The Bible: Translations

2 Peter 1:16–21 NKJV

16 For we did not follow cunningly devised fables when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of His majesty. 17 For He received from God the Father honor and glory when such a voice came to Him from the Excellent Glory: “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” 18 And we heard this voice which came from heaven when we were with Him on the holy mountain. 19 And so we have the prophetic word confirmed, which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts; 20 knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, 21 for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.

Why I choose to trust the Bible

I choose to trust the Bible because it is a reliable collection of historical documents, written by eyewitnesses during the lifetime of other eyewitnesses. They report supernatural events that took place in fulfillment of specific prophecy and claim that their writings are divine rather than human in origin

What is Biblical Inerrancy?

Baptist Faith & Message 2000

Divinely inspired with “truth, without any mixture of error, for its matter,”

The Second London Confession (1677)

Infallibility and inerrancy

Traditional understanding

Divine inspiration preserved Bible writers from error in the original manuscripts

God superintending the writing so thoroughly that even individual words were error-free

Extending to matters of history, science, and geography.

Manuscripts

Hebrew—עִברִית

Greek—ελληνικά

Aramaic—

Old Testament

Leningrad Codex

11th Century AD

Masoretic Text

Biblical scholars update the Masoretic Text through editions known as the Biblia Hebraica (German Bible Society)

New Testament

Two different scholarly editions

Updated based on new research

The German Bible Society

Nestle-Aland (Novum Testamentum Graece)

United Bible Societie

The Greek New Testament

These two editions are essentially the same, and they are commonly referred to as the Critical Text.

Textus Receptus (Latin: “received text”)

Served as the leading Greek text of the New Testament until the late 1800s

Majority Text

Prioritizes renderings found in the majority of Greek manuscripts.

Textus Receptus (Received Text)

Erasmus, a Dutch theologian, hastily assembled five or six Greek manuscripts (mostly from the twelfth century) and sent them to printers with minimal preparation, resulting in a complete printed Greek New Testament published in 1516.

TRANSLATION PHILOSOPHY

Word for Word

Literal

Formal Equivalence

Thought for Thought

Functional

Dynamic Equivalence

ZONDERVAN REFLECTIVE Bible Translations for Everyone Copyright © 2024 by Tim Wildsmith Published in Grand Rapids, Michigan, by Zondervan. Zondervan is a registered trademark of The Zondervan Corporation, L.L.C., a wholly owned subsidiary of HarperCollins Christian Publishing, Inc.

Early English Translations

JOHN WYCLIFFE (CA. 1331–1384)

Based on the Vulgate

Late fourth-century translation of the Bible in Latin

Official Bible of the Catholic Church

WILLIAM TYNDALE (CA. 1494–1536)

Leading figure of the Protestant Reformation

First person to create an English translation of the Bible using Hebrew and Greek manuscripts as the textual basis.

Much of what we find in the King James Bible is a direct result of his efforts.

MYLES COVERDALE (CA. 1488–1569)

Tyndale’s friend and fellow translator

Completed and revised the work begun by Tyndale.

First complete printed Bible into English when it was published in 1535.

Great Bible of 1539

THE GENEVA BIBLE

Published in 1560

First English Bible to use verse numbers

Affordable

First mass-produced Bible to include annotations, cross-references, book introductions, maps, and other study tools.

THE BISHOPS’ BIBLE

THE DOUAY-RHEIMS BIBLE

The King James (KJV)

King James

Hampton Court Conference - 1604

50 scholars

Divided into six companies

Separate portions of the Bible at Oxford, Cambridge, and Westminster.

Once each group completed their work on a particular section of the text, it was then sent around for the other groups to review.

3 revisions from Cambridge (released in 1629, 1638, and 1762)

1 revision from Oxford released in 1769

This is the edition of the KJV read by the vast majority of readers today.

TEXTUAL BASIS

Less of a new translation than it was a revision

Translators state as much… "Truly (good Christian Reader) we never thought from the beginning, that we should need to make a new Translation, nor yet to make of a bad one a good one . . . but to make a good one better.”

Bishops’ Bible of 1568

Which was an update of the Great Bible

Which was an update of the Matthew Bible

Which was an update of the Coverdale Bible

Which was the completion of the work started by William Tyndale.

OLD TESTAMENT

Masoretic Text

Also referred to the Septuagint

Latin Vulgate

NEW TESTAMENT

Textus Receptus, which is Latin for “Received Text.”

Originated with a Catholic scholar named Erasmus in 1516

PHILOSOPHY - stay as close to those original languages as possible

THOUGHTS

Beauty

1611 English

“false friends” - words in the KJV that we don’t realize we’re misunderstanding.

New International Version (NIV)

Half a billion Bibles in print, easily the world’s most popular modern translation of the Bible.

First contemporary version of the Bible to be a completely new, “from the ground up” translation, as opposed to a revision of a previous one.

The development of the NIV took about two decades

The New Testament—1973

Complete Bible in 1978.

Updated in 1984 and again in 2011.

National Association of Evangelicals-1942 to represent a multitude of evangelical denominations, and it became the conservative counterpart to the National Council of Churches (RSV).

TEXTUAL BASIS

It was a completely new translation from the original languages!

OLD TESTAMENT

Masoretic Text, based on the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, published by the German Bible Society.

Also consulted:

Dead Sea Scrolls

Samaritan Pentateuch

Septuagint

Latin Vulgate.

NEW TESTAMENT

Critical Text from both the United Bible Societies (The Greek New Testament) and Nestle-Aland (Novum Testamentum Graece).

TRANSLATION PHILOSOPHY

“as close to the original text as is possible in natural, contemporary English.”

THOUGHTS

Gender inclusive language

Get a 1984

New King James Version (NKJV)

Thomas Nelson.

Revision of the KJV

New Testament—1979, followed by the complete Bible in 1982.

Light revision—1984,

5th major revision of the 1611 King James Bible

First, that archaic and unnatural words, including thees and thous, would be updated.

Second, that the textual basis of the New Testament would continue to be the traditional Greek text (Textus Receptus) used by past KJV translators

130 scholars and editors

TEXTUAL BASIS

Revision of the KJV

OLD TESTAMENT

Masoretic Text, based on publications of the Biblia Hebraica from 1967 and 1977.

Greek Septuagint

Latin Vulgate

1524–25 Bomberg text (a Hebrew Bible used by Jewish rabbis).

The decision was made not to use the Dead Sea Scrolls

NEW TESTAMENT

Textus Receptus (“Received Text”)

Extensive notes in the New Testament highlighting the differences between the Textus Receptus and both the Critical Text and the Majority Text.

“NU” denote places where the Critical Text differs from the Textus Receptus (the N is for Nestle-Aland and the U is for United Bible Societies

“M” denote places where the Majority Text (as published in The Greek New Testament According to the Majority Text) differs from the Textus Receptus.

TRANSLATION PHILOSOPHY

Remaining faithful to the KJV

Formal (Word for word) equivalence translations.

THOUGHTS

Very good translation

Easier to understand than the KJV

Beginning to sound dated

Italics for English not in the original language

English Standard Version (ESV)

Crossway.

Committee consisted solely of 120 conservative evangelicals.

Revision of the RSV

Initial release of the ESV in 2001

Minor updates in 2007, 2011, and 2016.

TEXTUAL BASIS

The starting point for the ESV was the 1971 edition of the RSV, each word of which was weighed against the best available ancient manuscripts.

OLD TESTAMENT

Masoretic Text, based on publications of the Biblia Hebraica from 1967 and 1977.

Greek Septuagint

Latin Vulgate

Dead Sea Scrolls

NEW TESTAMENT

Critical Text from both the United Bible Societies (The Greek New Testament) and Nestle-Aland (Novum Testamentum Graece).

TRANSLATION PHILOSOPHY

"Essentially literal”

Word for Word

THOUGHTS

Excellent translation (my favorite)

Great for word study

Not woke or gender inclusive

Christian Standard Bible (CSB)

Holman

Imprint of Lifeway Christian Resources

Entity of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC)

Balanced accuracy and readability

“Optimal Equivalence”

2004 (HCSB)

2017

Arthur Farstad (NKJV)

Light revision in 2020

TEXTUAL BASIS

This is a NEW translation

OLD TESTAMENT

Masoretic Text, based on publications of the Biblia Hebraica from 1967 and 1977.

Greek Septuagint

Latin Vulgate

Dead Sea Scrolls

NEW TESTAMENT

Critical Text from both the United Bible Societies (The Greek New Testament) and Nestle-Aland (Novum Testamentum Graece).

TRANSLATION PHILOSOPHY

The most balanced English translation available

Middle of the translation spectrum

“Optimal Equivalence.”

THOUGHTS

Bold type for quotes of the OT in the NT

Easy to read

New CSB Study Bible is incredible

New Living Translation (NLT)

Tyndale House Publishers

Easiest to read and understand of all major Bible translations.

Kenneth Taylor

Billy Graham

90 scholars from several evangelical denominations—creating a new translation that would be more accurate than The Living Bible as it related to the original Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek texts.

Same philosophy that had made The Living Bible accessible to millions of readers.

7 years (1994 and 2004)

TEXTUAL BASIS

This is a NEW translation

OLD TESTAMENT

Masoretic Text, based on publications of the Biblia Hebraica from 1967 and 1977.

Greek Septuagint

Latin Vulgate

Dead Sea Scrolls

NEW TESTAMENT

Critical Text from both the United Bible Societies (The Greek New Testament) and Nestle-Aland (Novum Testamentum Graece).

TRANSLATION PHILOSOPHY

Firmly in the category of functional, or dynamic equivalence, with a thought-for-thought translation philosophy.

“Render the message of the original texts of Scripture into clear, contemporary English.”

THOUGHTS

Very easy to read

Not for serious word study

Good for new Christians

Gender inclusive language.

Conclusion

What is the best Bible translation for you?

The one you will read!!!

Multiple versions

One for serious study

One study Bible

One that you read for devotion and time with God.