02 - What's The Best Translation By Pastor Jeff Wickwire Notes

A: Amazingly, there are over 50 different Bible translations into the English language. That’s a lot! But what is a translation? Let’s answer that by starting at the beginning.

The Old Testament was originally written in the Hebrew language with a smattering of Aramaic, while the New Testament was written in Koine Greek, which was the common people’s Greek of Jesus’s day.

They were written on Papyrus, a material prepared in ancient Egypt from the stem of a water plant, and used in sheets throughout the ancient Mediterranean world for writing or painting on, and also for making rope, sandals, and boats.

But papyrus, like paper, aged and rotted over time, so copies were made by necessity in order to preserve the writings. The copies were made by copyists, men who stooped over a sheet of papyrus and copied it word for word, letter by letter.

And then more copyists made more copies, and so on through the centuries.

We know we have large numbers of accurate copies because, when the newer copies are compared to much older copies, they are essentially the same. One of the great marvels of the Bible is how God preserved it down through time.

You’ve probably heard, for instance, of the Dead Sea scrolls. As the story goes, in 1947 in the Judean desert, a shepherd of the Ta'amireh tribe one day left his flock of sheep and goats to search for a stray.

Amid the crumbling limestone cliffs that line the northwestern rim of the Dead Sea, he found a cave in the crevice of a steep rocky hillside (show photo). Intrigued, he cast a stone into the dark interior, only to be startled by the sound of breaking pots.

This sound would soon echo around the world. For he had stumbled on the greatest find of the century, the Dead Sea Scrolls. Upon entering the cave, the young shepherd found a mysterious collection of large clay jars.

The majority were empty and upon examining the remaining few, he found that the jars were intact, with lids still in place. However, a closer look revealed nothing but old scrolls, some wrapped in linen and blackened with age.

When the scrolls were examined by a Hebrew University professor, he was amazed to see Hebrew manuscripts, one thousand years older then any existing biblical text. In his diary, Professor Sukenik recollected:

“My hands shook as I started to unwrap one of them. I read a few sentences. It was written in beautiful Biblical Hebrew. The language was like that of the Psalms, but the text was unknown to me. I looked and looked, and I suddenly had the feeling that I was privileged by destiny to gaze upon a Hebrew scroll which had not been read for more than 2,000 years!”

Among other things, an ancient copy of the entire book of Isaiah was there. And when compared to much later copies of Isaiah, they were the same, validating the accuracy of the later copies, and proving that we truly have what Isaiah originally wrote!

As for the New Testament, there are currently 5,686 known fragments or copies of the NT. So, if critics want to disregard or question the New Testament, they must also disregard and question other ancient writings by Plato, Aristotle, and Homer, whose writings we have far, far less copies of.

Because they are so numerous, the NT copies can be exhaustively cross checked for accuracy . . . and they are very consistent!

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Now, before we say more about translation, you need to understand that there is a difference between a translation and a paraphrase, such as the Living Bible or The Message.

A translation is when you begin with the original language and translate it, word for word, into another language. The translator is not putting into it what he wants it to say or wishes it said, but is faithfully translating into another language as closely as possible what the original writer said.

A paraphrase bible is, generally, written to produce a bible that flows in a manner similar to a novel: it makes the bible more pleasant to read. But in the process, significant changes are made to the original text. It is NOT a word for word translation.

For the record, it is virtually impossible to translate from the original Greek without using some paraphrasing in order for the verse to make sense. For instance:

Matthew 1:23 “Behold, a virgin shall be with child...”

Greek: shall have in belly/womb

KJV: shall be with child

Matthew 27:44 “The thieves also, which were crucified with him, cast the same in his teeth.”

Greek (one word): to insult

KJV: cast the same in his teeth (an English expression in use during the 16th century)

Luke 23:46 “And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit: and having said thus, he gave up the ghost.”

Greek (one word): he breathed out

KJV: he gave up the ghost

So even the King James had to paraphrase a bit to make the verses more understandable to people in the 16th century.

So, to summarize, a good translation like the KJV, NASB, NKJV, stay as true as possible to the original meaning of the words, while a paraphrase Bible will concern itself more with interpreting the passages for you.

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Let me show you a couple of comparisons between the original Greek language, a translation, and a paraphrase using the first six words of John 3:16, “For God so loved the world...”

In Greek it looks like this:

Οὕτως γὰρ ἠγάπησεν ὁ θεὸς τὸν κόσμον,

A ‘word for word’ translation would read:

‘Thus indeed loved God the world,’

Most translations like the KJV or NASB accurately translate those words into, “God so loved the world.”

But the paraphrase Message Bible puts it, “This is how much God loved the world...”

Notice it departs from a word for word translation paraphrases it for easier reading!

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Another example would be the last 3 words of 1 John 4:8, which reads like this in the original Greek:

“The one who does not love does not know God, for θεὸς ἀγάπη ἐστίν.”

The last 3 words translated word for word are, “God love is.”

The KJV, NASB, and most other translations translate it correctly into “God is love.”

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But the Message Bible paraphrase puts it, “My beloved friends, let us continue to love each other since love comes from God.”

Notice how the ending is changed. Not “God is love,” but “love comes from God.”

I have a problem with that because the truth John wanted us to get in his original writing is that God doesn’t just love, He IS love, His very essence is love.

So with the paraphrase Message Bible, an important truth about God is lost!

You might read a paraphrase for pleasure, but I don’t recommend a paraphrase for your study Bible. You want to use a translation.

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Now, how do you know you have a good translation?

The more accurate the translators were in translating from Hebrew or Greek into English, the better the translation is!

Some of the best translations are KJV, NKJV, NASB, ESV, or the NLT.

And if you really want to grow in your understanding of Scripture, buy a good Study Bible.

There are 3 good ones—the NKJV Study Bible, The ESV Study Bible, and the NIV Study Bible.

With a Study Bible, you can easily reference the original work in Greek, Aramaic, or Hebrew. A Study Bible always gives you more and better information on the scriptures, and it gives you cross references from elsewhere in the Bible that have to do with the same subject, topic, or person.

An example is in the ESV Study Bible, you are informed that in John 19:25 where the Roman soldier’s cast lots for Jesus seamless tunic, this was a fulfillment of the Biblical prophecy given in Psalm 22:18!

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Now, a few quick words about King James only’ism. There are many who hold the firm view that the KJV, produced in 1611, is the only valid Bible version; that only the King James translators accurately translated the original Hebrew and Greek into the English language, and that all other versions are corrupt on one level or another.

Why this is wrong:

First, if the King James Version, which is a 1611 English translation of the Bible also called the Authorized Version, is truly the only infallible, inerrant, and inspired Word of God, then what about the billions of people who have lived and died and never understood a word of English, but were saved under and enjoyed another translation of the Bible into their own language?

So King James only’ism is ridiculously ethnocentric, favoring only English speaking people.

Second, prior to the KJV, earlier Bibles were printed in Latin. So did the Faithful over the centuries who either never had access to the Bible or had to read it in Latin go to hell because they never held the King James Version in their hands? Or did God’s children prior to the KJV never enjoy the true Word of God?

By claiming that the King James Version is God’s only chosen version, the KJV Only crowd is dismissing tens of centuries of Christendom and implying that the majority of the world populations today cannot know the truth of God’s word. Such a claim is arrogant and nonsensical.

The bottom line is that the KJV is one of several good translations, all of whose translators faithfully translated the Bible out of Hebrew and Greek into the English language.

Translations such as the "King James Version" are derived from existing copies of ancient manuscripts—the Hebrew Masoretic Text (Old Testament) and the Greek Textus Receptus (New Testament).

Today's Bibles are not translations of texts translated from other interpretations - they go right back to the ancient source manuscripts. The primary differences between today's Bible translations are merely related to how translators interpret a word or sentence from the original language (Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek). This is no different than any other book we read in English that was translated from a different source language.

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