How many errors in translation have there been?

Question

Darlene has been posting various questions about errors and contradictions in the bible.
A number of respondants have said that these are an error in translation (that's a new excuse to me).
If that is so,how do you know the whole thing hasn't been mis-translated?
After all it's been translated so many times over so many years.

Answer 1

Not only that, but *originals* for the vast majority of books in the bible haven't existed for thousands of years. All the translators have to work from are copies of copies of copies of copies...
Oh, but of course, we *know* that nobody made any errors, changes, or intentional additions or deletions when they made those hand-written copies, right? ;-)

Forget about the actual content, OF COURSE there are errors in just getting what's called the bible into your hands from the people who originally wrote the books. Anyone who thinks there are no errors of any kind in the bible is very, very deluded.

Answer 2

Computer checks in the early 1990s astonished atheists (all over the world):

How? The original texts (The Old Testament in Hebbrew and Chaldean; The New Testament in Greek) had no contradictions.

You might have already read the statistics that just about prove that the Original Bible was and is a miracle.

However, all translations have errors that were accidental and some not so accidental. Religous empires have pressured translators into all type of skullduggery.

Cults have really emphasized "moderation in all things" as an excuse to keep their members away from the 20th or 21st century. Originally "moderation" did not mean what it means today, it meant "kindness".

Growing religious empires grossly interpret the "man should not lay with another man as he would with a woman" - That is a completely wrong translation of the original text. "The original text both in language and idiomatic expression read more like this, "A married man should not spend sexual time with another man, because it would upset his wife".

Several Bible characters were homosexual, and it was no big deal. (I am not a homosexual, so don't think I am being defensive about this.)

Then Sodom and Gamorrah was disharmonious and were into Homosexuality. (which was no big deal for 100s of years before they became grossly disharmonious. God punished them not for being Homosexual but for being corrupt and rude, and criminal to the extreme.)

But only in the last few hundred years have religious leaders made a big deal about homosexuality. Why? Religious leaders have one main goal; to build their empires. They want their members to propogate, and raise their children to become members of their empires. Consequently, these power hungry religious leaders have discouraged homosexuality.

They started it in the Days of King James, by completely mis-translating the above referenced scripture.

Answer 3

We don't. Also, how do we know that somewhere in the translation many moons ago, someone didn't like what the bible said about a specific topic and that they re-interpreted it and put it in their own words. I do know that the Dead Sea Scrolls and other very, very old documents written in the original Greek and Hebrew have been found and are still being interpreted and it may be many, many years before we know what they say and whether they prove of disprove what is currently in the Bible. Also, books of the Bible not deemed appropriate or in other words, not divinely inspired, have been left out of the Bible. They are known as the Apocraphya. Someone, somewhere determined that those books were not appropriate. As with anything, the Bible is open for interpretation and one person may read one thing in a passage and another person may read something totally different. Both will come away with a different thought or idea. Nothing is sure in life except death and taxes. People who believe what the Bible tells them is a matter of faith and sometimes thats enough.

Answer 4

Much of translation is understanding 2 cultures enough to make the proper links to certain figures of speech. Also, in certain languages there are some words and figures of speech that do not translate 100% correctly to any other language. It's impossible to say how many translation errors there have been since most of the original manuscripts of the Bible have been lost to time. You will notice that if you read the Greek and Hebrew Bibles of antiquity they aren't the same as what we have today.

Answer 5

Only the Church has the authority to acuratly translate the bible. And so the only bibles we can be sure have been translated accuratly are those translated by the Church. Jesus promised that the Holy Spirit would keep his church from error. Therefore, any bible approved by the Catholic Church is acceptably accurate.

God bless,
Shane

Answer 6

All I have to say is apparently these Scriptures are being proved very true by the "error in the Bible people":


"But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who shall privately bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, bring swift destruction upon themselves". (2 Peter 2:1),

"For the time will come when they shall not endure sound teaching, but after their own lusts they shal heap to themselves teachers who tell them what they want to hear,, and they will turn away their ears from the truth..." 2 Tim .4:3

Answer 7

This site goes into the history of translating the Bible very well. Intentional or not, there have been thousands of errors throughout the history of it's existence.

http://www.valleybible.net/resources/AdultEducationClasses/Doctrine/Bibliology/translation.shtml

Answer 8

How do you know that they are errors? What imperfect man told you that? The Word of God is the only book where you can actually reflect back on and see prophecies fulfilled and many more to come. It's factual.

Answer 9

About 1000, possibly more.

Answer 10

Good point.