So Many Bible Versions!

A two-part primer on translations

Every now and then someone will bring up all the different Bible versions and ask why there are so many, or which is the best. This makes me think of the H.L. Mencken quote, “For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong.” Actually, I have been thinking of that quote a lot lately. I wish the issue was easy to navigate but it's not. Answering these questions requires learning about a lot of ideas, and in the end, choosing for yourself which English Bibles you will use.

First, why do we have English Bibles at all? Well, since very few of us know the languages in which the Bible was originally written (Hebrew for the OT and Greek for the NT), we must use a translation. A Bible translation converts God's Word from the languages in which it was originally written to another. The translator wants to do this with accuracy, clarity, and naturalness. That is, the translation should be faithful to the meaning of the original; it should be clear not confusing; and it should be a natural representation of the target language. (These are presuppositions. If you think it’s better for the Bible to be harder than necessary to understand, then I’ve got nothing for you’re here.) Of course, people who can translate with these goals will disagree about how to do it. Even if they agree about how to do it, they’ll still get different results. On top of that, the English language itself is also constantly changing, creating a moving target for translators. And since no one person or group gets to decide for everyone what is best, there will be many Bible versions, or translations.

But to really understand these concepts, we have to go back to the Bible, to see what we really believe about the reliability of God's Word in the first place. So let me discuss two theological beliefs now in part one, and then in part two I'll move on to two practical realities.

Inspiration

By inspiration, God superintended the writers of Scripture so that their writings were God's words to man, authoritative and without error. "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness" (2 Timothy 3:16, NKJV). Alternatively, the NIV says, "All Scripture is God-breathed," which is actually a more literal rendering. (Now isn’t that interesting!) The point is that the source of Scripture is God Himself, that He was at work behind the human authors to assure their writings were indeed His Word. That brings up a very important aspect of inspiration. The words themselves are inspired. This verse says the "scripture,” that is, the words, are inspired, not the thoughts we get from reading them, the medium from which we read them, or the theology we produce in summarizing them. Yes, those things matter, but it is ultimately the words of the Bible that have authority from God. And again, it is "all Scripture." The words are inspired and ALL of them are inspired.

Of course, if the Bible says this about itself, isn't that circular reasoning? Do we believe the Bible because it tells us to? Well, yes and no. But proving that the Bible is actually divine is beyond the scope of this post. I’m writing for people who already believe that the Bible is God’s Word. Still, that brings up another good question. How can we be sure we actually have God's Word? Has God promised His Word would continue to be around this long after it was written? That's where the doctrine of preservation comes in.

Preservation

God has promised to preserve His Word. Isaiah 40:8 says, "The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever," (ESV). And in Matthew 5:18, Jesus said, "until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished," (NIV). This gives confidence that just as God superintended the writing of His word, He also superintended the collection and transmission of it, so that today we would have the real thing.

So, in answering why we have so many English Bible versions, the first thing we need to do is ask what we really believe about the Bible. Our basic theological beliefs about inspiration and preservation remind us that we really do have access to the inspired Word of God today. But a word of caution is needed here. While God did promise to preserve His Word, there is no biblical explanation of how He would do it. What makes sense to you or me about how God would allow His Word to be transmitted and translated must not be elevated to the level of absolute truth. But we still have to acknowledge the practical realities of transmission and translation, and we'll look at those more next time in part two. And yes, I know that those are the practical parts you really want to talk about (like, discussing actual Bible versions) but we had to go over these foundational theological beliefs first.

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In the meantime, I’m interested in your thoughts. Do you believe we even have the authoritative Word of God? Why? Do you believe it because of academic reasons and logical proofs? Or do you tend to believe it because of the spiritual experience of yourself and others? What’s your experience with different translations? (This can be personal or church experience, but be kind.) Other thoughts and questions?

Let me know in the comments.