One day, as a sophomore in college at the University of Kentucky, I was walking back to the dorms from class with a friend named Brandon.
Brandon knew I was a Christian because he had seen me reading and carrying around my Bible and he said to me...
"You know the modern translations of the Bible are not accurate?"
"What do you mean?" I asked him.
"
The Bible is a translation of a translation of a translation of a translation. It's been corrupted over the years. It's not anything like the original. It's like the 'TELEPHONE' game."
You know, that game we all played in school where you line up and each person whispers a sentence in the ear of the person next to them. You can only say it once and then the listener has to pass on whatever they think they heard. And on down the line.
It's an object lesson in how messages get corrupted the more people pass them on. Usually it's used to teach teenagers not to gossip. But my friend Brandon claimed that was exactly what had happened with our modern translations of the Bible.
Is this true?
Not remotely.
Our modern ESV or NIV Bibles were not translated from other imperfect translations. It is not as though the Bible were translated from the original Hebrew and Greek into Latin and from that into German and from that into French and from that to English.
The committees of language experts responsible for translations such as the ESV and NIV use manuscripts in the original languages. They go back to the earliest and most reliable manuscripts to ensure our translations are as accurate as possible. It is nothing like the telephone game.
But The Originals Don't Exist!
It's important for us to understand that the original documents that Moses or David or Paul or John wrote are no longer in existence. In fact we don't have one original autograph for any book of the Bible.
That's a problem for those of us claiming our modern translations are accurate to the originals right?
No, not really.
While we have no originals, we have a vast number of copies.
The New Testament alone has over 5,800 copies and fragments currently in existence. The oldest manuscripts date to the 2nd century, less than 100 years removed from the date of the originals.
Compare that to other documents of ancient history and our confidence in the Bible grows.
For example, Herodotus' history, written in the mid-400's B.C. has only 8 copies in existence, the earliest greater than 1300 years removed from the original. Homer's
Illiad, written around 900 B.C. has an impressive 643 copies in existence, the oldest roughly 500 years removed from the original.
But compare that with the more than 5,800 copies of the NT available today, the oldest not even 100 years removed from the original! No other ancient document even compares!
But Human Copiers Made Errors!
It's also important to note that the first time a Greek NT was produced by a printing press was the year 1516. This means for the first 1400 years or so of the NT it had to be copied by hand. That opened it up to human error.
This surely is very bad news for those claiming the accuracy of modern translations right?
Not really.
The process of
textual criticism allows us to figure out where those errors occur, to section off groups of manuscripts containing the same errors, and to compare the 5,800-plus copies with each other producing a text that is 99.5% accurate to the original text. The only reason we cannot say 100% is because the originals don't exist.
So it's very reasonable for us to be extremely confident that when we go to the bookstore to purchase an ESV or NIV Bible, or some other modern translation, we are getting the words of God as originally written down by the men he inspired to write it.
For a great presentation on this stuff, watch the video from John Piper below.
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