The Problem with Translations

After my series on Galatians “Would you desert the Gospel,” one of our teens suggested I do a series on “How to study the Bible.”

Today we start that series, and we start with one of the first things you do when you start to study for yourself, picking a translation.

You know I remember growing up, it was the farthest thing from my mind to sit down and study scripture, I was a last minute kind of person — Develop

What I share in this series is simply my recommendations and thoughts to consider, it may not be for you but that’s ok — Develop how I have a desire for them

The study of scripture is a personal time with you, God, and His word.

Picking a translation is that way, it is a personal choice.

For example my personal preaching preference is the NASB 2020, clearly, but in my study I enjoy the 1975 NASB.

So are you ready for the message God has for us this morning?

Cool let’s dig in!

What is a translation?

To understand translations is to know something language in the Bible.

Originally written in three languages — Hebrew, Greek and Aramaic.

Hebrew — Majority of the Old Testament

Aramaic — A sister language to Hebrew used in half of Daniel and two passages in Ezekiel

Greek — All of the New Testament, including quotations from the Old Testament

Then we choose from the many english translations available to us.

There is something we need to except about this — We are at the mercy of councils and committees of those translations.

It’s an inconvenient truth! But a truth nonetheless!

These people often had to make choices in translating words from the original language.

Then we must accept that translations of God’s word are not perfect.

Most of the time they might do a good job, but not always.

This s true for any translation.

That is why you should chose more than one translation to read from.

Now as I say this God through His Spirit can get His truth out to us through any of these translations.

Textual Criticism

Translators sift through thousands of copies and texts using a science called textual criticism.

I am not going to dull you with a lecture on on textual criticism, but there are two important things you need to know:

Textual criticism is a science that works with careful controls.

In making textual choices there are two kinds of evidence used

External evidence — this is the character and quality of the manuscripts

it deals with the age of the texts

Texts like the dead sea scrolls, the Septuagint texts and New Testament texts preserved from Egypt.

Internal Evidence —the kinds of mistakes to which copyists were susceptible

It deals with the copyists and authors.

When faced with two or more variants the translators usually can detect which readings are the mistakes because scribal habits and tendencies have been carefully analyzed.

Most often the variant that best explains how all others came about is the presumed to be the original text.

Here is the point in this for the vast majority of variants among the thousands of manuscripts, the best external evidence combined with the best internal evidence yields an extraordinarily high degree of certainty about the original text!

Language Choices

In decisions about language translators have several choices to make.

Original Language — Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic

Receptor language — for us it would English

Historical Distance — differences that exist between the original language and the receptor language

Formal Equivalence — the attempt to keep as close as possible to the original Greek or Hebrew, both in words and grammar, as can be most conveniently put into English

Functional Equivalence — the attempt to keep the meaning of the Hebrew and Greek but to put their words into a normal way to say it in english

Free translation — the attempt to translate the ideas from one language to another, being less concerned about using the exact words of the originals.

All our translations fall somewhere is these categories.

What does this all look like then?

Well note this passage from the NKJV — 1 John 5:7-8

1 John 5:7–8 NKJV

7 For there are three that bear witness in heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit; and these three are one. 8 And there are three that bear witness on earth: the Spirit, the water, and the blood; and these three agree as one.

Now let me read it from my NASB 2020 — 1 John 5:7-8

1 John 5:7–8 NASB 2020

7 For there are three that testify: 8 the Spirit and the water and the blood; and the three are in agreement.

The Father, the Word, and Holy Spirit do not appear in older tests.

Read Metzger — pg. 647

No core doctrine is affected

John 7:53-8:11 The Adulteress

Read Metzger — pg. 187 and second paragraph of page 188

When we eliminate this not one core tenant of what we believe changes.

These are so often thrown in our face as showing the Word of God is no better than any other work of fiction.

Often these are in the margins, notes taken by copyists that over time entered the text.

In translations there are also differences

Mark 10:50 NASB 2020

50 And throwing off his cloak, he jumped up and came to Jesus.

Mark 10:50 NIV

50 Throwing his cloak aside, he jumped to his feet and came to Jesus.

Mark 10:50 ESV

50 And throwing off his cloak, he sprang up and came to Jesus.

Mark 10:50 NLT

50 Bartimaeus threw aside his coat, jumped up, and came to Jesus.

Mark 10:50 MSG

50 Throwing off his coat, he was on his feet at once and came to Jesus.

See how reading more than one gives a better picture?

The bible is not fiction and these changes and differences do nothing to what we know and believe about Jesus.

I am so confident of this that if I were to teach class on how to study the original languages who would be interested?

Conclusion

I have shared all of this so that you can make an informed decision on what translations you use in your personal study.

So if you wonder what I use — The Original language, NIV 2011, NASB 1975, The ESV, The Message Bible, and the NLT.

All of these cover most of the language choices we talked about earlier.

You need to make your own choice and use what works best for yourself.

So that is the problem with translations!

Let us pray!

Walk to the back and give the blessing!