Why are there so many different translations of the Bible?

Question

I understand that the original records were written in a language other than our own, but why must there be so many different translations of God's scripture? It would be one thing if the different translations all said/implied the same thing, but having so many versions out there causes so many people to be confused and misled. There are people out there who claim that you cannot "change or add to the word of God" and yet those very same people are reading from a Bible that was translated very recently. It is my belief that many plain and precious truths have been lost as a result of bible-altering philosophies of man. What do you think?

Answer 1

Here are a couple of the main reasons
- Language. Not only are there a lot of different languages, but the English language (which I assume you are referring to) is constantly changing. The New King James translation is pretty accurate, but most people don't read it anymore because we don't talk like Shakespeare.
- Original texts. We keep finding more and more ancient Greek and Hebrew versions of the scriptures, and these make it possible to make more accurate translations.
- Point of View. Some people make versions of the bible to conform with their own convictions. Some versions of the bible include a set of books known as the Apocrypha, but others do not if the authors do not consider them divinely inspired. Some people don't like referring to God as a "He", and so make gender-neutral versions, etc.

Answer 2

Quote: "It is my belief that many plain and precious truths have been lost as a result of bible-altering philosophies of man." This is where many Christians get into trouble, they base everything off of belief instead of objectively evaluating the facts.

Yes, there are many translations and to determine if a translation is good or not you need to examine how and why the translation was made. Basically there are two category of translation: Dynamic and Literal. Dynamic translations endeavor to keep the essential meaning intact through the current language usage, examples of this are the KJV and NIV. Literal translations like the NASB endeavor to translate the literal meaning or the closest matching word. Then there is a third type, Paraphrase, in which the words are paraphrased to bring out the meaning.

Another component of translation is what source or sources the translation was done on. For the NT, there is the Vulgate and 2 or 3 different Greek codices, I'm not up on the relative qualities of each, so you should research them and which ones a translation uses.

A note about the KJV, it is a dynamic translation into the common vernacular of the 1600's, which makes it both very poetic and hard to understand as our language has changed over the years.

Answer 3

A good point , there are about 20 different English translations alone.
I am atheist but still find all religions interesting.
Possibly the most interesting thing I have found is that Christians refer to The new testament as The bible, there was a bible well before the new testament, they only refer to that when they cant find a quote from the new one.
Now I am no religious genius, just interested. A simple question (to my simple mind) is that it has been proved beyond any doubt that the gospels according to Matthew- Mark- Luke and John were certainly not written by those folk.
Koran? I am willing to accept that this alteration to the old testament as given to the prophet Mohamed has never been changed, except during translation to other languages !
I have an English translation, I have read it many times , many things I did not (and still do not) understand!
I have Muslim friends, I have worked in many Muslim countries , I speak very little Arabic, some of these folk speak better English than I do.
Now almost all of them tell me that unless I read the Koran in the original language I wont understand!
I only had very basic questions like "What is an indifidel"? I think the nearest I got to the truth was the fact that I am one!!! Because I dont believe in God!
Christians do believe in God, they have just mixed things up a bit with their 'Holy Trinity' bit!
I agree with you that many things are missing or altertered from which ever bible, but nothing for me to worry about, I think they are all complete BS.

Answer 4

My preference is the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures but I always carry a King James Bible and when it comes to defending God's word any translation will do. Translators have changed some areas but aren't intelligent enough to change it everywhere it is in the scriptures, this is because the word of God is like a double edge sword if one area is compromised there are many other places the truth can be found. Take God's name [יהוה], it's called the Tretragrammaton, the New World Translation has it over 7000 times from cover and in truth [ALL] Bible translations have the Tretragrammaton [יהוה] over 7000 times they just have translated it GOD/LORD. This is really evident in all early translation but now the newer translations are changing GOD to God and LORD to Lord, Psalms 110:1 will render it this way, the Lord said on to my Lord where the way it's rendered now is the LORD said unto my Lord. This is happening right under the nose of so called Christians because the don't read the Bible yet they call themselves Christians. Soon there will be 7000 Lord/God instead of LORD/GOD, this is one of the main reasons we have false teachings like the Trinity, when you make the true God and his only begotten Son names the same then there is confusion and false teacher(Satan's agents) can easily pull the wool over the none believers eyes(2 Corinthians 4:4) among whom the god of this system of things has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, that the illumination of the glorious good news about the Christ, who is the image of God, might not shine through.

Answer 5

It has to do with methodology more than anything.

There are two major types of translations:

1. Word for Word: That is the best equivalent ENGLISH WORD for the Original GREEK or HEBREW Word.

2. Dynamic Equivalent: That is the best equivalent ENGLISH PHRASE for the Original GREEK or HEBREW phrase.

Both methodologies of translation are very good and can be very accurate. The reality is most translations will involve a litte bit of both of these methods.

Also its important to have a modern committee translation. That is a translation that has been published in the last 50 years and was created by a committee of various scholars from different religious backgrounds.

The importance of a recent translation is because in the past recent years we have found some more reliable greek and hebrew manuscripts that modern translations reflect in their works. The most famous example is the Dead Sea Scrolls. I believe they are the oldest collection of Old Testament Manuscripts to date. Not sure about that last statement though.

So the BEST translation for a WORD for WORD methodology is
NASB: The New American Standard Bible (1995 update) (really no debate about that)

The BEST translation that uses a DYNAMIC EQUIVALENT is
NIV: The New International Version

There is probably a little bit of debate about the NIV being the best of dynamic equivalents, but manys scholars will use the NIV for their study. The New Living Translation is also a very good translation, but I personally think it takes a few too many liberties with the text.

I personally use the NIV and the NASB primarily.

Also, a easy to read version is THE MESSAGE, however this is NOT a translation!!! It is a paraphrase.

Answer 6

I agree with you completely,

People today want a Bible that they are "happy" with, they are not too concerned about the Truth.

Most Christians today do not even read the Bible much less study it.

This is why there is such a market for all the "funny" bibles

Many also study and go to the Greek and Hebrew in order to put THEIR scholarship and intellect over the Bible.

But the worst thing that has occurred from all the different bible "versions" is that people have lost faith that any bible contains the complete and perfect Word of God.

So they stop reading and only listen.

King James Bible is all you need.

Answer 7

Do not be silly, there not just many translation and interpretations, there are multiple versions as well.

ADD: For many of the books of the Bible there are extant copies with entirely different passages in different versions. Words and entire passages added, removed, mis-written, even purposefully re-written.

Plus, there are so many early Christian books that did not make it in to the Bible and some that did make it in but were later removed.
Each denomination has there own selection of which books made the cut or not and what order they are in.

ADD to Scruffy: Off the top of my head, Barabbas' first name was Jesus. Almost none of the translations include his first name because the translation are from the later edited copy.
By cross-referencing earlier versions of the same book that had been found more recently modern scholars were able to track down which early Christian may have "neglected" to include Barabbas' first name (I believe all by himself he and his team of scribes were responsible for several more "accidents" in copying the books in his care).

Answer 8

Retranslation is necessary because no language is static. Consider the term "gay", for instance. 100 years ago everyone attributed the term to happiness. Nowadays the term is attributed to sexual preference. Why are dictionaries revised each year? Because they do not invent the language but rather try to relate to the language that changes over time.

I once heard that the stories of Sherlock Holmes have been translated into more languages than the Bible but don't know if that is true. I knew someone who collected them and had a library full of variants.

Answer 9

Instead of accepting what was origionaly translated man like everything else wanted it to be easier , so they make up there own adding and taking away words to justify thier own wants and desires for it to be............Dont let it fool you.......thats what they have done and are doing even now....yet saying its still the Bible , and thats sinply not True...it takes away from the Scripture meanings and its contents are changed to direct ones believe to the wrong things.........

I have found The origional KJV is the origional translation, of the Hebrew and Greek text..............not this new found stuff.............and i've been reading them along time !!!!

Just be careful what you read and what you get.......ask for the origional translation.......into English KJV

Answer 10

One reason is so everyone has a chance to understand it. Some of the translations where translated from a cult that tried to fit the bible into their religion. I would stick with the KJV because it was translated at the peak of the English language.