What Bible Should I Buy?

Most people I meet have never studied a second language. They make the incorrect assumption that translating from one language to another is like removing one plug from an electrical outlet and inserting another. When you are finished running an electric vacuum cleaner, you unplug it from the wall and plug in a lamp in its place. That is, when you have a phrase in one language you wish to translate, you simply find the proper words in a dictionary and replace each word with another from the new language.

But, languages are different from one another in many ways. For example, in English an adjective comes before a noun. So, English speakers say, "A red ball." In many other languages, the adjective comes after the noun it describes. In those languages, "A ball red" is the correct usage. Simply replacing words can result in what sounds like nonsense.

And, each language has its own idiomatic expressions. For example, a very literal translation of Matthew 1:18 would be, "She was found having in the belly." That is the expression Matthew used to say Mary was pregnant. So, would you want that phrase rendered literally in the Bible you use; or should it be conveyed with words that express the intended meaning, even if words not in the text are required to say it? Most of us would rightly choose the accuracy of the thought over the literalness of the words.

Translators can make every effort to be as literal as possible, but often it will be necessary to use whatever words are required to preserve the accuracy of the thought, even if the words used must be changed. Once people understand what must be done to communicate something from one language in another language, they can accept a reasonable amount of dynamic equivalence in translation, even if it means literalness must be compromised a little.

On a personal note, my parents gave me my first Bible when I was ten years old. It was the King James Version (KJV). I noticed that some words and phrases were in italics. One day I learned those italicized words were not actually part of the original text, but had to be added for the sentences to make sense in English. That bothered me for quite a while. How did I know those words really belonged? A few years later I was studying Latin and German in preparation for becoming a pastor. Later I would also study Greek and Hebrew. I soon learned the difficulties of moving information from one language to another and some of the adjustments that had to be made to keep the meaning the same, even if the words had to change. My anxieties about those italicized words evaporated very quickly.

This Norman Rockwell print was a cover for the Saturday Evening Post on March 6, 1948. It is titled "The Gossip." It reminds us of the children's game "Telephone." In that game the first person speaks a saying to someone who repeats it to another who repeats it, until what was said reaches the last person. As all who have played this game know, the last person hears something far different from what was initially spoken.

You have probably heard someone say, "The Bible has been copied, translated, and interpreted so many times that we cannot be certain it has any resemblance now to what it originally said." The assumption is that Bible translation and transmission are akin to this children's game with each new translation of the Bible being a revision of, or based on the immediate previous translation. This false notion is easily put to rest.

If others are like me, they can go for many years before they ever take the time to read The Preface in books they own. Reading The Preface is especially important in a Bible. Most Bible prefaces contain very similar information. The New International Version (NIV) is a widely used Bible version in our time. I will make reference to its Preface, which I have linked here from an on-line source.

The first sentence is very important and explains why the objection presented in step 2 (The Bible may not resemble what it originally said after all of these years because it was copied, etc. so often.) is without basis. That first sentence says, "The New International Version is a completely new translation of the Holy Bible made by over a hundred scholars working directly from the best available Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek texts." Notice, the New International Version is not a revision of a previous translation, but an entirely new translation made from the best available original language texts. This is also true of most modern versions. Most of the Old Testament was written in Hebrew. Small parts of it were written in Aramaic, which is very similar to Hebrew, but came into use in the centuries before Christ. The New Testament was originally an everyday type of Greek known as Koine, or "common" Greek.

If you were to play the children's game of "Telephone" in the same way Bible translation is done, each person in the chain would go back to the first person in the chain to double-check what he or she heard before passing it to the next person in the chain. Played that way, what the last person in the chain hears would be exactly what the first person said.

Qumran was a Jewish community near the Dead Sea. That community protected many of its scrolls with large stone jars inside caves like the one in the photo. In 1947 a shepherd boy discovered these scrolls while looking for a lost goat. Prior to the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, our oldest text of the Hebrew Old Testament came from about 1000 AD. Some of the biblical scrolls at Qumran were 1200 years older. If texts were distorted as they are copied, as many assume, 1200 years would be enough time to observe considerable changing in the text. But, that did not happen. Many* of the biblical books found at Qumran are virtually no different from the standard Hebrew text dating from much later. There is a reason for so little change. As a matter of quality control, the scribes who copied texts at Qumran counted the letters in each line after copying it. They made a mark under the middle letter. They checked to see if the mid-point mark was under the same letter in the original text from which the copy was made. If not, they knew there was a mistake, and they began again.

*Difference in texts happen for well-intended reasons. For example, some appear to have come from a different textual tradition that included some variations in readings. Sometimes the translators of the Greek Old Testament known as the Septuagint thought the Hebrew text presented God in an unfavorable light and chose wordings that softened the portrait of God, lest He seem too harsh. Such changes are hardly large or significant.

The NIV was produced by committees of competent translators from various backgrounds so that the final product would not seem to favor the doctrinal formulations of any particular Christian denomination.

Also, the translation work was checked again and again by different committees. The Preface states, "The translation of each book was assigned to a team of scholars. Next, one of the Intermediate Editorial Committees revised the initial translation, with constant reference to the Hebrew, Aramaic or Greek. Their work then went on to one of the General Editorial committees, which checked it in detail and made another thorough version. This revision in turn was carefully reviewed by the Committee on Bible Translation, which made further changes and then released the final version for publication. In this way the entire Bible underwent three revisions, during each of which the translation was examined for its faithfulness to the original languages and for its English style." There were multiple reviews of each part of the text for both faithfulness to the original texts and for good English usage.

Although there have sometimes been gifted people who worked virtually alone to produce good Bible translations, in general I would advise shoppers to look for a Bible translation based on the best available original language texts and done by a group of people who cross check one another in order to protect the final product from each other's unconscious biases. Further, the text should be in good contemporary English so its expression flows in a clear and natural way.

I mentioned the NIV as an example in discussing the benefits of reading The Preface. That does not mean I am suggesting the NIV meets everyone's needs or is the best modern English translation. There are things I personally like about the NIV, but there are also things I do not like about it. Winston Churchill humorously said a preposition is a terrible word to end a sentence with. The NIV frequently ends sentences with prepositions. I was always taught that is poor English usage and I try to avoid it when I speak or write. I expect placing prepositions at the ends of sentences is a concession the editors made to what has been happening throughout contemporary society during recent decades, despite rules of proper grammar. Also on my "do not like list," sometimes the editors of the NIV made the decision to paraphrase technical words to make the meaning clear. That helps the modern reader understand concepts better, but leaves the reader without clues that two passages are related because both use the same word with a rather precise technical meaning.* Still, I have a copy of the NIV and do make use of it.

There is still more in The Preface. For example, it will tell you why you sometimes see LORD and sometimes Lord. The distinction is very important, especially at Psalm 110:1.

*In 1 John 2:1-2 the NIV translates the Greek word hilastarion as "the sin offering for the whole world." The English Standard Version uses the word 'propitiation' to translate the word. The word 'propitiation' is almost never used in contemporary English speech or writing. It refers to the forgiving character of God through an atoning sacrifice. Its contextual usage in the rest of the Bible refers to the sacrifice the high priest offered for the sins of the people on the Old Testament Day of Atonement. Certainly, "the sin offering for the whole world" is easier to grasp for the contemporary reader. The same Greek word appears in Romans 3:25 where the NIV translates it as "sacrifice of atonement." Both of these renderings present an accurate meaning, but the reader would not have sufficient clues that the same Greek word is translated in both passages.

The photo shows the title page from the first edition of the King James Bible.

The King James Version was 400 years old early in May 2011. It is much loved and revered by many. Some insist it is the only Bible anyone should ever use. One interesting fact that most do not realize is this: the standard King James Version Bible you buy today is not the original 1611 version, but is a 1769 revision. The original 1611 version is still available many places, but contemporary readers would find it unnecessarily difficult to read and understand.

The King James Version is still very usable, but it has two problems for contemporary users. First, we simply have more and better original language texts available today thanks to biblical archaeology coming of age in the late Nineteenth and early Twentieth Centuries and thanks to the comparative study of biblical text variants. Although the differences pertain to very small details, modern translations are actually now more accurate than the King James Version.* And second, when the biblical texts came to us, they always came in the everyday language people spoke at the time, whether Hebrew or Aramaic or Greek. The King James Version contains a number of archaic words we either no longer use in English, or their meaning has changed a bit, sometimes quite a bit. For example, consider Psalm 88:13--"But unto thee have I cried, O LORD; and in the morning shall my prayer prevent thee." In contemporary English we use the word "prevent" to mean we hinder something so that it cannot happen. That meaning is nonsense in this verse from Psalm 88. The original meaning of "prevent" intended in Psalm 88 fits the Latin roots of that word and what the word meant in earlier English usage, which was to come before something or someone. Compare Psalm 88:13 in the new English Standard Version: "But I, O LORD, cry to you; in the morning my prayer comes before you." You can see how "prevent" came to have the meaning we give it. If we are to stop someone from doing something, we must appear before that person to present a barrier.

If you listen to a sermon or take part in a Bible study based on the King James Version, most of the time will be spent explaining what words in the King James Version text mean today. I have always preferred to use an accurate modern version of the Bible that bypasses the process of explaining changes in meaning over four centuries so that the time can be spent of applying the biblical message to contemporary life.

If you prefer the King James Version because you believe it is more accurate than modern translations, I admire your enthusiasm for accuracy and truth, but texts available today give us more accuracy than what we had available in 1611.

*It is not my intent to spark a debate with people from King James Only groups. People who insist on only the King James Version do not trust what is today generally considered the best New Testament texts (Westcott-Hort tradition), but instead prefer a slightly different text family known as the Textus Receptus ("recieved text"). Regardless of which of these two New Testament text families is chosen, basic Christian teachings are not affected by any differences.

As an example of how archaeology affects translation, a Hebrew word in the Old Testament was known by the context to be an alcoholic beverage. The translators in 1611 assumed it was wine. In 1929 at Ugarit a plow turned up a piece of broken pottery with writing on it from a language very close to Hebrew. In the written message a potentate was complaining that he had purchased some of this beverage, but it contained grain husks. Now we know that word refers to beer or ale. Grain is not used in making wine, but is used in making beers and ales. This is a small change in the translated text, but does yield more accuracy after all these centuries.

People often want to buy one most accurate version of the Bible. But, consider that producing a Bible translation in English means it will be used by people from all sorts of local regions where speech can be quite different. Where I grew up, carbonated beverages, like Coca-Cola, were called 'pop.' In other parts of the USA they were known as 'soda.' In still others they are called 'soda pop' or a 'soft drink.' In parts of the US South, all carbonated beverages are referred to as Coca-Cola.* Or, in the area where I was raised one pushes or presses a button. But, years later I lived in East Tennessee where the common expression is to mash down on a button.

Multiple versions or translations do not indicate a defect or push a hidden agenda, but mean translators and editors are generally making a sincere effort to present the Bible in wordings that are broadly understandable to all regions of the English speaking world, and yet faithful to the meaning of the original language texts. Have and use multiple versions to get a better idea of what the original text said. The ideal would be to learn Greek and Hebrew well so you can read the Bible in its original languages, but that is not practical for most readers of the Bible. The next best thing is to access as many modern translations as possible and compare them. Slight differences in wording will provide cues to a more precise understanding of the meaning of the original text. There are on-line sites where you can read various Bible versions, like Bible Gateway. That saves the expense of buying printed volumes.

* This conversation is very much in the realm of possibility.
"Do you want a Coca-Cola?"
"Yes."
"What flavor?"
"Grape."