why are there so many different Bible
translations and which one should we use
it's time to learn the lies hey welcome
to unlearn my name is Lex and I'd like
to invite you to join us each week as we
unlearn the lies and dig deeper into the
truth of God's Word no let's get started
there are approximately 900 English
translations and paraphrases of the
Bible never at any time in history have
we had such an overabundance of Bible
versions to choose from this presents us
with the unique problem of which
translation to use it's obvious that not
all translations are created equal
because they ranged from very literal
such as the Young's literal translation
to very loose such as the message so I
want to look at why we have so many
different Bible translations during the
first fourteen hundred years of
Christian history all Bibles were
handwritten copies that were written and
copied by hand and most of the time
these copies were not made by scribes
this is important to keep in mind when
we start looking at the manuscripts that
are available to us today there are
three primary New Testament manuscript
text types the Alexandrian text type
represented by the Codex Sinaiticus and
Vaticanus the Byzantine text type
represented by the majority text and the
Western text type represented in the old
Latin the majority text is used as the
base for all Bible translations and
refers to the largest number of
surviving manuscripts and has the fewest
instances of textual variations witches
wives relied upon heavily in both the
Textus Receptus and the critical text
the texas Receptus was compiled by
Erasmus in the 16th century and is the
basis for 10 Dale's English New
Testament as well as the King James New
King James and most Reformation era
translations and is very similar to the
majority text the Alexandrian text type
consists of a relatively small number of
manuscripts and is sometimes referred to
as the minority text these manuscripts
tend to have a larger number of abrupt
endings omitted versus more variations
between parallel passages and more
difficult readings most textual critics
favor the Alexandrian text type because
they tend to be older documents however
it's been argued that Egypt has an
optimal climate for
serving text while the environment in
the Middle East is not favorable for
preserving documents which explains why
we don't have older documents in the
Byzantine text type most modern Bible
versions are based on the critical text
which was first compiled in the 1800s
and relies heavily on the Sinaiticus and
Vaticanus codices codex sinaiticus is an
Alexandrian text type manuscript written
in uracil letters in the 4th century
according to many scholars Codex
Sinaiticus was one of the 50 copies of
the Bible commissioned by the Roman
Emperor Constantine it's important to
note that senatus has been modified by
more than 7 different people between the
4th and 12th centuries making it one of
the most corrected manuscripts in
existence it's also missing large
portions of the Old Testament as well as
small portions of the New Testament yet
it's considered by scholars to be one of
the most reliable texts because of at
age let me tell you that this really
bothers me because they know it's
missing verses yet they consider it to
be reliable how can we trust a
manuscript that we know has been
modified and is missing information
codex Vaticanus has named such because
it came from the Vatican Library
interestingly this manuscript contains
unusual small horizontal align double
dots called dis tegami indicating
textual uncertainty in mark places where
they were known textual variants the
critical text relies heavily on the
Sinaiticus and Vaticanus codices yet
there are many differences between those
two texts in fact there are more than
3,000 textual variants between these two
texts in the Gospels alone because of
this one scholar commented it is in fact
easier to find two consecutive verses in
which these two manuscripts differ the
one from the other then two consecutive
verses in which they agree entirely here
with all these discrepancies these are
the two texts that form the basis for
nearly all modern translations it's
important to point out that the
Alexandrian text type has far fewer
manuscripts which indicates that was not
as widely circulated as the majority
text which means the majority text
represents the text that has been in use
and circulated over the centuries I want
to emphasize that all of these texts are
approximately 85% identical which leaves
15% variation between them however 99%
of these variants
no difference at all to the translation
of the text almost 75% of these variants
are spelling mistakes and 25% are word
order and grammar variants this leaves
only about 1% of the variations to be of
any concern at all to the translation
this is very encouraging and means we
have a good reason to believe that what
we have today is very close to what was
originally written in regard to the
number of texts we have available the
date of these documents and their
reliability Bible scholar dr. Gary
Habermas has this to say what is usually
meant is that the New Testament has far
more manuscript evidence from a far
earlier period than other classical
works there are just under 6,000 New
Testament manuscripts with copies of
most of the New Testament dating from
just 100 years or so after it's writing
classical sources almost always have
fewer than 20 copies each and usually
date from 700 to 1400 years after the
composition of the work in this regard
the classics are not as well attested
while this doesn't guarantee
truthfulness it means that it's much
easier to reconstruct the New Testament
text we have over 5,800 Greek texts
10,000 Latin manuscripts and over 9,000
manuscripts in various other languages
including Syriac Slavic gothic Ethiopia
Coptic and Armenian yet the fact that we
have less than 1% of meaningful
variation is phenomenal there is no
other document in history that can
compare to the manuscript evidence and
congruence that we have for the Bible
most of the Bible variations are
attributed to scribal errors and can be
easily reconciled when comparing the
text the fact is there are a very small
number of variants that actually affect
the message of the text and none of the
variants affect core doctrine this shows
us that God has preserved his word over
all these years in spite of human error
that being said there are two major
multiverse variants which are the woman
caught in adultery in John 7 53 through
8 11 and the long ending of mark 16
verses 9 through 20 seas to passages are
the subject of much debate among
scholars aside from these variants there
are a number of verses that appear in
the majority text and/or Texas Receptus
but not in the critical text for example
Matthew 17:21 is missing from the
critical text however this kind of
not go ahead except by prayer and
fasting so when we come across these
type of variants we need to look at the
context and see if that verse is
important to the text or not in this
particular text this information could
be important if there are unclean
spirits that can't be removed without
prayer and fasting other textual
variants of significance are verses that
are shortened or missing information for
example mark 10:24 is missing some
crucial information that appears in the
majority text and texas Receptus and the
disciples were astonished at his words
but jesus answered again and said to
them children how hard is it for those
who trust in riches to enter the kingdom
of God but the critical text says and
the disciples were astonished at his
words but jesus answered again and said
to them children how hard is it to enter
the kingdom of God this missing
information makes a big difference in
the understanding of what you was saying
is it hard for everyone to enter the
kingdom or is it hard for those who
trust in riches to enter the kingdom the
context of this verse is a relation to
money so it seems to make more sense
that he would be talking about the love
of riches making a heart to enter the
kingdom likewise when we compare this
verse with parallel passages in the
other Gospels we see that he does
include the statement about trusting and
riches another type of area is when a
passage uses different pronouns or uses
a pronoun instead of a proper name for
example in 1st Timothy 3:16 we see that
the majority text says God while the
critical text says he and without
controversy great is the mystery of
godliness God was manifested in the
flesh justified in the spirit seen by
the Angels preached among the Gentiles
believed on in the world received up in
glory but the critical text says by
common confession great is the mystery
of godliness he who was revealed in the
flesh was vindicated in the spirit seen
by angels proclaimed among the nations
believed on in the world taken up in
glory in this verse the majority text
makes it clear that God was manifest in
the flesh but the critical text using
the pronoun he leaves it unclear if this
was God or someone else another type of
variant is when a verse contains
different information than the same
verse and other manuscripts this type of
area is less common but there are a few
instances of it
for example revelation 22:14 is quite
for name the critical text than it is in
the majority text blessed are those who
do His commandments that they may have
the right to the Tree of Life and may
enter through the gates into the city
while the critical text says blessed are
those who wash their robes that they may
have the right to the Tree of Life and
may enter through the gates into the
city this particular variant makes a
significant difference in our
understanding of what we should do
also the phrase wash the robes seems a
bit vague and leaves room for various
interpretations while the phrase do His
commandments is very clear and specific
now I can't talk about textual variants
without mentioning the comma Jehan 'i'm
found in 1st john 5 7 and 8 this is one
of the rare textual variants that found
its way into the Textus Receptus but
doesn't have the support of the majority
text for there are three that bear
witness in heaven the father the word
and the holy spirit and these three are
one and there are three that bear
witness on earth the spirit the water
and the blood and these three agree as
one but the majority text says for there
are three that bear witness the spirit
the water and the blood and these three
agree as one as far as I know the Kama
Johan ium exists only in the Textus
Receptus
and it was added reluctantly by Erasmus
because they couldn't find it in any of
the Greek manuscripts so a backwards
translated it from the Latin text this
is a very rare occurrence and is well
documented so textual variants account
for some of the differences we see in
translations but they're actually not
the most significant factor copyright
laws affect the reading of the text more
than the textual variants in order to
have a copyright new Bible versions must
show significant difference from all
existing Bible versions
this means that words must be changed
whether they need it or not in most
cases words are replaced with synonyms
that convey the same ideas this is what
copyright guv says about this type of
copyright a derivative work is a work
based on or derived from one or more
already existing works common derivative
works include translations another
common type of derivative work is a new
addition of a pre-existing work in which
the editorial revisions annotations
elaborations or other modifications
represent
as a whole and original work to be
copyrightable a derivative work must
incorporate some or all of the
pre-existing work and add new original
copyrightable authorship to that work we
also have to realize that translator
bias affects translations as well if
someone has a particular belief about a
verse that might shape their translation
of that particular verse Mark 719 is a
good example of a verse that has been
affected by translator bias this is how
the verse reads in the New King James
Version because it does not enter his
heart but his stomach and is eliminated
thus purifying all foods now compare
that with what the New International
Version says for it doesn't go into
their heart but into their stomach and
then out of the body in saying this
Jesus declared all foods clean notice
that they changed the spear fiying all
foods into a declaration that all food
is clean the New Living Translation
takes it even further saying food
doesn't go into your heart but only
passes through the stomach and then goes
into the sewer by saying this he
declared that every kind of food is
acceptable in God's eyes this is not a
verse that is affected by source text
because all the manuscripts agree about
this verse in the Greek the Greek text
says because the Rison Penta romertopf
which literally translates as purifying
all the foods the exact same way the New
King James translates it so why do these
other translations add to the text it's
because they have a bias about this
verse that's affected their translation
of it finally when looking at Bible
translations we need to understand the
two basic types of translations the
first is called formal equivalence and
attempts to translate the text
word-for-word as literally as possible
the second is called dynamic equivalence
and attempts to translate thought for
thought and results in a less than
literal translation however there's
another type of translation known as a
paraphrase which is basically a
retelling of the scripture in the
author's own words this type of
translation ends up being very different
from the original text and these
versions should be avoided one example
of a paraphrase is the message in my
opinion these paraphrased versions are
so far from the original text that they
shouldn't even be considered a Bible
translation so what does all of this
mean for us it means we must be Bereans
who
study the Scriptures daily so that we
can rightly understand the Word of God
not all translations are created equal
so we need to use wisdom in selecting a
good translation I personally recommend
a word-for-word translation so that you
can have the most accurate understanding
of the text
I also recommend a translation that is
based on the majority text and/or Texas
Receptus my personal favorite is the New
King James Version but I like several
others as well I hope this video has
helped to clear up some of the confusion
about Bible translations thanks for
watching if you found this video helpful
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remember the truth will set you free
we'll see you next time