If Christians say that contradictions in the bible are due to mistranslation...?

Question

Why don't they make a version that has no contradictions in English so that nobody can misinterpret the "divine" word?

And if its the word of god, how did he mistakenly translate it incorrectly, or does he just speak hebrew?

Answer 1

because it wasnt written by a god,it doesnt concern a god,it is a work of fiction written by men to control the masses and extort cash.

Answer 2

First, there are no contraditions in the Bible, so the question is pointless.

But most of the time the supposed "contradictions" are less a result of "mistranslation" and more a result of people not reading it carefully and completely.

For example, I have seen people claim that because in Genesis 1 God said everything was good, but in Genesis 6 he says things are bad, that is contradiction. They seem to have failed to read chapter 3 where the first sin changed things. It is not a contradiction - nor can it be fixed by re-translating. It takes reading the whole thing to understand it.

I have often seem people take two statements that God made to different people at different times about different situations and try to make them contradictions. A common one is where God says to a group of unrenpentant murderers that he will not forgive their sins, but years later says to a heart broken King David seeking his forgiveness that he will forgive his act of murder. That is not a contradiciton, nor something that can be corrected by re-translating, but rather God speaking to different situations.

But on the issue of translation, anything you deal with a translation, you will never be able to make it 100% "idoit proof". People will find ways to misunderstand it. That is because any word in English can have more than one meaning. Look in a dictionary and you will find most words have more then one definition listed. So as soon as you use an English word it is possible for somebody to interprete that word as being English definition "3", when the translators meant for it to be definition "4". (Classic example, in the KJ Bible it has Jesus saying "Suffer the little children to come unto me." The translators meant for the word "suffer" to mean "allow", not to mean "beat them". Yet a few years back a cult try to use this verse to justify beating a child to death. Idiots!!)

Just as an English word can have multiple meanings, so can a Hebrew or Greek word. Sometimes the original word is used because it has those multiple shaeds of meanings. Yet when it is translated into another language, some of the meaning may be lost.

That is why is it a good idea to use more than one translation when reading the Bible. You benefits from the different shades of meaning that the different translators see in the verses.

God is smart. He knew that no translation would ever be able to perfectly reflect the original wordking. So he helped to preserve over 2,300 copies of the original language New Testament books from the first centuries of the church so that we would have it original wording. (Not to mention anothee 83,000 supporting documents that quote every word of the NT from before the time of any of the councils that alledged altered the Bible). If you really want to know what the original said, you need only learn Greek and Hebrew and then read it for yourself.

But there are no contradictions in the Bible. Only failures by people to carefully read the whole thing. When you read all of the book, you have all of the answers.

Answer 3

Technoman is correct, imperfections to not nullify the entire message. His “saw” anology is particularly good. Unfortunately there are some, like “Jesus is Lord” and “dewcoons” who do not accept Technoman’s viewpoint.

From the King James Version:

“Forty and two years old was Ahaziah when he began to reign, and he reigned one year in Jerusalem. His mother's name also was Athaliah the daughter of Omri.” 2 Chronicles 22:2

“Two and twenty years old was Ahaziah when he began to reign; and he reigned one year in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Athaliah, the daughter of Omri king of Israel.” 2 Kings 8:26

Is this a major contradiction? No. Does it invalidate the Bible? No. Is it a contradiction? Yes. Does this prove that the Bible may be very accurate, may be very important but is not 100% accurate? Yes. It is not possible to hold:

“The King James Version is 100% error free” and that those two quotes are from the King James Version at the same time WITHOUT LYING.

Unfortunately we do not know how old Ahaziah was when he became King, and it doesn't matter anyway. So why attempt the impossible (a completely error free translation) for no benefit?

Answer 4

Translational errors may introduce imperfections in the scriptures but this does not negate the intrinsic truth of the Bible. It is like saying a saw is not a saw just because it is missing a few teeth or a few teeth are dull.

Some have tried to correct translational errors yet inadvertently introduce other errors. Sometimes translations are skewed by the beliefs of the ones doing the translations.

People or Christians cannot agree to which version is the most correct one because they have been indoctrinated in their own set of beliefs (right or wrong) and refuse to acknowledge the corrections others might be able to make and visa versa. We will have to wait until the 2nd Coming of Christ before we have perfect translations.

The Bible is not God incarnate, but a tool God created to lead us to Him. Like people and churches that are tools for God too, they are not perfect and neither is the Bible. This does not mean the Bible is WRONG or bad, just not flawless. We are not justified in rejecting the intrinsic truth of the Bible because of the weaknesses of the men who wrote the Bible or who translated the Bible.

Answer 5

Most people don't think the contradictions are due mainly to mistranslation, but rather misinterpretation by the writers. That's a big difference. Obviously, the writers of the Old Testament didn't get it right because of the fact Jesus came and taught a totally different message.

Answer 6

I would add to this question by asking that if God is the same yesterday, today and forever, why then do we have so many Christian religions at odds with each other? I have never understood that if God is supposed to speak to us all using the same word for guidance that so many differing beliefs can come from it.

Answer 7

There would still be contradictions in the Bible even if we did fix the translation.

Answer 8

The Bible isn't a background e book. it fairly is a compilation of information of nuanced legends and innovations. so which you get different variations of a narrative one after the different. you do not think of the Upanishads are additionally crammed with "contradictions" too? The e book have been written through many different human beings over the direction of centuries--an identical with the OT and NT and the apocryphal books that weren't secure interior the Bible yet nevertheless performs a sturdy function specially Jewish and Christian individuals custom and mysticism. you are able to call the nuanced passages contradictions or your can call them alterations of a topic matter. happens plenty in mythology. the element is to work out previous the literalism and hair splitting and locate meaning interior the allegories (or not--existence is going on).

Answer 9

There are no contradictions, just some people can't read properly.

Answer 10

There are no contradictions in Scripture..........

What Christian told you that nonsense?