It’s quite ugly to look at now, but I loved it as a child. It has pictures of historical artifacts from the Bible. Unfortunately, I never read that Bible. It was in Shakespearean English and I was in kindergarten. After another year or so, my parents gave me a New International Readers Version designed for children. I read that Bible quite a lot.

The NIV served as my go-to translation throughout my childhood, teenage, and early college years. However, as I progressed through Bible college, divinity school, and a Ph.D. program, I switched from the NIV to the ESV and finally to the NRSV.

More important than my changing preference for Bible translations is my deeper understanding of the nature of those translations. In many ways, my appreciation for the Bible has deepened in proportion to my appreciation for the nature and necessity of Bible translations.

Naturally, I want to share with you some of my thoughts about Bible translations and how understanding the nature and necessity of translations changes the way we think about the Bible. So, let’s get started.

1) What is a Bible translation?

First, we need to start with the foundational question: What is a Bible translation?

A translation of the Bible is a scholarly attempt to translate the original Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek words of the Bible into an understandable modern language (i.e., English).

According to Wycliffe (a prominent Bible translation organization), 717 languages have a complete translation of the Bible. Biblical scholars and linguists work to provide quality, accurate translations of God’s word into people’s native language.

English speakers are spoiled with an over-abundance of translations. The American Bible Society estimates roughly 900 English translations have been created since William Tyndale’s New Testament first appeared in 1526. (https://news.americanbible.org/article/number-of-english-translations-of-the-bible)

All of these translations, both English and non-English, share the common desire to make God’s word accessible to all people in their native language.

2) What do translators translate?

If Bible translations are scholarly attempts to translate the original Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek words of the Bible into an understandable modern language, where do they find these original words? In other words, what do translators translate?

Translations of the Bible work from a few standard critical texts of the Bible. For the Old Testament, they use a text call the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia (BHS). Translations of the New Testament work from either the Nestle-Aland (NA) or the United Bible Societies’ Greek new Testament (GNT).

We could (and should at some point) have a much more in-depth conversation about these texts, but for the purposes of this post, I want to make three points:

a) Our oldest copies of the Bible are incomplete or damaged

While the Bible is the most well-attested ancient book, all of our earliest manuscripts of the Old and New Testaments are fragmentary or damaged. This reality should come as no surprise. The writing material people used in antiquity was prone to damage and decomposition.

b) Critical texts of the Bible (BHS, NA, GNT) are based on ancient manuscripts of the Bible.

The Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia (BHS) is based on the oldest complete manuscript of the Hebrew Bible: the Leningrad codex from 1008 A.D. It contains many footnotes that inform scholars of differences between the Leningrad codex and other ancient manuscripts.

The United Bible Societies’ Greek New Testament and the Nestle-Aland are called eclectic texts. Scholars worked through thousands of ancient copies of the New Testament to reconstruct its original form. These two critical versions of the New Testament present scholars with the reconstruction of the New Testament along with footnotes that point out any significant discrepancies between the ancient manuscripts.

c) Scholars use a technical process called textual criticism to reconstruct the earliest version of the Bible.

Equipped with these critical texts of the Old and New Testaments, scholars use a technical process called textual criticism to reconstruct the earliest version of the Bible. Many of the discrepancies between ancient manuscripts can be credited to mistakes made by copyists.

Since none of us know what it is like to live in a time before the printing press, it is hard to imagine a situation in which someone could make a mistake when copying the Bible. Making copies of manuscripts in the ancient world was a difficult task. Though scribes were diligent and careful, they made mistakes like skipping a line, repeating a word twice, or inverting word order.

In addition to mistakes made by copyists, scholars use textual criticism to determine when a scribe added content to an a manuscript. Occasionally, later scribes updated manuscripts with additional comments intended to clarify some aspect of the text. You can find examples of this in your Bible if you pay attention to the footnotes.

3) Why do we have so many English translations?

Once scholars have reconstructed the earliest version of the Bible, translators then work to translate the Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek into understandable, modern language. At this point, you may wonder why any particular language needs more than one translation. More specifically, why are there so many English translations?

Without making the conversation needlessly complex, there are many different English translations because they follow different translation methodologies.

Some translators believe a translation should reflect the original languages as closely as possible. As a result, translators try to find a corresponding English word for every Hebrew, Aramaic, or Greek word. Whenever possible, they maintain the original word order as well. These translations are classified as “word-for-word” or “formal” translations (i.e., NRSV, ESV, NASB).

Other translators believe a translation should reflect the original thoughts and intentions of the Bible as closely as possible. Consequently, translators try to capture the essence of the original languages in similar words and images from modern language. These translations are called “thought-for-thought” or “functional” translations (NIV, NLT, NCV).

Many translations try to strike a balance between the “word-for-word” and “thought-for-thought” models. There are pros and cons to each, but it is important that you know what kind of translation you are reading.

4) Why do I need to know about Bible translations?

Our final question is one of practicality. Why do you need to know about Bible translations? What difference does it make that you understand the process by which translators produced your favorite version of the Bible?

First, we have a tendency to equate our preferred version of the Bible with the definitive word of God. While God, in His grace, communicates to use through His word through modern translations, we need to recognize that no translation is perfect. No matter the language (i.e., English, Spanish, etc.) or the version (i.e., NIV, KJV, NRSV…), we should not equate our preferred translation with the perfect word of God.

Second, we need to know about Bible translations because it study the Bible better. Once you know the difference between “word-for-word” and “thought-for-thought” translations, you can use that knowledge to deepen your knowledge of the Bible.

On the one hand, since”word-for-word” translations attempt to reflect the original languages as closely as possible, they make fewer interpretive decisions for you. That is why they make great translations for Bible study. On the other hand, “thought-for-thought” translations can help clarify the Bible by making some interpretive decisions for you. By translating the original languages into similar modern phrases and figures of speech, “thought-for-thought” translations make for great devotional Bibles.

Ultimately, the more you know about Bible translations, the more you will come to understand the nature of Scripture. In my experience, this has only deepened my love for God’s word. I think it will do the same for you as well.