don't like formal language, try a less formal translation, and vice versa. Most of the popular and well known translations are available for everyone to read online for free, so you don't need to commit yourself to anything.

That said, I've heard it argued that everyone should use one translation for daily reading and up to three translations for serious study. This seems like overkill to me, as I only know of a few verses where the exact wording of a verse is important. Any translation that's worth its salt will have already handled these verses carefully, so any decent translation should be enough.

As for myself, I like to use the NIV and WEB translations. The latter is very easy to read, while the former is the one I used at the Christian school I attended back in the day.

There's nothing wrong with preferring one translation over another - after all, everyone has different tastes. The only exception to this comes when we're talking about Bibles that were created to push agendas. There aren't many of these out there, but since they twist God's Word, they are always spiritually dangerous and should be avoided. On the plus side, most Christian groups want nothing to do with these poisonous translations - you'll typically only find them by talking with the group that uses them.

Because these agenda-driven translations are so rare, you can use any search engine to check if a translation is "safe" or not. A good translation will appear all over the internet, and there will be plenty of websites offering copies of it for online reading. On the other hand, if a translation was made for questionable reasons, searching for it usually only brings up results hosted by the specific church that uses it or articles that harshly criticize it.

In other words, the fewer people who use a translation, the more likely it is that something is very wrong about it. Be especially wary of any group that insists on using their own "approved" or "corrected" Bible translation - bad things tend to follow!

Since there are so many translations out there, it looks like making a new translation is something anybody can do - as if all you needed was a copy of the original manuscripts, a working knowledge of the languages they were written in, and enough free time to translate some 30,000 verses into a new language. However, it turns out that this isn't quite so simple.

The first, and possibly biggest, issue is that there isn't a original copy to work from. Writing materials, like paper, vellum, and parchment, are pretty brittle, and after several centuries, most written works have worn away to nothing. Thankfully, people made copies, so even though many of the copies are just tattered fragments, there are enough of them that we can recreate the original works. This is an enormous task, often requiring years of work, so many translators stick to already existing compilations rather than make their own. As an example, many modern translations base their Old Testament on the Masoretic Text, an authoritative copy of the Hebrew Scriptures that can be traced back as far as the 7th century AD. We do have a complete copy of this text, known as the Leningrad Codex. Another popular source is the Textus Receptus, which was used as the basis for Luther's Bible and the original King James Version.

After the source material has been compiled, translators need to prepare a "style guide" of sorts. This is especially true for translations that are made using a large team of translators, as there are many different ways to translate a text and everyone involved needs to use the same method. These different methods are also why different translations have their own style - some translators attempt to translate things word for word, while others prefer to work thought for thought.

Once these two issues have been resolved, the actual translation work can begin. Depending on the number of people working on the project and the additional features included, this can take a very long time - some translations are the result of more than twenty years of effort!

Indeed there is! A special type of Bible, known as an "interlinear Bible", is a Bible that provides the source text alongside its translation. Many interlinear Bibles also include a lexicon, or specialized dictionary, of important words found in the original text. These are particularly useful for finding other verses that use the same words, as this can help you understand how things were translated.

Like other Bibles, interlinear Bibles can also be found online. My personal favorite is the one over at Bible Study Tools.com, which is an interlinear edition of the King James Version. For an example of how these can be used, follow that link and compare the sources for John 8:58 with Exodus 3:14. These are two of the rare verses where the exact wording is considered important, and you'll see why when you compare them here.

Interlinear Bibles can also serve another purpose - they can expose fraudulent translations. By making it possible for people to see the original, untranslated version of a verse, they can showcase situations where translators weren't faithful to the text. In fact, this is why I suggested comparing John 8:58 and Exodus 3:14 - it's plain from the original text that these verses are related, but there are groups out there who have altered their English Bibles to remove this important link. Some of these groups also provide their own interlinear Bibles, but since their interlinear Bibles contain only the New Testament, there's no "approved" way for their members to look up the original source for the verse in Exodus, and therefore no way to them to catch that the verses have been altered.

I'll say it again, as it bears repeating: Be very wary of any group who tries to hide Scripture or claims there is some "secret" knowledge that only their members possess! Christianity is literally an open book!

At first glance, it may seem like I've already answered this question with this page's opening paragraph: the Bible wasn't written in English, so someone has to translate it. But, I don't think this addresses what the question is really asking: Why would an omnipotent and omniscient choose such a fragile and limited method of communication if He wanted everyone to understand what He has to say?

There are only two possible answers here: either our God is incapable of something, or He felt that human languages were good enough for the job. The former, by definition, should be impossible. At the same time, many people struggle to understand the Scriptures and even experts are divided over what God's Word says on different topics, so it's clear that human languages are far from perfect.

Personally, I suspect that the answer to this question has little to do with the nature of God or the scope of His abilities. Instead, it probably has fairly mundane answers. For example, functional literacy - the basic level of literacy required to be able to function in modern society - is reportedly much rarer than people think. People also have a tendency to ignore or disregard information that conflicts with their own biases or existing beliefs, so it may not matter how blatantly obvious God made things - people would still dismiss whatever He had to say if they disagreed with it.

There is also another viewpoint that might explain why God chose to do things this way. When someone has engaging and fulfilling work to do, the time spent on it becomes uniquely meaningful and enjoyable. Once their work is done, they can find a healthy sense of pride in their accomplishments. Not only is God aware of this, but He created mankind with the intention that we'd put our gifts and talents to good use. By making it so that someone needs to translate His Words and teach His Message, God may simply be providing another way for people to use their talents.

As explained above, the original texts are long gone. This leaves us with newer copies, and since they were copied by hand, mistakes inevitably crept in. Perhaps a copyist read from the wrong line, misspelled something, or maybe they wrote something from memory and remembered it wrong. Whatever the case, these imperfect copies resulted in what are called "variants" - Biblical manuscripts that don't quite match the others.

If we were talking about any other book, this probably wouldn't be a big problem. However, Christians are often taught that the Bible is both inerrant and unchanging, so any sign of it being "imperfect" can challenge someone's faith. Sometimes, people try resolving problems like this by claiming that while translations can be imperfect, the original manuscripts are divinely protected against errors. Since those manuscripts are lost to history, this attempt to sidestep the issue doesn't work, and may even make things worse.

Luckily, the vast majority of these variations don't change the text all that much. Often, the copyist just phrased the same thing in a slightly different way. Take a look at Genesis 4:1 in your favorite Bible really quickly. Depending on the manuscript people were working from, this verse may start by saying "She became pregnant" or "She conceived". Either way, this verse has Eve giving birth to Cain, but this small change in how the original text was phrased is enough for scholars to consider it a different text.

But, while we can ignore instances where these small changes were made, there are parts of the Bible that changed drastically. For example, the story of Jesus forgiving the adulteress (John 8:1-11) doesn't appear in some manuscripts, and there are copies of the Book of Mark that feature an additional 11 verses (16:9-20). Noticeable changes like these are more worrisome, as they make it look like our sacred texts where deliberately altered at some point in history.

Fortunately, nothing exists in a vacuum. A lot of people have written about the Bible throughout history, and many more have quoted from it. By reading the surviving works of early Christians, we can confirm that these passages were known to the early church and treated as part of their scripture. We can also compare manuscripts from different periods in time and see how they changed - or didn't.

Thanks to these sources, we can honestly say that our Scriptures haven't changed over the years - for whatever reason, some copies of the Scripture just didn't contain the entire text. Thus, we rest assured that God's Words are still as trustworthy today as they were back then.