Bible Translations

We read and study the Bible using our favourite Bible translations. We need Bible translations so that we can read and understand the Bible in our own natural languages.

The Need for Bible Translations

The books of the Bible were not written in languages that we speak today.

• The Jewish Scriptures, or the “Old Testament” books, were written mainly in Hebrew, while some parts were written in Aramaic.
• The Apostolic Scriptures, or the “New Testament” books, were written in Greek.

These languages are called the “biblical languages”. Today, no one speaks the biblical languages as their natural languages. Even the Hebrew and the Greek languages that are spoken today in the modern nations of Israel and Greece are not the same as the Hebrew and the Greek languages that the biblical books were written in.

If we do not know the biblical languages, then we would not be able to understand what the Bible says unless it is translated into our natural languages.

The Concept of Translation

Translation means expressing the meaning of a text in another language. The text that is being translated is known as the “base text”.

In any translation, some meaning always lost. This is because every language is different, and no two languages work in exactly the same manner. Thus, it is not always possible to fully express the meaning of the base text in the target language.

Hence, there is no such thing as perfect translation. Rather, there are multiple valid ways to translate an expression from one language into another language. Each valid way of translating has strengths and weaknesses, advantages and disadvantages.

Reliable Bible Translations

Since we rely on Bible translations in order to read and understand the Bible, we must be careful that we are using a reliable Bible translation.

Not all Bible translations are reliable! Some Bible translations were produced by false teachers. They translate Bible passages inaccurately in order to make it seem as though the Bible supports their false teachings. If we use these unreliable Bible translations, then we might be deceived into thinking that their false teachings are biblical.

Generally, a Bible translation is reliable if it was produced by a committee of Gospel-teaching Christian scholars. However, there are still some differences among these Bible translations because scholars have different views on the meaning of some Bible passages. Yet, despite these differences, all the essential teachings of the Christian faith can still be found in these Gospel-teaching Bible translations.