{"id":186,"date":"2010-07-04T10:00:09","date_gmt":"2010-07-04T15:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.barbdahlgren.com\/?p=186"},"modified":"2010-07-06T14:56:39","modified_gmt":"2010-07-06T19:56:39","slug":"how-does-that-translate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/?p=186","title":{"rendered":"How Does That Translate?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Author A.J. Jacobs decided he would try to live according to the Bible for a whole year.\u00a0 He wrote his experiences in the book The Year of Living Biblically.\u00a0<\/a> <\/em>Being Jewish the first thing on his agenda was to get a Bible, which was no small feat considering he found 3000 versions in English alone.\u00a0 There was a Bible for Dummies, the waterproof Outdoor Bible, a teen Bible, Children\u2019s Bible, the Message, a text speak version along with the 500 or more \u201ctraditional\u201d versions such as NIV, NKJ, NRS, NC, NAS, RS, LB, and so on.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Which leads one to believe that the Bible could possibly be the most mistranslated and misquoted book in history.<\/p>\n

Now I realize there is some argument for continuing to make new translations and revising old ones so people can read the Word of God in their contemporary languages.\u00a0 One can\u2019t just put his head in the sand and say, \u201cIf the King James was good enough for Jesus, it\u2019s good enough for me.\u201d\u00a0 (It\u2019s a joke.\u00a0 Get it.\u00a0 The King James wasn\u2019t around during Jesus\u2019 time.\u00a0 Actually it wasn\u2019t even the translation the Puritans brought with them to America.\u00a0 They read the Geneva Bible.)\u00a0 Other translations existed but the King James was the first translation more accessible to the common man.\u00a0 Published in 1611, the King James Version has become the most widely read version.\u00a0 More translations started appearing in the 1800s.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Having many translations can be a blessing and a curse.\u00a0 While it is nice to have an easy to read Bible in a language one can readily understand, all these different translations can create controversy and sometimes cause division in the body of Christ.\u00a0 Not to mention that no matter how diligent translators are, there is no way they can be totally accurate.\u00a0 Some Hebrew and Greek words don\u2019t translate well into other languages.\u00a0 Even the understanding in those languages could be questionable seeing that the Bible was written from right to left, and with no punctuation, paragraph or scripture divisions.\u00a0 Will we ever be able to understand every context, every nuance, or every interpretation of the Bible?\u00a0 Do we need to?\u00a0<\/p>\n

One has to wonder how the gospel got around before it was published and given out by the Gideons.\u00a0 (It\u2019s a joke!\u00a0 I love the Gideons and think they do a great work.)\u00a0 Yet during the time of Christ, even before the published word was readily accessible to everyone, many believed on Him and converted to Christianity.\u00a0 The accounts of his crucifixion, resurrection and what he represented spread throughout nations \u2013 mostly by word of mouth.\u00a0 Most missionaries are not armed with hundreds of Bible translations, yet they manage to point people to Christ anyway.\u00a0 God works in mysterious ways.<\/p>\n

Do all these translations muddle the message?\u00a0 Today one might think that with all these translations there is no hope of knowing what the Word of God really says.\u00a0 I don\u2019t think that\u2019s true if you center on the core issues.\u00a0 The main message is the plain message.\u00a0 God loves us.\u00a0 He sent his son Jesus to die for us.\u00a0 Jesus rose from the dead.\u00a0 His victory over death is our victory as well.\u00a0 Everything else is peripheral.\u00a0 The fact that people can believe in Christ in spite of 3000 versions of the Bible floating around is miraculous.\u00a0 One that translates well in any language!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Author A.J. Jacobs decided he would try to live according to the Bible for a whole year.\u00a0 He wrote his experiences in the book The Year of Living Biblically.\u00a0 Being Jewish the first thing on his agenda was to get … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=186"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=186"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=186"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=186"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}