[Biblemat] Translations (question/answer)

[Don Martin]

Hello Edd,

Thank you so much for your question and for making use of Bible Questions.
Please do so again. http://www.biblequestions.org  Please check out Bible
Truths http://www.bibletruths.net  Go to the archives section of these sites
for material and also go to the archives search page and type in any subject
or word you wish to explore. New material is constantly being added to both
sites. Any help you can give us in telling others of these sites will be
greatly appreciated.

If you are interested in really learning more about the Bible, there is an
online Bible study course located in Bible Truths. While on the home page,
scroll down and enter.  While on the Map Site Page, click on "Online Bible
Study Course" in the table.  Click on http://www.bibletruths.net to go
there.

You asked:

What brand of bible is right?king james,new world translation,etc

Reply:

There is an enormous about of misunderstanding and misinformation relative
to the translations of the Bible.  There are about seven-five extant English
translations.  These works vary as to accuracy and readability, but one can
learn how to serve and please God from any of them.  There are a number of
classifications of translations. Here is a brief sample along with a few
examples of each grouping. (1) Strictly literal, the American Standard, New
American Standard; (2) literal, New King James Version; (3) literal with
freedom to be idiomatic, New Revised Standard Version; (4)
thought-for-thought, New International Version, New Jerusalem Bible, Revised
English Bible, New Jewish Version; (5) dynamic equivalent or modern speech,
Today's English Version, (6) and paraphrastic, The Living Bible.

As a rule, attendant to the increase numeric group there is a decrease
in the accuracy of the translating of the Hebrew and Greek into English.
Some works such as the Reader's Digest Condensed Bible and some of the
modern street language "renderings" are not even worth mentioning.

I recommend you read, "The Translation of the Bible" found in our reference
site, www.bibletruths.net   When on the home page, enter through the door
and click on "Archives and Index" in the table on the Site Map page.  When
on the Archives page, click on the letter "B."  Here is an excerpt from the
article:

     " ...As we have shown in "The Texts of the Bible" (click on to visit),
the original books of the Bible were written in three major languages,
Hebrew, Aramaic, and the Koine Greek. For several centuries after the
cessation of the age of inspiration (ending with the book of Revelation, ca.
96 AD, Jude 3), the scriptures were not available to the people in
translation (all the various languages of earth). Latin was the language of
the learned and as a result, the early Bibles in England were not in English
but Latin. To view the inception and emergence of the English Bible, we must
travel back to the middle of the seventh century. The first work, not truly
a translation, was performed by Caedmon when he arranged portions of the
Bible in the native Anglo-Saxon. The next century experienced the first true
documented translation of any part of the Bible into English (work of
Aldhelm in 709 AD). Subsequent to 709, portions of the Bible were translated
into English in 735 (by Bede), King Alfred (901), and Abbot Aelfric (tenth
century AD). It was not until the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries that
significant portions were again translated into English (Middle
English)....."

Thanks again for your good question and for your interest in spiritual
matters. I recommend that you print out this email for future reference (web
addresses, etc.). You may print out any material you desire in both Bible
Questions and Bible Truths (see the copyright provision at the bottom of the
home page in Bible Truths).

Cordially,
Don Martin