Note: I received a number of comments on last week’s article regarding ‘Rewriting The Bible.’ I thought it might be good to pursue this a little further in hopes of answering some of the questions and responding to some of those comments. I’ll follow this article with one that provides some information on some of the translations now available to us. This article is adapted from a previous article I wrote which appears in my commentary on Ephesians.
More On Bible Translations
by Tom Wacaster
When God created man, He did not leave man to flounder in the waters of ignorance and superstition insofar as his knowledge of God is concerned. God has communicated with man “from the beginning” (Matt. 19:4), albeit the different means of communications has changed from dispensation to dispensation (Heb. 1:1-2). God “left not himself without witness” (Acts 14:17), and “the invisible things of him since the creation of the world are clearly seen, being perceived through the things that are made, even his everlasting power and divinity; that they may be without excuse” (Rom. 1:20). When our Savior ascended back to heaven, He sent the Holy Spirit to guide the apostles into all truth (John 16:13). That truth is made available to us through a combination of factors which include revelation, inspiration, transmission, and translation. We will touch on each of these as we proceed. Unfortunately, most folks are completely unaware of the processes that have produced what we refer to as the “Holy Bible.” This lack of understanding has contributed to a complete disrespect for the Bible, and consequently, to a rather loose handling of the word of God when it comes to providing a reliable translation of God’s word in one’s native language. In order to understand the importance of selecting a good translation, it is important to understand the process involved in the communication of God’s word to us. Please consider the following.
First, think about the ORIGINATION of the message to be communicated to man the creature by God the Creator. What we sometimes refer to as “the scheme of redemption,” or what God refers to as the “mystery,” was purposed and planned in Christ Jesus, “according to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Eph. 3:11). God’s word is settled in heaven (Psa. 119:89). That word will endure forever (1 Pet. 1:24-25). God’s plan for the church, man’s salvation, our heavenly home - all these things were in the mind of God long before He ever communicated these things to man. On one hand you have God; on the other man. The great challenge facing our Creator was to make the “things” known only to the Divine mind and in some way communicated these to the feeble mind of man. Paul addressed this very point: “We speak wisdom, however, among them that are fullgrown…in a mystery…which none of the rulers of this world hath known: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory; but as it is written, Things which eye saw not, and ear heard not, And which entered not into the heart of man, Whatsoever things God prepared for them that love him” (1 Cor. 2:6-9). Speaking of the “natural man” (the uninspired man as opposed to the inspired man), Paul informed the Corinthians that “we received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is from God; that we might know the things that were freely given to us of God” (1 Cor. 2:12). How was this accomplished? “Which things also we speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Spirit teacheth; combining spiritual things with spiritual words” (1 Cor. 2:13). There are two important truths that emerge from this passage. First, God has made His “mind” known to man. That in and of itself is a most astonishing truth. Second, God has selected, so far as the means for making His will known to mankind, the use of words! In order to make His will known, He selected to “combine spiritual things with spiritual words” and then reveal that Divine message to mankind.
Second, REVELATION is the process of making these “things of God” available to men. Revelation means simply, “to make known.” Before these things were made known it remained a “mystery” as to how God would save man (Eph. 3:3-5, 1 Cor. 2:7). Throughout the history of man God has used “divers manners” (or different manners or means) for making His will known to man. During the Patriarchal age God spoke to the oldest male member of a family and that “patriarch” would then teach his family (Heb. 1:1). As the world became increasingly wicked, God found it necessary to preserve the “seed” from which the Messiah, the Savior of the world, would eventually come; hence, the call of Abram (Gen. 12:1-3). Time and space does not allow us to trace the development of that “nation” that would produce the man-child, the One Who was from everlasting to everlasting (Micah 5:2), He Who is called “Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace” (Isa. 9:6). When Israel had developed into a great nation, God gave them “living oracles” (Acts 7:38) through Moses, and from that time until the coming of the Christ, the nation of Israel was under the Law of Moses. But when the “fullness of time came, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the law” (Gal. 4:4), and through His Son, God “brought life and immortality to light through the gospel” (1 Tim. 1:10). After Jesus ascended into heaven to sit at God’s right hand (Acts 2:33), the Holy Spirit was sent to guide the apostles into all truth (John 16:13), thereby completing the process of revelation and giving to man that which is “profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for instruction which is in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete furnished completely unto every good work” (2 Tim. 3:16-17). It is this third dispensation, the gospel of Jesus Christ, to which all men are amenable.
The third word we want to concentrate on is INSPIRATION. Inspiration is closely associated with revelation, for without revelation there can be no inspiration. Inspiration is the process by which God assured the accurate transmission of His word to others. As the apostles and prophets received the revelation they were “moved by the Holy Spirit” (2 Pet. 1:21) to record the message of God. They were guarded from error by the careful watch care of the Holy Spirit over these men who spoke and wrote that divine revelation. Inspiration is the means by which human agency was used to communicate the things of God to a lost and dying world. Those documents, written by the pen of Paul, Peter, John, Matthew, Mark, etc. were the “original” documents. God in His divine providence saw to it that none of the “original” letters survived to our day and age. Those letters were evidently passed from one congregation to the next (Col. 4:16), while at the same time copies would be made from the originals to facilitate the spread of the Gospel. This leads us to our next point.
Fourth, TRANSITION is the process by which those inspired letters were copied and distributed. Care was exercised to make sure that accurate copies were made. Meanwhile, uninspired men would quote from these letters, and much of what was written in that first century by inspired apostles and prophets, has been preserved through the quotes, copies, and manuscripts. The sheer number of manuscripts, quotes, and fragments of manuscripts astounds the imagination.
Our last word for consideration is TRANSLATION. In order for God’s word to reach the masses it is essential that the Greek manuscripts be “translated” into a specific “target language.” In our case, the “target language” is English. For just a moment, please consider the role of a translator. In 1968 the late Allan Bloom completed a translation of Plato’s work, and in the introduction Bloom pointed out that his translation was intended to be a “literal translation.” He made a most significant observation: “He [speaking of the student, TW] must be emancipated from the tyranny of the translator, given the means of transcending the limitations of the translators interpretation…The only way to provide the reader with this independence is by a slavish, even if sometimes cumbersome, literalness.” Herein we see the importance of a good “translation” - one that gets as close to the meaning of the original as is humanly possible. I do not want a Bible that is “easy to read,” or one wherein the so-called translators tell me what they think the original means. I want one that tells me what the original says, and let me determine what it means; even if the translation is somewhat awkward and difficult to read. (to be continued next week)