Why are there different versions of the Bible something is changed in each of them...which one was sent down?

Question

and how does it make sense that there are diff versions?? does that mean mankind edited it and changed the words of god?

Answer 1

the bible wasn't written in English. Each version is a new group of people translating it from hebrew and Greek into English..Words in other languages may not have just one equivalent in English. so the translators are trying to find the best match for the work in Greek or Hebrew.

Answer 2

God chose to use language to communicate. Parts of the first five books of the bible Moses simply wrote down in dictation style what God said. God's prophets had rules about their prophecy being 100% acurate or the general public were to kill them. God told the prophets to speak the "words" I tell you, not concepts. The original languages of Hebrew and Greek, written by the power of the Holy Spirit of God, were accurate even though written by men. Today we have 20,000 parts of copies of the the original books that make up today's New Testament, among these there are small copying mistakes, none of which affect any teaching on salvation. While it is true men decided about the 66 books by 300AD, but these 66 beat out all the rest, some books were not worth dying for, these 66 were worth dying for. Greek and Hebrew are languages able to span centuries, Hebrew virtually didn't change over biblical times, and Greek's verb system spells each word with meaning, not like English where the order of the words is critical to the meaning of a sentence. We translate the bible from today's best Hebrew and Greek texts because that message needs to be told. The bible claims to be God's word, some will ignore it and some will listen, and God always gives more light to those who seek Him.

Answer 3

As mentioned in some answers, translation is one of the primary reasons for so many versions. For example, I own 3 different English translations of "Around the World in 80 Days", a rather short story written only about 120 years ago in French - a *very* well-understood language from a *very* well-documented period. Translation, even of modern, well-known and studied languages, is *not* an exact science.

However, this is hardly the only reason for new translations, or versions. Here are some others (very briefly):
1) Advances - over time, there are new discoveries of source manuscripts, new discoveries in the (scholarly) field of ancient language translation, and changes in the English language. These 3 are all excellent, scholarly reasons for producing a new translation at *least* every 50 years or so.
2) Translation *style*: there are generally 2 "extremes" of this: word-for-word literal (as exemplified by the NASB), and thought-for-thought "dynamic" (as exemplified by paraphrase editions). There are several "shades" between these extremes. Scholars, publishers and readers tend to favor translations which attempt to attain these goals to some degree. In addition the difficulty of reading is an issue - some versions are translated to be very easy to read (with a resultant lack in precision of translation), while some focus on precision with less regard to ease of reading, and (again) several shades between.
3) $ - probably the *most* significant impetus for new versions, a publisher can well expect that any scholarly translation is likely to *not* lose money, particularly in English (a fairly wealthy and fairly Christian portion of the world speaks English). If organizations were required to foot the entire bill for new bible production, and if they could expect to make no profit from it, there would likely be very few versions, indeed (only a handful every century, I'd wager).
4) Text included: a basic division between versions is which books are included. This is normally decided prior to translation, and is wholly a sectarian divide. Some versions attempt to be more inclusive and offer editions with both "complete" and "abridged" canons.

I think that these reasons "make sense". However, this does *not* mean that scripture has been changed or edited. *Very*, *very* little of this has been discovered in source manuscripts. However, in fact, there *are* several instances which have been discovered in the last century in which passages (normally very brief) have been determined to be additions to the original text. (These have been discoverd by comparing the earliest New Testament manuscripts, and finding agreement in the lack of passages which only appear in later European manuscripts.) However, though several, these additions have little (IMHO, no) effect on the content of scripture as a whole. In other words, no doctrinal changes have resulted from the discovery that these passages were additions.

So, although *very minor* additions have been attempted over the centuries, they have been found out and are, generally, not included in modern scholarly translations (exception: the New King James Version, which uses the Textus Receptus as a source rather than the more ancient sources commonly used by biblical scholars).

In other words, our modern, scholarly translations differ primarily by
1) translational differences (translation style and reading level)
2) books included

There is, generally, very little other difference between versions. *Very* little that might be considered significant.

Jim, http://www.jimpettis.com/wheel/

Answer 4

None were "sent down".

That is a fundamentalist myth - and it's 100 times crazier than creationism.

After the diaspora (The destruction of Israel and fleeing of Jews to different parts of the world), Jews started putting together different texts that would form the Torah. This movement was mostly occurring during the lower Middle Ages. In this period, scholars worked tirelessly with incomplete texts, often in different dialects, to come up with versions that were as close to the original as humanely possible.
The Early Christian Church (Orthodox and Catholic, plus a number of factions that didn't survive to this day) then took those texts and added or removed books and passages to support their own ideas of what the message was.
Then there was the reformation and the different schisms, which lead to further revisions of the Church's decision.

So in conclusion, the idea that the Bible was just zapped into existence by God is absurd. Even theologians will admit to this (qualified ones). No book can exonerate man from using his judgment. No book can absolve man from the need to think critically.

Answer 5

There are different translations of The Holy Bible. King James version is written from the original Greek Scriptures, but it is written in 16th century old English. Sentence structure is different then modern day English, plus many words are used that we don't use today. The New Living translation is written in plain modern English. Much easier for us to read and understand today. There are many languages on the earth, so different translations have to be made for everyone to be able to read it.

Answer 6

If you accept the Bible as the Word of G-d, then the only correct versions are those in the original languages. Everything suffers in translation. Even the most diligent translator cannot compensate for the fact that all languages have words, concepts or syntax which convey meaning that is never quite captured in the translation into another language.
If you do not accept the Bible as the Word of G-d, then all versions are some human being's efforts to interpret a text compiled by other human beings, so it doesn't matter, does it?

Answer 7

There is agreement between scholars that we have about 99% of the original Greek and Hebrew - which can be found in an Interlinear Bible. This Bible translates the Greek and Hebrew word for word - which is difficult to read and understand. The various versions attempt to provide an understandable translation which can vary in accuracy - some being quite inaccurate and misleading - particularly the paraphrased versions.

Answer 8

There is only one Bible and that is God's revelation of Himself to mankind.

It was originally written in Hebrew in the Old Testament and in Greek/Aramaic in the New Testament.

The scriptures have then been translated into many different languages and translated into different vernacular to reflect the understood vocabulary of the day so it will retain it's original message.

For example the word "let" in Jesus' day meant to oppose whereas today it means to allow. Now a verse that had the greek word for "let" may be interpreted as completely opposite of what the author meant unless we periodically update the text to account for these chronological changes in our vocabulary.

The major translations have been painstakingly studied they retain the original message:

The New American Standard Bible is the translation that the most literal translation from the Greek text.

Answer 9

Well, none of them were sent down. However, the originals are in Greek and Hebrew, so if you want to learn those languages, then you can read the originals.

There are so many versions because people have written down their interpretation of what they believe god is trying to say, or what they believe the bible should say.

Answer 10

If you have a concordance, with a Greek and Hebrew dictionary, you can Judge what version suits you. With this concordance/dictionary you can see what word was actually used, and better understand the motive of the writers.

Some versions were made to better suit the language of the day, some were made to better suit the desires of the writers.

It is true that the KJV is most similar in language to the original Greek and Hebrew.