If there is only one book, one Bible, then why are their so many versions?

Question

How does one know which Bible to read? Why have churches dropped certain gospels out of the Bible? Doesn't content get kind of lost through translation...where as the change of one small word gives a whole new meaning to a statement? So how does one know that what the bible says is actually truly what it said to begin with. When you cange words such as we, they, and I a sentence changes immensely.
Which WORD id THE WORD of GOD and why would anyone take away from it?
How do you feel about servitude in the Bible? Wouldn't that be slaves in todays terminology? (please forgive the spelling)

Answer 1

free will

Answer 2

We will never know, many secrets have been witheld from us. We came out of an age where religion was a practise of control. There are other writings and other doctrines but fools say, A bible, a bible, we have a bible... The nieve say they have the whole truth, the radicals say they have the only way, the blind only follow, the ignorant never question, greedy decieve, Religion is strong because of the main product "NEED". Our troubles, burdens, needs, desires, are preyed on. We fall victum to turning everything over to a idealist idea that someone(Something) we can not see, touch, or even hear has everything and is all powerful. The bible? A modern day publisher would reject it as a new writting because it is so contradictive. At best it is a guide but holds no literal meanings to be taken 100% serious. Where did so many beliefs come from? Well when you have a book that is so vague to interpretation there is no wonder. Ever read a horoscope? Oh it seems so real because it is vague enough and panders to what you want to hear. It speaks of qualities you want to believe about yourself, thus sounds real....

Your going to get a lot of radical responses but when it come to religion I am simular to a political Moderate. Moderates just the isues and make their own educated decissions not based on onesided views.

Answer 3

The original Bible was written in Hebrew, Aramaic and Koine Greek, languages that few people are able to read and understand today. So if you want to read the Bible, you either have to lear those three languages, or look for a translation into your language.

If you check the Table of Contents, you will find that all versions of the Bible contain the same "gospels". The list of books (called the canon) of the New Testament was established nearly 1700 years ago and remains unchanged.

The books of the Old Testament were written in Hebrew. By 400 BC it had become a little used language. So the Jews translated the Old Teatment books into a version in Greek. Between that time and the appearance on Jesus seven short books were appended to the Greek version that covered the history of that time period. They are referred as the duetro-canon (or second canon) and treated as having historical importance, but not scripture.

The first Catholic Bible was translated from that Greek version, included those books in an appendix, and used book names and spelling based on the Greek version.

When the Protestant Bibles appears (about 1000 years later), they translated from the earlier Hebrew text. So they followed the Hebrew names and spells of the books. They also did not include the appended material from the Greek version - or placed it in a separate section.

Because they were tranlated from different languages, in the Protestant Bibles you have books called 1 and 2 Chronicles, while in the Catholic Bible the same books are called 1 and 2 Paralipomenon. Both are words which mean an "offical telling" of a history. Or the spell the names different, such as Ezechiel in the Catholic or Ezekiel in the Protestant. Same name but different spellings.

Why so many translations? First, there are fewer then most people think. Often the text of Bibles are identical. The difference is in the study notes, features, maps, etc. added to help in the understanding.

Any time you translate from another language, you have to make some "compromises" to make it understandable to the readers. For example, since Hebrew is read backwards of English, you have to reverse the word order when translating or it would be unreadable. Or in Greek they would say "the dog big brown" not "the big brown dog". You have to adjust for English grammer. Sometimes it takes several English words to convey the meaning of one Greek word, or there is one English word that is the same of a phrase in Greek.

There are some translations (such as the Young's Literal, or an Interlinear Bible) which are so word for word accurate - nothing changed or adjusted - that reading them is almost as hard as reading the original language. They often have to number the words so you know what order to read them to make sense in English. Most people would not try to read such a Bible. They intended for in depth study, not daily reading.

So they have other version (such as the NIV) which are translated to be more readable. They adjust the Hebrew and Greek grammer to match English grammer. If you are looking for a Bible for in depth study, you would want a "literal" one. If you want a Bible for daily devotions, and reading three chapters a day, you would want a more readable translation. (That is why many Christians own several).

There are different versions for British English and American English, because the two language are not the same.

There are versions such as "Today's English" version which is designed for people who use English as second language. The vocabulary is keep simple, and the sentence structures short so people with limited English can understand it.

Then there are books like the "Message" Bible. Every generation has one - the last was the Living Bible in the 1960s. They are NOT a translation, but a paraphrase. The author makes no attempt to translate word for word, but rather retells the stories thought by thought. They put the Bible into their words. While they are interesting, and can help you see some ideas you might not otherwise, they are not intended to be used as "study" books. But rather as commentaries on the scripture.

OK, and to be honest - there is one more reason for multiple Bible translations. Money. You can not copyright the Bible, but you can your own translation. So if a church or university (the largest translator of Bibles) makes their own translation, they can usually make money selling it. So there is a greed motivation behind doing it also.

If you take the time to compare Bibles, you will find that the differences in them are not in content or doctrine. They all have the same books and teach the same things. The differences are in style, audience, and intended usage. Reading the publisher's introduction to the translation will let know whether it is intended as a study, reading, or specialty version, and the intended audience and usage.

The recommended way to study is to get four or five versions (or a paralel Bible which includes then in paralel columns) and compare them. That will should help you see that the versions we use today are in agreement with each other. And should make it easy for you to spot any time the translators do attempt to "change one word".

Really, if there was only one translation of the Bible permitted or used, you would be able to trust it? By having multiple translation, you keep all the translators honest.

Answer 4

Books in the king James bible contain only those scriptures that support the proto orthodox viewpoints that dominated gentile christendom in the 4th century.

Compilation of the old testament was also controlled tightly. One translation of the old testament into Greek (which was not controlled by the Judean orthorities contained many more books than the orthodox version. This version of the bible was called the Septuagint (after the 72 scholars whom translated it).

All non orthodox christian books were supressed/destroyed. The only surviving fragments of these texts we presently have to study are documents discovered in; Egypt (Alexandria) called collectively 'the Nag Hamandi library', and the dead sea scrolls discovered in caves at Qumran.

Answer 5

there is only one bible. if there are gospels taken out, it is a partial bible. there are so many translations because there are many different levels of education, of comprehension, and cultural differences.

example: when a japanese person says *hai*, they are not exactly saying *yes* as westerners understand the term. a closer interpretation is that they *understand*.

but to get back to your question, people often pick and choose what they will believe or follow in the bible, because it's full of some pretty tough teachings.

and i have no problem with being a servant because i love my family and my friends, and would do anything for them! i also love serving my community! and i am a slave because i have a mortgage and i have a job...can't get away from slavery...

Answer 6

Indeed, there is today a God-driven movement at the grassroots level towards the KJV and the Textus Receptus. But the “scholars” today are trying their level best to stop it. This is hardly strange since it is usually the saints and not the scholars that are sensitive to the Truth. History has shown that the seminaries are the ones that go apostate first. But the Lord will always preserve His Church from being totally devastated by heresy. Has He not promised, “and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Matt 16:18)? There will always be a faithful remnant.

Answer 7

I use the New International Version for reading. Simple language for my simple mind. When I'm studying for a lesson or something, I look at several translations to get a better understanding of the scripture. I try to stick with versions written by a group of Bible scholars instead of one person. The only other thing you can do is learn Hebrew, Greek, and Latin and read the actual, original manuscripts...and I ain't doin' that.

Servitude is the same as slavery but in Bible days, some slaves were treated so well by their masters that they loved their masters, would do anything for them and wanted to be in service to them. It is a cultural thing for us to overcome but we should be slaves to God because He treats us better than anyone on earth.

Answer 8

There's only one Quran and just one version. Up to the slightest part it is unchanged through 1400 years.
To accomplish that it is not translated and kept with original language.
Thrughout time lots of translations came up but they are called Meal. The original remains.
One of the reasons Islam came is that Bible was corrupt. Creator knows the best.

Answer 9

The Bible has been changed/edited by man so much over the years that most of it isn't even God's word anymore, it's mans words. Some people believe in the Trinity but the Bible doesn't even mention Trinity.

Answer 10

Well, no one's around from then anymore, so the truth is manipulated to fit the motivations of leaders throughout the ages. With enough time, no one will remember it was edited.

It doesn't really matter, none of them are correct or really the word of God.

Answer 11

That's why I prefer the original version in Castillian of the El Quijote. Is a more reliable book, trust me.