Wednesday, December 14, 2022 Evening Service

---

Bible Versions 11

Translating and Translations

Before we begin, let’s go back and look at what we’re talking about when we talk about “the Bible,” “the words of God,” and “Scripture.”

• “all scripture is given by inspiration of God”
• “every word of God is pure”
• “man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.”
• “Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.”
• “The words of the LORD are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times. Thou shalt keep them, O LORD, thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever.”

“Good enough” isn’t good enough. You either have every word of God or you don’t. God either preserved His words like He promised or He didn’t.

This gets interesting when we start talking about translations and translating.

As we’ve covered before, there is no manuscript and no Greek text that anyone can put into your hand that they would claim is the perfect words of God. Even when someone says they believe the Textus Receptus, which one? There are multiple, and no one puts one up and says, “This is it, anything that is different from this is wrong.”

• The best that they will do is say, “Every word of God is found somewhere in the manuscript evidence, but we don’t know exactly where or which ones.”
  • Some even go so far as to say that the words of God are lost. Some examples:
    • “There are instances where no existing manuscript is likely to preserve the original wording; where none of the variants seem to be right, or where the original text does not make sense as far as current scholarship can determine. In such cases scholars must assume that the original wording of the text has been lost or distorted in the course of the copying process” (Michael Coogan, “Textual Criticism,” New Oxford Annotated Bible, NRSV, 3rd edition, 2001)
    • “[The New Testament text is more unsettled] than ever, and PERHAPS FINALLY, UNSETTLED” (Rendel Harris, Side Lights on New Testament Research, 1908, p. 3)
    • “The ultimate text, if there ever was one that deserves to be so called, IS FOR EVER IRRECOVERABLE” (F.C. Conybeare, History of New Testament Criticism, 1910, p. 129).
    • “In spite of the claims of Westcott and Hort and of von Soden, WE DO NOT KNOW THE ORIGINAL FORM OF THE GOSPELS, AND IT IS QUITE LIKELY THAT WE NEVER SHALL” (Kirsopp Lake, Family 13, The Ferrar Group, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1941, p. vii).
    • “… it is generally recognized that THE ORIGINAL TEXT OF THE BIBLE CANNOT BE RECOVERED” (R.M. Grant, “The Bible of Theophilus of Antioch,” Journal of Biblical Literature, vol. 66, 1947, p. 173).
    • “The primary goal of New Testament textual study remains the recovery of what the New Testament writers wrote. We have already suggested that TO ACHIEVE THIS GOAL IS WELL NIGH IMPOSSIBLE. Therefore we must be content with what Reinhold Niebuhr and others have called, in other contexts, AN ‘IMPOSSIBLE POSSIBILITY’” (R.M. Grant, A Historical Introduction to the New Testament, 1963, p. 51).

What we do is follow where God has moved. “By their fruits ye shall know them.” - Mat 7:16,20. It does not take much to see God’s hand moving and using the KJV as soon as it shows up. It does not take much to see the apostasy that begins and continues with the new versions.

So now we have some people bringing up something they see as an issue: have you ever heard the phrase “lost in translation?”

• Some people claim that no translation can be perfect: something always changes during translation.
  • If we were talking about a human book and a purely human endeavor to translate, then I would say they might have a point.
  • It is also interesting to note that these are the same people who “prefer” versions of the Bible based off of a supposed “Septuagint” (OT translated from Hebrew to Greek)
    • Let’s look at this as it relates to God’s Book.

The problems with saying translation can not be inspired:

• OT quotes in the NT
  • The NT quotes the OT at least 300 times - https://christianity.stackexchange.com/a/61767
  • Originally written in Hebrew in the OT, but written in Greek in the NT.
    • Were those quotes inspired?
• When Jesus spoke in Hebrew in NT
  • Acts 26:14 - And when we were all fallen to the earth, I heard a voice speaking unto me, and saying in the Hebrew tongue, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.
• When Paul spoke in Hebrew
  • Acts 21:40; Acts 22:2 - And when he had given him licence, Paul stood on the stairs, and beckoned with the hand unto the people. And when there was made a great silence, he spake unto them in the Hebrew tongue, saying,
• Genesis 11:1,5-9 - God created languages. Can He not translate between them?
• the word “translate” inthe Bible
  • 2 Samuel 3:10 - To translate the kingdom from the house of Saul, and to set up the throne of David over Israel and over Judah, from Dan even to Beer-sheba.
  • Colossians 1:13 - Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son:
  • Hebrews 11:5 - By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God.