Someone issued me a challenge yesterday.
He said basically, Can a translation be inspired?
Show me, using only the Bible for your answer.
Actually that's a fascinating question.
I'm about to show you how a translation can both
1) be inspired, and 2) carry the original inspiration,
even into a third language.
Interested?
Please get your Bibles out.
Hi, I'm David Daniels from Chick Publications.
First, what is "inspiration"?
I can hear you college students and Bible church members saying it,
"God-breathed," in Greek, Theopneustos.
Yes, "God breathed."
But God breathed where?
Inspiration Type One: God put His breath into a person.
Genesis 2:7, "And the LORD God formed man
of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils
the breath of life; and man became a living soul."
So God breathed into Adam's nostrils,
and he received the breath of life.
And with that breath of life in that body,
man became a living soul.
So that inspiration literally gave Adam life.
That's Inspiration Type One.
Inspiration Type Two is God speaking His own words
through a person.
That shows up either in what the person says, or
in what the person writes.
This scripture states it in God's words:
2 Peter 1:21 "For the prophecy came not
in old time by the will of man:
but holy men of God spake as they were moved
by the Holy Ghost."
Let's take that apart.
The prophecy did not come by the will of man.
So it was by no means man's idea.
That means it was God's idea.
Then it says "holy men of God" --that is, men dedicated wholly
to God, for God's own purposes--
"spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost."
So who's the mover?
Not the man.
The mover is the Holy Ghost, God, the Holy Ghost,
moved the men.
Those men, not against their will, but in line with their will,
spoke God's words God's way.
That was called "prophecy."
So inspiration is God moving a person to say or write
what He wants, the way He wills, not the way man wants.
So is the Old Testament inspired?
You can look up the 52 times "scripture" or "scriptures"
is used in the New Testament.
It covers the Old Testament Law, Prophets, and Writings.
It's all inspired scripture.
Follow with me.
The Old Testament is scripture.
So are the things God said and God wrote through Paul.
The apostle Peter wrote by inspiration, in 2 Peter 3:15-16,
"15 And account that the longsuffering of our Lord
is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul
also according to the wisdom given unto him
hath written unto you; 16 As also in all his epistles,
speaking in them of these things; in which are
some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned
and unstable wrest, as they do also
the other scriptures, unto their own destruction.
Hear those words, "Paul also according to the wisdom
given unto him hath written unto you
God gave the wisdom to Paul.
And Paul wrote it down.
And people who wrest, twist, wrestle, Paul's writings
are actually wresting "scriptures."
And they are scriptures like the "other scriptures."
So the Old Testament is inspired.
The words of Paul are inspired.
Then Paul quoted Jesus, in 1 Timothy 5:18, when he said,
"Ergatis axios autos misthos," quoting Jesus' words
from the Gospel of Luke!
Luke 10:7, "...the labourer is worthy of his hire"
Luke is also inspired.
We could go on.
You can see how scripture is inspired,
the Old and New Testaments, as we have them,
all 66 books.
God spoke through the authors.
Look up all 52 places "scripture" or "scriptures" appears.
You will be amazed at what you learn God calls scripture.
There are three divisions of the Old Testament.
They are called the Law, the Prophets
and the Psalms or the Writings.
The Psalms, like Psalm 118 in Matthew 21:42
"Jesus saith unto them, Did ye never read in the scriptures,
The stone which the builders rejected,
the same is become the head of the corner:
this is the Lord's doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes?"
The Prophets, like Isaiah 61,
in Luke 4:18-19.
In verse 21 Jesus said-- "And he began to say unto them,
This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears."
And of course, the Law, as in Genesis through Deuteronomy.
The apostle John cited Exodus 12:46 in John 19:36:
"For these things were done, that the scripture should be fulfilled,
A bone of him shall not be broken."
Jesus was the Passover Lamb.
And Paul cited Genesis 15:6 in Romans 4:3
"For what saith the scripture?
Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him
for righteousness."
And in case that wasn't enough, Jesus summed it up Himself,
in Luke 24:44-45:
44 "And he said unto them, These are the words
which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you,
that all things must be fulfilled, which were written
in the law of Moses, and in the prophets,
and in the psalms, concerning me.
45 Then opened he their understanding,
that they might understand the scriptures,"
As I said, it's a fascinating study.
But let's take it a step further.
Type 1: God breathed life into Adam,
and made him a living soul.
Type 2: God breathed His words by the Holy Ghost
into certain people, not spoken or written by their will,
but by God's will.
Does that include translations?
Exodus 1:22 "And Pharaoh charged
all his people, saying, Every son that is born
ye shall cast into the river, and every daughter
ye shall save alive."
Did Pharaoh speak Hebrew?
Not to his people, he didn't.
He spoke Egyptian.
And yet was this written in the scriptures in Egyptian?
No, it was translated into Hebrew.
So the Hebrew was an inspired translation
of the Egyptian.
Daniel 3:24 "Then Nebuchadnezzar the king
was astonied, and rose up in haste,
and spake, and said unto his counsellers,
Did not we cast three men bound into the midst of the fire?
They answered and said unto the king, True, O king."
Did Nebuchadnezzar and his counselors speak Hebrew?
Not to each other.
They spoke Babylonian.
And the scripture's Hebrew (or Aramaic, Syrian)
was an inspired translation of the Babylonian.
What language did the King of Syria speak?
Big hint: it wasn't Hebrew.
1 Kings 20:23 "And the servants
of the king of Syria said unto him, Their gods are gods of the hills;
therefore they were stronger than we; but let us fight against them
in the plain, and surely we shall be stronger than they."
They spoke Syrian, or Aramaic, and we have an inspired translation
of their words into the Hebrew, right here in the scriptures!
One more.
Look at Paul's words in Acts 22:1-2:
1 "Men, brethren, and fathers, hear ye my defence
which I make now unto you.
2 (And when they heard that he spake
in the Hebrew tongue to them, they kept the more silence...)"
It's no secret to us that Paul spoke Hebrew.
But wait.
What language was that written down in?
That's right.
Greek.
So the Greek is an inspired translation of
Paul the apostles' words in Hebrew.
In fact, the scriptures are
filled with translations, and they are inspired translations!
God promises that His words will be preserved, even though
heaven and earth pass away.
God promises that those words are pure,
so they have no error.
But I hear the objectors: No!
It says in all my theology books that there can be
no completely accurate translation into another language.
Something is always lost!
Then those theology books are saying that God was in error.
Because God kept on putting inspired translations
into the scriptures themselves.
Even Pontius Pilate's wife herself, her Latin words are translated
into the Greek scriptures in Matthew 27:19:
"Have thou nothing to do with that just man:
or I have suffered many things this day in a dream because of him."
If you have an accurate translation, you have lost nothing.
So if you have an accurate translation
of the inspired scriptures, you have also lost nothing.
You now have the inspired scriptures in a new language.
And if you have translated accurately,
then that translation is not "re-inspired"
or "double inspiration."
It simply carries that inspiration into a new language.
Did you ever wonder why God revealed
the Old Testament in Hebrew, but the New Testament in Greek?
God is interested in translating His inspired words
into all the languages of earth.
But that is a topic for another time.
For now remember, holding in your hands
the King James Bible, a fully accurate translation
of God's holy words of Greek and Hebrew,
you have the inspired words of God
in your language.
They carry that same inspiration, since they have not added to
nor taken away from what God said.
I believe that I have the inspired words of God,
translated into English, in my King James Bible.
God bless you, and have a wonderful day.