How can we be sure that the first 5 books of the Bible are...?

Question

...accurately translated? The first 5 books of the Bible (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deutorotomy ...often referred to as the Pentateuch, or Torah) were originally written in Ancient Hebrew which contained no vowels, punctuation or spaces between words? twldbsfywrrdngthsndthnwntntosmthngls (It would be as if you were reading this. And then went on to something else)...

Answer 1

cuz king james is said to be by scholars 95% accurate which means just tiny grammatical errors....content is fine

Answer 2

In addition to what everyone else said, don't forget that we also have a Greek translation of the Old Testament made a few centuries before Jesus was born. We can compare the Hebrew with the Greek and see if we get the same meaning in English if one person translates from Hebrew, and another translates the same passage from the Greek.

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The Septuagint (IPA: ['sɛptuədʒɪnt]), or simply "LXX", is the name commonly given in the West to the Koine Greek version of the Old Testament, translated in stages between the 3rd to 1st century BC in Alexandria.

It is the oldest of several ancient translations of the Hebrew Bible into Greek. The name means "seventy" in Latin and derives from a tradition that seventy-two Hellenized Jewish scholars (LXX being the nearest round number) translated the Pentateuch (or Torah) from Hebrew into Greek for one of the Ptolemaic kings, Ptolemy II Philadelphus, 285-246 BC. ...

Answer 3

The original translators into Greek from the Hebrew were very fluent in ancient Hebrew. From the Greek came other language translations. In each case, the translations were done by people who spoke both languages, the one being translated and the language it was translated to.

See the source for a very informative article on the History of the Bible.

Answer 4

There have been and there are experts that have been dedicated their whole lives to study and interpret the Old Hebrew language. And, just because it was written like that, it didn't mean no one was ever able to read it. In the past, Hebrews used to write it like that so no one else other than the actual Hebrews were able to read it. The people that used the language knew by heart where the vowels, punctuation and spaces were supposed to be used.

Answer 5

You and I have a lot in common. These Christian books impacted me the most: 1. The Normal Christian Life (Watchman Nee). If Nee lived in the 1st century, the Bible would have the Book of Nee instead of the Book of Romans. Nee does a better job explaining the concepts in the Book of Romans than Paul does. Nee died in a Chinese prison in 1972. 2. Improving Your Serve (Chuck Swindoll) A practical way to give to others, the extent to which you should do it, and the higher purpose of why to do it. 3. The Divine Romance (Gene Edwards) For the big picture. It answers why God made us. 4. The Grand Inquisitor (Fyodor Dostoevsky) Just what was in those three questions the devil tempted Jesus with? This is perhaps the most profound little book I have ever read. Actually, "The Grand Inquisitor" is just one chapter in the larger book "The Brothers Karamazov".

Answer 6

We can't be sure. Look at an essay written in Spanish and try to literally translate it to English. It can't be done. You cannot translate ANY language to another language literally. You can only translate loosely because some languages have words and phrases that others do not. Spanish, for example, is a language we use today and a language we understand yet we still can't translate it literally into English. Therefore why should we expect to translate a language that is obsolete and not fully understood to English (or any other language for that matter) literally? Also, there have been several discrepancies found in the translation of the Biblical texts.

Answer 7

We can't. We have to do the best we can. Because we have no originals, we have to compare copies and see how faithful they are to each other. The translation process is very difficult, as you have noted, and it is hard to pick out what errors and editing have been made. Discoveries like the Dead Sea Scrolls help, but they are not really ancient enough to help us sort out, for example, how much books of Moses may have been altered from their original versions.

Answer 8

There's scholars who study ancient languages who do the translation. They devote their entire lives to it. Translation of ancient Hebrew is pretty uniform. It doesn't matter that they don't use vowels/spaces because it's not even the Roman alphabet.

Answer 9

Due to the fact that these
Christians use the Protestant Old Testament which is lacking 7 entire books 2 (Tobias, Judith, Wisdom, Ecclesiasticus/Sirach, Baruch, I Maccabees, and II Maccabees), 3 chapters of Daniel and 6 chapters of Esther may be one of the reasons they ask catholics so many questions.

For the Sola Scriptura this is too bad .
In the 16th c., Luther removed those books from the canon that lent support to orthodox doctrine, relegating them to an appendix. Removed in this way were books that supported such things as:

prayers for the dead (Tobit 12:12; 2 Maccabees 12:39-45),

Purgatory (Wisdom 3:1-7),

intercession of dead saints (2 Maccabees 15:14),

and intercession of angels as intermediaries (Tobit 12:12-15).

The lesson, though, is this: relying on the "Bible alone" is a bad idea; we are not to rely solely on Sacred Scripture to understand Christ's message. While Scripture is "given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness" (2 Timothy 3:16-17), it is not sufficient for reproof, correction and instruction in righteousness. It is the Church that is the "pillar and ground of Truth" (1 Timothy 3:15)! Jesus did not come to write a book; He came to redeem us, and He founded a Sacramental Church through His apostles to show us the way. It is to them, to the Church Fathers, to the Sacred Deposit of Faith, to the living Church that is guided by the Holy Spirit, and to Scripture that we must prayerfully look.

Answer 10

The Bible itself has a answer to that, the LORD says that His word will be preserved, and the meticulous way the Hebrews would copy the words is incredible, they would copy one letter at a time, not from memory, if not, the entire copy was ruined!

Answer 11

Just a hunch, but let's say there were and still are some people in the world that can both read and write Ancient Hebrew and English!!!

Do you think that is possible?