Which translation of the Bible should I be using?
Hi, welcome to Little Lessons.
We are very blessed, if we speak English that is, to have numerous translations of the Bible
that we can choose from.
Sometimes the question is asked, "Which one's the best one?"
That's not an easy question to answer.
I think if you asked all the scholars who have been on the translation committees of
various translations, both recent and the in the past, would probably be tempted to
say, "Well, the translation that I worked on is absolutely the best."
Why would they ever say anything but that?
No one's going to say, "Well, the translation that I worked on is not as good as the other
one."
There'd be no sense in trying to come up with a new translation.
I'm just going to be say thankful that you have so many translations.
If you've got more than one that you have access to, well, take advantage of that and
you can compare one with another.
They even make Bibles that are these comparative Bibles.
I have one that has, I think, 23 different translations listed and they're all merged
together so I can look up a verse and I can see what all 23 translations say of that verse.
Actually, they don't always give you all 23 because there's so many similarities.
That's another point I think that is worth thinking about.
When you get to the point where you have to defend your peculiar doctrine by pulling out
a particular translation of the Bible, what you're arguing about or what you're trying
to defend is probably not of the greatest importance because in every translation of
the Bible, John 3:16 sounds pretty much the same.
"God so loved the world he gave his only begotten Son.
Whoever believes in him will not perish but will have eternal life."
The greatest commandment, to love God with all of our heart, mind, soul, and strength,
that sounds pretty much the same in all of the English translations.
Love your neighbor as yourself and do unto others as you would have them do unto you,
these are all the same in all the translations.
Remember that when you stand before Jesus, he's not going to give you a test on your
Bible knowledge.
He's going to be evaluating you for did you obey his commandments.
That's what he told us to do.
"Go into all the world.
Make disciples of everyone and teach them to obey all that I've commanded you."
A lot of folks mistake spirituality with Bible knowledge and head knowledge and they're making
really a big mistake.
You think about it, back in Jesus's day, the folks who studied the Bible, the Bible they
had at that time, were so far from God.
They, in most cases, were legalists who were scrupulously trying to follow the letter of
the law as it was actually perverted by their perverse desires and ignoring the spirit of
the law.
Jesus criticized them for that saying, "You guys are swallowing camels and straining out
the gnats."
That is you're making the big things the little things and the little things the big things.
I'm kind of getting that drift from some of the questions that we receive here at Little
Lessons.
I thank God for every single question that people send in, but some of them reflect the
fact that people have very pent doctrines that they're trying to defend or that they're
very interested in things that are really of no great eternal significance.
Let's not be like the Pharisees and make the little things big things and the big things
little things.
Jesus said, speaking specifically to the scribes and Pharisees, "You guys will tithe your garden
herbs, your mint and your dill and your cumin, but you neglect the weightier things of the
law like justice and faithfulness and mercy."
We don't want to become like the Pharisees, straining out the gnats and swallowing the
camels.
By the way, that is a rather funny to envision.
People who say that Jesus was never funny, they just haven't thought about it long enough.
A lot of things that Jesus said must have had people laughing when he said them a couple
thousand years ago.
We've heard it so much that it's lost the element of humor to us.
Imagining somebody, a Pharisee there, trying to strain out a little gnat, a little tiny,
tiny fly that has fallen into his soup because I don't dare want to get a gnat in me, but
imagining that same Pharisee with a camel in his soup bowl and then picking up that
camel with a spoon and trying to force that down his throat.
I think that's funny.
Maybe you don't think that's funny, but I think that's funny.
I think there's a lot of things that Jesus said were funny.
I think it's okay at times to be full of joy and that sometimes means we think things are
funny and we say things that are funny.
Now, back to the original question.
"What translation should I use?"
I use the New American Standard Bible.
That is a word for word translation.
They tried their best to take every Greek word that was there in the original manuscripts
and get an equivalent English word.
That's a great way to get a very accurate text, but sometimes, oh my goodness, when
idioms are used and so forth, our eyes glaze over.
Then there's other translations that are more liberal and they try to take a thought for
thought translation.
The Living Bible, which was translated decades ago, did that.
They have tried to improve that since the New Living Bible.
They really got the smart guys to do some work there and it became a much more accurate
translation because the Living Bible, the original one, was a translation by a guy who
was not a Greek scholar.
He was just trying to make the Bible understandable and therefore accessible to your average Joe
or your average Jane.
God bless him.
Ken Taylor, great guy.
I actually shook his hand one day.
Thank God for all the translations.
Then, last but not least along these lines, think about all the people who don't have
any Bible in their language.
Maybe rather buying one more translation so that you can add to your theological knowledge
and get those little Greek nuances, maybe be better to think about those poor folks
who haven't got the Bible in their language yet and see if you can help to change that
because there are some great ministries out there that are involved in Bible translation
and getting Bibles into the hands of people who don't have them.
Oh my goodness, we are so blessed.
Let's not forget that.
Let's not forget people who we can be a blessing to.
Thanks so much for that question and have a great rest of your day.
God bless you.