Different bible versions how to#Certain words and phrases are indeed difficult to translate, and in those cases, different translators will often disagree about how to render those words or phrases. Still, though, we need to go farther, because obviously not every verse in the Bible is quite as straightforward as Mark 10:50. In fact, reading two or three translations side-by-side can many times actually help fill out the picture of what’s happening. My point here is simply to say that different translations do not prevent us from knowing what the original actually meant. The man quickly takes off his outer piece of clothing, gets up, and makes his way to Jesus. For all the differences between these five translations, it’s really clear what’s going on. So throwing off his cloak, he sprang up and came to Jesus.Īnd he, casting away his garment, rose, and came to Jesus.Ĭrazy, isn’t it? How on earth are we ever going to get our heads around what Mark 10:50 is really saying? I mean, sure, everyone seems to agree that this man came to Jesus, but did he throw his cloak or cast it? Was it even a cloak at all, or was it a garment? And for crying out loud, how are we ever supposed to determine whether he sprang, jumped, or rose before he came to Jesus?Īlright, obviously I’m being facetious here. Throwing his cloak aside, he jumped to his feet and came to Jesus. Throwing aside his cloak, he jumped up and came to Jesus. The English Standard Version translates it like this:Īnd throwing off his cloak, he sprang up and came to Jesus. So let’s look at Mark 10:50 and see how several English Bibles translate that verse. “And another number between one and fifty-two.” “Now pick a number between one and fifteen.” I just asked my wife to name one of the four Gospels. Let’s take one at random and look at how several translations render it. You can do the same sort of thing with verses in the Bible. But even so, is there really any doubt about what “Yo, it’s chill, bro” is communicating? Whichever of these translations you use, what the sentence means is that my son wants someone with whom he is in a friendly relationship to be aware that he does not think his current situation is problematic he’s satisfied with it. The specific words differ in all these translations. “You know what? The situation is copacetic, loved one.” Think again about our example of the Kidspeak sentence, “Yo, it’s chill, bro.” I could have translated that sentence to my dad in a number of ways: This short book, perfect for small groups or outreach, examines historical and theological arguments that demonstrate the Bible’s reliability. The Bible is foundational to Christianity, but many believers struggle to articulate why they trust it. The Original Textīut what about the various translations themselves? Don’t they render the Bible so differently from each other that we really can’t be sure at all about the original meaning? That’s a good question, but in reality, even when different translations use different words to render the same Greek or Hebrew phrase, that does not necessarily-or even very often at all- leave us with any doubt about what the original was saying. There’s no reason at all to think the presence of both a men’s study Bible and a women’s study Bible in your local bookstore introduces any confusion at all into the meaning of the biblical text. They differ only in the additional items that accompany the text-the introductory content, the study notes, the devotional articles, and other material. In short, the answer to all these questions is “no.” When it comes to the different editions of the Bible aimed at students or men or women or soldiers, all those are simply marketing packages in which the actual text of the Bible remains the same. Is it because the people who worked on the ESV thought the people who worked on the NIV got the Bible largely wrong? Or because the KJV committees translated the Bible so badly that the RSV translators had to correct it all? For that matter, does the book of John change when it addresses men, women, athletes, or soldiers? And then, to top it all off, many of these have other editions, like the military edition, the sports edition, the men’s and women’s and teenagers’ and students’ and businessperson’s editions. There’s the Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB) and the English Standard Version (ESV) and the New Living Translation (NLT) and the New International Version (NIV). There’s the King James Version (KJV), the New King James Version (NKJV), and the Revised Standard Version (RSV). Why are there so many different translations of the Bible? Go into any Christian bookstore, and you can find an entire shelf-sometimes an entire section!-of different Bible translations.
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