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3 Facts to Remember About Bible Translations

Tyler S. Fulcher

If you’re like most people, you are comfortable with one translation of the Bible.

It’s your go-to when you read or study God’s word.

But, when was the last time you thought about the importance of Bible translations?

Most of the time, people forget their Bibles are translations.

They get so used to a particular way of reading the Bible that they associate God’s word with the specific English words they read in their Bibles. It’s much more complicated than that though.

If you walk into a Christian book store, you will find a whole wall filled with different English translations.

That doesn’t even consider how many translations there have been of the Bible into other languages.

Now, having translations of the Bible is a great thing and something to be treasured.

But, we should always keep a few things in mind about our Bibles.

Here are my top 3 things you should remember about Bible translations.

1) Translations are based on Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek texts of the Bible.

The Old Testament was primarily written in Hebrew, but there are a number of sections that include Aramaic.

The New Testament was written in Greek.

Translations strive to communicate, in English, what was originally written in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek.

If you have ever studied another language, you know this can be a difficult and complicated task.

2) Translations make interpretive decisions for you.

When we study the Bible, we try to understand what the Bible means. This is called interpretation.

The process of translating the Bible requires the translators to make certain decisions.

Unfortunately, different languages do not have a one-to-one comparison.

Two languages frequently do not have an equivalent word.

For example, some languages make a distinction between different shades of colors. What we might call blue with one word (whether it is light or dark), they might require two different words.

When you communicate a message from one language into another, you will frequently need to decide how best to translate the thought.

This is what Bible translators do.

So, just remember that every translation of the Bible has already made certain interpretive decisions for you.

3) Translations can take either a word-for-word approach or an idea-for-idea approach.

A word-for-word approach tries to translate every Hebrew, Aramaic, or Greek word with the closest English equivalent.

These translations try to make as few interpretive decisions for you as possible.

They want to reflect the wording of the Bible as best as they can.

An idea-for-idea translation tries to communicate the intent of the Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek words.

This means they will sometimes convert ancient metaphors into more understandable modern metaphors.

Consequently, these translations make more interpretive decisions for you.

They want to reflect the message of the Bible as best they can.

Conclusion

So, next time you sit down to read or study the Bible keep these three facts in mind.

You are reading a translation.
Every translation makes interpretive decisions for you.
Your translation is either trying to communicate the original words or the original intent.

If you can keep this in mind, it will help you study the Bible.

It will challenge you to read the Bible in other translations and consider how you might better understand what God’s word means.

That's all for today!

If you enjoyed this article, please share it with a friend.

Talk to you soon,

Tyler Fulcher

P.S. If you want to go deeper in your study of the Bible, check out 21 Days to Better Bible Study. It's an email course that will teach you the foundations of studying the Bible.