Peace Like a River - Bible translations - Do you know what version you read and why?

2006-Jul-18

Bible translations - Do you know what version you read and why?

First, this is really long, and I apologize, but there isn't really much that I want to edit out (sorry! ). Secondly, I just want to say at the beginning that I'm sharing this because I would like to encourage others to look into the subject of Bible translations for themselves. I think it's an important topic that a lot of people don't really think about at all (including myself until just recently). I'm NOT sharing this to tell you what version you should read. As you'll see, my conclusions are leading me to King James, but that's my conclusion. I encourage others to look into the subject for themselves and come to their own conclusions and decide for themselves what they are reading and why.

I haven't really thought too much about bible translations until recently. I don't remember what translation I grew up reading (I lost my first Bible!!), but for the last 8 years I've been reading mostly from the New Living Translation (NLT), which is a paraphrased translation, for no other reason than it was given to me as a gift and it's a convenient size.

For a while, I wanted to get a New American Standard Bible (NASB) since I had thought it was the most accurate and literal translation available. However, in the meantime, I kept reading my NLT and would occasionally refer to my NASB pocket Bible or my giant family-size King James Version (KJV) when I wanted to know what one of the more literal translations said. Over the years, I have also caught myself writing KJV verses in my Bible because they just seem to sound better and touch my heart more. I also noticed that, while I don't have many verses actually memorized, the ones that I do remember all happen to be King James… even though I was never taught or read from that version.

I mentioned in the last post that recently I had felt convicted to start memorizing more of God's word and to help my children start memorizing too. But, that brought me to a small dilemma… which translation should I use? I thought about this a lot. I wanted a literal translation, like the NASB, KJV, or New King James Version (NKJV). On the one hand, I was under the impression that the NASB was most accurate, but I really liked how most of the KJV verses sounded. But I didn't like the KJV because I thought it was too hard to read. When I compared most verses, the NASB, KJV, and NKJV were nearly identical except for minor variations, mostly things like "shall" instead of "will" and of course the "'thee"s, "thy"s, "thou"s. Other than comparing a lot of random verses between the three translations, there didn't really seem to be that much of a difference between them, and so I didn't really look into the differences beyond that. I had finally decided that the New King James was the one to go with. It seemed like the best compromise between the accuracy of the NASB and the style and rhythm of the KJV, but easier to read.

Just as I was about to buy a New King James Bible, I stumbled across some interesting information about Bible translations. What is very interesting to me is the fact that I was not looking for any of this to begin with, but the whole Bible translation thing weighed on my heart a lot. It really felt like the Lord knew my heart and how important this was to me, and so placed some information in my path for me to trip over!

I can't even remember specifically what it was that I stumbled over that first got my attention, but it piqued my interest, and I started researching more. I found out there there's a lot more to the whole Bible translations subject than I ever thought… To be honest, I am still learning a lot on the subject and reading everything I can. I have not verified all of the historical facts mentioned below, but what I have been able to research does appear to be accurate, and I have looked up virtually all of the Bible verse references and saw with my own eyes… this is really what they say. But I encourage you to look for yourself too, and not take my word for it either.

If you don't have a certain translation, the following are good sites for online Bibles:

http://www.biblegateway.com and http://bible.crosswalk.com/

Online Parallel Bible - http://www.olivetree.com/bible/Frames/SearchEnglishVersions.htm This only translates the literal versions like NASB, KJV, NKJV and other less common ones, but you can look up verses side-by-side between the translations and compare them.

Verse comparisons:

These sites compare specific verses from King James against other versions. When you look at them, the other versions often seem watered down compared to KJV. The argument is that more accurate texts have been found in the last 100 or so years, but if that was true, that would mean that 1) God's true, accurate word had been hidden for nearly 1900 years, which I find highly unlikely, and 2) that would also mean that the original version of God's word was weaker; that translators added the stronger wording. I find that hard to believe too. It would seem much more realistic to me that God's word would be questioned, that mankind would take from, rather than add to God's Holy Word.

These are some side-by-side verse comparisons.

Charts http://av1611.com/kjbp/charts.html.. Scroll to the bottom which has links to several pages. They are all interesting, but the first link (pages 1 & 2) are the most eye-opening. http://av1611.com/kjbp/charts/themagicmarker.html

www.avpublications.com/avnew/downloads/PDF/Tracts/nabv_tract.pdf

www.chick.com/information/bibleversions/articles/nivquiz.asp

Accuracy of the KJV

These links are historical information on Bible translations and the discussion of the original texts:

James Melton's Handy Reference

An Understandable History of the Bible

Which Version of the Bible is Most Accurate?

The New King James Version

http://av1611.com/kjbp/articles/reynolds-nkjv.html

http://www.av1611.org/nkjv.html

http://www.swordbible.org/NKJVersion.html

I thought the NKJV is supposed to be just an updated version of the King James, just more readable. However, from what I can tell, it looks like the translators used some of the more recently found texts used to translate the NASB and NIV, etc…, so while it is very similar to King James in many places, some of the key verses seem to be watered down like the other modern versions.

The other problem I found with the NKJV is that some of the verses do not appear to be more modern or easier to understand. It made me wonder why the difference? For example, why would the NKJV change "hell" to "Hades" (compare "hell" vs "Hades" in Matthew 16.18 and Luke 16.23) etc..? Isn't the word "hell" clear enough? I realized that the King James is public domain, whereas the NKJV is copyrighted. In order for the publishers/translators to be able to copyright the new translation, it must have enough differences from the original to make it copy-rightable. Is that why they changed some of the wording? I don't know, but it's something to think about….

All that said, I really leaning toward the King James Version because of the following:

1) God promised to preserve His Words… Would the Creator of the universe really have allowed these manuscripts to remain hidden until the 1800s?

2) As I mentioned at the beginning, most of the verses between the NASB, NKJV, and KJV are very similar. However, when I did start finding differences, the King James version is always stronger. The other versions just seem weaker and more watered down.

3) The King James Version is not copyrighted. All of other common translations, including the New King James, are copyrighted, which means some publisher somewhere "owns" the rights to God's Word. That just doesn’t sound right to me when I think about it that way.

4) The KJV translators highlighted the added words for clarity. If it's not highlighted, it's not in the original language. If it's added, you'll know they added it.

5) In today's English, we use "you" for both plural and singular. In both Greek and Hebrew, they use a different word to differentiate between "you" referring to one person and "you" referring to multiple people. Contrary to what many people currently think, the "thee"s and "thou"s of the King James version were not modern at that time either. They hadn't been used in 400 years (approximately 1200) other than the poetic usage. The translators used them to retain the difference between the plural and singular "you". For example, look at John 3.7. Jesus is talking to Nicodemus and says "Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again." He's basically saying "I'm telling you, Nicodemus (thee), you all (ye) must be born again." Otherwise, someone could try to be technical and say that Jesus told Nicodemus that he must be born again, but he was only talking to Nicodemus, and not everyone else. But when you see that he uses the plural ("ye"), that argument doesn't stand up. But the other translations could leave a gray area for someone. I know that's probably far-fetched, but still, it's nice to know exactly what was originally said.

6) For those who say that the King James is too difficult to read, the King James has been around for 400 years. In that time, it has been the primary translation used up until the last 50+ years. Were are grandparents and great-grandparents really smarter than us? If they could read it, I think we manage too!

As I said at the beginning, I'm not sharing this to try to tell anyone that the King James version is the only version to read (honestly, I'm still reading my NLT… I'm reading it straight through and will probably try the KJV next time 'round). This is just something that I had never thought a lot about, but once I did it seemed that what I did know or had assumed all along wasn't really accurate. And honestly, even after I said point # 6 above, I still struggle a little with some of the passages in King James. I definitely like memorizing King James verses, but as for reading, I think it will take a little while to get used to. I don't think it's too hard to read, but it is a little different than what I'm used to reading. In the meantime, I bounce back and forth between various versions (mostly my NLT and King James, but if I'm near a computer, I'll look up NKJV online too.)

I guess what I'm trying to say is whether you agree or disagree with any of this, I encourage everyone to at least look into the subject for yourself and come to your own conclusion and decide for yourself what you are reading and why.

Good luck in your search!