how many versions of the bible are there?

Question

if there is differnt versons, why was it changed? have the books of other religions been changed? and if they have been changed why and where are the bits which have been removed?

Answer 1

In the 4th century after the Romans had made Christianity their official religion the bishops got together and decided what was to be in the bible. 4 gospels that agreed with what they wanted their followers to believe were included and given names. About 30 left out. Many of these have since come to light and are still being read and translated. Some of these do not mention the crucifixion and some give a very different light on the actions of Judas. So the bible is not some account written by god but a book partly history, partly myth and partly propaganda

Answer 2

OK...thorny question alert.

All i can do as a history student is give you a brief overview of Bible languages. This is not complete and can be easily researched--also you should take a look at the history of the Bible. Just beware because many people use this issue to promote cults and things of that nature.

Firstly, the Old Testament was written in ancient Hebrew and Aramaic (in some places), and the New Testament in Greek. All of these are probably what i might call "fuzzy" languages (Greek & Hebrew are, for sure).

A "fuzzy" language is a language where every word can have multiple meanings. English, by contrast, is a very "hard" language, because there is usually only one meaning for a word and that word is exact. As a result, English can say things that it isn't possible to give a "full" translation into ancient Hebrew, but ancient Hebrew can say things that it isn't possible to give a "full" translation in English.

As a result, there are a lot pf puns and other things in the Bible that can't be truly translated into English. For example, in Genesis many people's names sound like different Hebrew words, but the best an English translator can do is to add a note at the bottom alerting people of it, he can't actually make it read out into the text.

So, then, many of the English Bible versions out there, which say things not exactly the same, but they are really complimentary. This is because the Hebrew says all of the different translations at the same time (but, at the same time, we have to beware of the translation slightly changing the meaning of the text...). So, if you really want to find out what the Bible reads, the best suggestion is to pick up multiple translations and compare the translations. This will give an English reader a better, comprehensive understanding of what the Bible says.

As to whether the Bible was changed over time, generally the pattern cults will tell you is that the Bible was translated and then that translation was translated, et cetera, until the Bible was warped. Today, however, this question is rendered meaningless by the fact that we have copies of the Bible in the original Greek and Hebrew (& Aramaic). Modern Bibles translate directly from those, and though they might also add some influence from other translations for clarity, the simple truth is that we pretty much KNOW what the original Bible said, and it is basically the same as what it says today, even in translations of translations (I personally think this is a miracle).

The Bible (Old Testament) was originally translated into Greek as the Septuagint (spell?), which is what existed at Jesus' time. People will say that it is a mis-translation, but in actuality it is probably a better translation than many other Bibles, because it reflects the ancient Hebrew knowledge which is slightly lost now. We are busy re-discovering the Hebrew language, so the more modern the translation the better if you are looking for a Bible.

If you are looking for a Bible translation, two translations to avoid (because they are cults and they intentionally warp the text) are the Mormons and Jehovah Witnesses. Probably most famously the JW say Jesus died on a stake, not a Cross, which is completely incorrect.

All of these things can be easily looked up.

Answer 3

There are over 300 versions in English. They are just different translations, ranging from very old ones where you may not fully understand the English to versions in modern hip language, and even dialects like Cockney and Scouse.

There are two "canons" of Biblical scripture: the one the Catholics use and the Protestant canon. All the books in the Protestant canon are in the Catholic canon, but this contains about six extra books and some parts of books (in the Old Testament) that have been removed by the Protestants. The reason for this is that there were two different Jewish canons in the days before Christ: a larger canon used by the Jews of the diaspora (those living abroad, for example in Syria, Asia Minor (Turkey), Greece and Rome), and a more exclusive, smaller canon used by the Jewish religious authorities in Jerusalem. The Church originally took the diaspora canon but when Protestantism started in the 16th century this new movement opted for the Jerusalem canon.

You can check several (about ten) of the best-known versions of any scripture at http://www.biblegateway.com
(I cannot say precisely how many because I'm in China and this site is censored).

Answer 4

I think there are only 2. The septugent (spelling? sorry) and the other... basically the two that originally were translated to greek and hebrew. Now in the Catholic faith they have the version with extra books in the bible and the protestants do not.
The only reason some of the books were left out of the protestant version was because they weren't viewed by the church as really adding to the faith. They don't subtract anything though.
I don't know too much about the books of other religions and if they were changed...

Answer 5

Check out links below

The efforts of translating the Bible from its original languages into over 2,000 others have spanned more than two millennia. Over 450 versions have been created over time

Of the world's 6,900 languages, 2,400 have some or all of the Bible, 1,600 (spoken by more than a billion people) have translation underway, and some 2,500 (spoken by 270 million people) are judged as needing translation to begin.

As for which parts have been changed, that's probably a topic that would fill a book

Answer 6

No, the different bibles are not different from each other, they have the same content. To remove bits of the bible or change it is very wrong and Jesus warned what would happen to anyone who did this. The different versions are different TRANSLATIONS, they are there simply to make the bible easier to understand, especially since not very many people can read greek or ancient hebrew!!
God Bless

Answer 7

I wrote a fair amount about this, and then figured I'd let you do your own home work. It's the godly way.

I've added a useful link though. The number of versions is slightly more than two ...

Answer 8

There are at least 300 just in english. They all contain different words and in many cases even different books.

Answer 9

too many and they are all man made rubbish