Christians: How is the Bible God's perfect word if it can be misinterpreted?

Question

The Bible has been used for centuries to support slavery, racism, bigotry and unjust wars. How is this work perfect if it can be misinterpreted?

So far most answers are not clearing this question up. Any written work is subject to interpretation. Any good author will get to know his or her audience so that he or she can tailor that work so that the audience can understand it in the right way. Understanding how the reader will interpret one's work is fundamental to any written work. If God created humanity, then God should know how it could be misinterpreted--since He created our minds. Why wouldn't it be written to prevent misinterpretation?

Answer 1

The Languages Of The Bible


1. Were all the books of the Bible originally written in one language?
No, besides Hebrew, Greek and Aramaic were used.

2. What books were written in Hebrew?
Almost all the books of the Old Testament.

3. What books were written in Greek?
In the Old Testament, the Second Book of Machabees and the Book of Wisdom; in the New Testament, all books except the Gospel of St. Matthew.

4. What books were written in Aramaic?
The Gospel of St. Matthew.

5. When were the books of the Old Testament, that were originally written in Hebrew, translated into Greek?
About 220 years before Christ.

6. Why was the translation from Hebrew into Greek made?
Because the Jewish people was dispersed into countries where the Greek tongue predominated, and so it gradually forgot the mother tongue, speaking only Greek. Hence the wish to have the Bible in the Greek tongue.

The Septuagint Version

1. Who were the translators of the Old Testament?
The translators of the Old Testament were Jewish scholars well acquainted with both the Hebrew and the Greek languages.

2. By what name is this translation known?
It is known as the Septuagint Version.

3. Why is it called by that name?
It is called by that name because it was commonly supposed that seventy scholars were employed in the work of translating.

4. Was it known by any other name besides that of the Septuagint?
It was known as the Alexandrian Version to distinguish it from the Hebrew or Palestinian Version.

5. Why was it known as the "Alexandrian Bible?"
Because this translation was made in Alexandria, Egypt, which had the biggest and most vibrant Jewish community outside of Israel.

6. Is there any other difference between the Septuagint and the Palestinian version, besides their language?
Several; The Septuagint contains more books than the Palestinian version and is about three hundred years older. The Palestinian Version originated approximately around 106 A.D. and is different from the Hebrew texts that were the basis for the Septuagint translation.

7. Why does the Septuagint have more books than the Palestinian version?
The translators had a well-founded belief that these books were inspired.

8. Were these added books accepted by the Hebrews?
Yes, but only up until 106 A.D., when the Palestinian, known also as the pharisaic version, became the norm.

9. Was the Septuagint Version much in use in Our Lord's time?
It was used not only by the Greek-speaking Jews but also by the Palestinian Jews; Our Lord and the Apostles frequently quoted it.

10. Did this Greek translation of the Bible help to spread Christianity?
It helped very much, because Gentiles, particularly the Greek philosophers, had read it, and had knowledge of the prophecies referring to the Messiah, with the result that when St. Paul preached to them, many converts were made.


The Vulgate

1. Name again the languages of the Old Testament before the time of Christ.
Hebrew and Greek.

2. In what languages did the Apostles write their Gospels and Epistles?
They wrote their Gospels and Epistles in Greek, except St. Matthew, who wrote his Gospel in Aramaic.

3. How did translations in languages other than Hebrew and Greek come into existence?
As Catholicism spread among peoples of different languages, the demand for the Bible in their various languages grew.

4. Name some of the earlier languages into which the Bible was translated.
Armenian, Syrian, Coptic, Arabic, and Ethiopian.

5. Was the Bible translated into Latin?
Many translations into Latin were made during the early Catholic centuries.

6. Were these Latin translations satisfactory?
No; many inaccuracies existed, due to errors of the copyists, or errors of translation caused by a poor understanding of the original language.

7. Which of the Latin translations was the best known?
The best known Latin translation was either the "Old African" or the "Old Italian" (Vetus Itala).

8. What was the result of the general dissatisfaction with these Latin translations?
Pope Damasus (Pope from 366 to 384) commissioned St. Jerome to make a new and accurate translation.

9. How did St Jerome go about this work?
He studied carefully the Hebrew and Greek versions, and from these made his new translation.

10. By what name is the Latin translation of St. Jerome known?
It is known as the Vulgate Version. Vulgate means common or vulgar in Latin and it was called so because Latin was the common tongue of the Western Roman Empire.

11. Does the Vulgate have the Church's special approval?
The Council of Trent (Italy) in 1546 declared it to be the only authentic and official version for the Latin Rite: " The same Sacred and Holy Synod ... hereby declares and enacts that the same well-known Old Latin Vulgate edition ... is to be held authentic in public readings, disputations,sermons, and expositions, and that no one shall dare or presume to reject it under any pretense whatsoever." (DZ. 785). It is still the official Catholic Bible today.


The Douay Bible

1. Is there a Catholic translation of the Bible in English?
Yes, it is the translation known as the Douay-Rheims Version. It was translated from the Latin Vulgate.

2. Why is it called "Douay-Rheims"?
Because it was begun at Rheims and finished at Douay in 1582-1609 by a group of English priests exiled in France.

3. What happened in the sixteenth century to cause the publication of a reliable and accurate translation?
During the Protestant "Deformation" in England many false translations had been made, hence there was great necessity of placing in the hands of Catholics a reliable and accurate translation.

4. Is it true that the Bible was never translated into vernacular languages before the Protestant Deformation?
It is not true; the first translation known in England was the translation into Anglo-Saxon made by Venerable Bede in the eighth century. There is a Gothic translation, made by a certain bishop Ulfilas around 380. The first German translation predates Luther by a good fifty years.

5. Why do Protestants assert that the Bible was never translated before the Deformation?
Through a mixture of ignorance and bad faith.

6. What is the most well known of the false English Protestant translations?
It is the version called the "King James," named after the King who commissioned it in 1604. It was finished in 1611. It is still the most popular of the Protestant Bibles in the English speaking world.

7. What is wrong with the "King James" version?
Like all the Protestant Bibles, it is incomplete and poorly translated. It is a "Pick and choose" version. Such is the real lack of respect of the "Reformers" for the word of God!

Differences Between Catholic And Protestant Versions

1. Does the Catholic version of the Bible differ from Protestant versions?
Yes, in many ways.

2. What is the most noticeable difference?
The most noticeable difference is the absence of seven whole books and parts of two others from the Protestant versions.

3. What books are not contained in the Protestant version?
The Deutero-Canonical Books (See lesson 6).

4. Why are the Deutero-Canonical Books Omitted by Protestants?
Because the Protestant versions of the Bible follow the late Palestinian version of the Bible, which also omits these books (See lesson 8).

5. Name another difference between the Catholic and Protestant versions.
Many important arbitrary changes are found in the texts of the Protestant Bible. According to some scholars, the most popular Protestant Bibles have literally hundreds of mistranslations, additions and omissions.

6. To what do such changes of text lead?
They lead to an entirely different interpretation from the one intended by the Sacred Writer.

7. Give an example of this change of text.
St Paul says, "... Being therefore justified by Faith ..." (Rom. V, 1), and Luther inserted the word "alone" so that the text reads, "Being therefore justified by faith alone."

8. Why were the Reformers so anxious to change texts?
They were anxious to change texts to give force to the particular doctrine of their choice.

9. Should that behavior of the Reformers raise some questions in our mind?
Yes, what did they believe exactly concerning the Bible? Either they did not believe it was the Word of God, and therefore felt free to change it any which way; or if they did believe it was the Word of God, it took a lot of pride and presumption to correct God's word. In either case, they should be called "Deformers" rather than Reformers.

10. Name other differences between the King James version and the Douay version.
The King James version has a preference for words of Anglo-Saxon origin whereas the Douay version freely uses words of Latin origin. The Douay version latinizes the name of some books while the King James gives what they thought at the time to be the Hebrew name. Many Protestant versions other than King James omit the Epistle of St. James.

Source(s):
Latin Vulgate
Douay-Rheims Bible
A Catechism Of The Bible

Answer 2

Martin Luther said it nicely: The Bible holds the Word of God as the manger held Jesus.
We both would agree a knobby old manger used by oxen and donkeys would be knicked and knocked. So what? It is what is on the inside that counts!
1149 chapters from approximately 2200 years - I hope to tell you it is misinterpreted. Sheez Louise. If the Bible was so crystal clear/perfect people would believe that rather than God.
Anything can be misinterpreted because we are misinterpreters. We now have over 10k laws in the US to interpret the 10 C - and you are aware, I presume there are 2 versions of the 10 C. Remember - that overblown increase in laws is after just 230 years - the Bible has been kicked around 10 times that long.
It is a fabulously informative, guiding, inspiring work. It isn't perfect because then none of us non-perfect type could understand it or read it.

Answer 3

This ranks in the top ten stupidest statements or questions this week. No where does it state that mankind is perfect. We have all played the game where we tell one person a story let them repeat it and see how different it comes out at the other end of the class. If humans are interpreting it it will be different. As for the wars and slavery, and racism, those things have all been used or started over money, land , power, politics and personal gain. People that used the Bible for excuses to do things like that were doing exactly that, making excuses. The Dead Sea Scrolls were written thousands of years ago and the most accurately translated documents in history, with a 98 % accuracy rate from the originals. They are also the most copied manuscripts in history. Man can twist anything around to suit his purposes

Answer 4

The bible was written thousands of years ago by mere humans in an ancient language. When any piece of writing is translated, updated etc etc as much as the bible has been there is bound to a few areas open to interpretation. Even within the English language over time, meanings of words have changed, or some words have come to mean a number of things. Plus, a lot of misinterpretation can be mere humans not reading passages in context. If you really want to see something, then no matter what the writing, you can (and maybe sometimes subconciously) interpret it to just that.

Answer 5

Hi Golgotha, You have a lot of questions here, and they are good questions. First of all I want to assure you that it is absolutely wrong of people or groups to use the Bible to say something completely different than what is actually said. It's like having an interview with a person, and taking a sentence, or maybe half of a sentence out of the whole conversation, and using it (or 'twisting it') to say what they want it to say. The Bible is the perfect Word of God, but that doesn't mean people don't have choices to "pick and choose" what they want to believe. That's called using something out-of-context. It can completely change the intention of something written when you pull a small snippet out of the source and use only that to make a point. You mention people having a hatred for homosexuals. I just shake my head when I hear "Christians" or anyone for that matter calling someone names and despising them because of the lifestyle they choose. God is Love and Jesus would never do that. However, there is a difference between Acceptance and Approval. As followers of Christ, we are meant to accept everyone and lvoe as Jesus loves, and we are also to speak the Truth in love. As I said, there's a lot to address here, but I just wanted to shed some light. Here's a few other points. -The OT is not null and void. God is the same yesterday, today and forever. There was a lot of sacrifice and laws and requirements in the OT. That is why God needed to send His one and only Son, Jesus, to die for our sins and pay the price, and be punished for all of our wrongdoings. That's why we don't need to sacrifice animals and follow all of these strict commandments as the OT people did. Jesus came to fulfill the law, not to remove or abolish it. -The Bible is perfect. It's people who are not, and it's people who pollute the original message. Thank God for His grace and that His Truth is sharper than a two-edged sword. His Truth will prevail above all else and it cannot be shaken, no matter what. -God loves you beyond your imagination. Love in Jesus, Josh

Answer 6

You see that's why you need the Holy Ghost.
The bible is not greater then God but is of God.
The Holy Ghost is perfect with out Question,because it comes straight from the Father from Jesus when you become saved.
When you receive the Holy Ghost you'll see the scriptures come alive, and knowing this you will see that God can preserve a Book or a people, not just for a few thousand years,but for ever and ever ,thank you Jesus.
God Bless you my friend,may I one day call you Brother :)

Answer 7

Just because man is imperfect does not mean the bible cannot be perfect. Just because people misinterpret the bible, does not discredit the Word of God in any way.

Answer 8

Funny, the US constitution does the same thing!

Do you understand what law is. Playing with words logically to convience a judge or jury that something that is wrong (like murder) was RIGHT in this instance and should be forgiven unconditionally.

"If the Glove Doesn't Fit. You Must Aquit!"

Would you like to get into the Michael Jackson case next!

Everyone I knew said he was guilty as sin. The DA said he was guilty as sin. Moments before the verdict was read everyone in the room echoed GUILTY, except for me. I postulated he'd get off and he did. Why. He had a good lawyer.

Anyone can play with words and do anything, especially if they hold a MS and PH D in theology.

Answer 9

God's Word is perfect, man is imperfect- which the bible states time and time again. Interpretation is done by man. So there is your answer. Unfortunately the bible is not always interpreted correctly by imperfect man. We are imperfect so that is why we need Christ.

Answer 10

God is much higher than us
therefore his language is much higher than ours. misinterpretation of the Bible is from insufficient knowledge of the subject. It is not God's imperfectness that causes the misinterpretation, in fact is is his perfectness that causes it, his superority to us. its our imperfection that causing the misinterpretation.