When The Bible was translated into different languages, could there have been things lost in the translation? Uncategorized by admin - January 13, 20140 It depends on ‘who’ is doing the translating. If a non-Christian scholar does the translation, what would most likely be the result? Ans.- lots of errors in interpretation, which is verifiable from Manuscript study (or a Strong’s Concordance). And with many of our later ‘English’ translations, that’s exactly what has happened. For example, some ‘non-believers’ have taken Paul’s Message of those ‘in Christ’ being ‘espoused’ to Christ Jesus, totally out of context (I believe it was done on purpose by them). They interpret a literal marriage, saying even that Mary Magdalene was actually physically married to Jesus. There are some ‘so-called’ Bible scholars who really are non-believers of Christ. So be careful ‘where’ you get your Bible materials and sermon lessons from. A word to the wise. In English, our most ‘accurate’ Bible translation from the Manuscripts is still the good ol’ King James Version of 1611. The KJV originally included a ‘Letter to the Reader, and to King James, Defender of The Faith’. That accompanying Letter has been removed from all later KJV editions. Why? That should be part of your answer. Thomas Nelson Publishers out of Nashville still publishes an ‘original’ KJV edition with that Letter in It, along with margin notes by the translators on certain difficult verses. Why so many different Bible translations then? The original reason was supposedly to make The Bible easier to understand for the laymen. But the ‘wicked one’ has his worker’s hands in some of the newer versions, because of the particular ‘twisting’ of Scripture in key areas, even omitting verses which are in the Manuscripts. In other words, some newer translations are not even a ‘complete’ Bible from the Manuscripts. This is another reason why I recommend using a KJV of 1611 for Bible study. Some would say, “Well God wouldn’t allow His Word to be tampered with!” The fact of the matter is, God left us His Word entact with the Manuscripts. It’s always better to read a hand-written Letter in its ‘original’ language, than a translation. Take for example a letter you might write to someone in a foreign country, their not knowing English, and it had to be translated. Depending upon who your foreign friend got to translate, some of your letter could be misunderstood. With God’s Word, He made sure His overall Message of Salvation through His Son Christ Jesus would remain in translations. But for ‘deeper’ study, He left us the Manuscripts, even though there’s battles over them also. Satan’s workers are doing everything they can to destroy the credibility of the Manuscripts which the original KJV translators used. Moreover, a system setup by Hebrew scribes to ensure Old Testament hand copying would be accurate, called the Massorah, had specific notes on how many Hebrew characters were to be in each Book, Chapter, verse. The notes also included a section on how certain ‘specific’ verses were to be interpreted, locking in God’s Truth with special Acrostics, etc. This is why I recommend The Companion Bible, a KJV 1611 version with many Massorah notes in the margin, put together by a ‘Christian’ scholar, named E.W. Bullinger (still, Bullinger’s margin notes are not all perfect). The new Christian will have a hard time understanding much of this, because learning God’s Written Word is similar to a child first learning how to read. A child doesn’t start off reading heavy literature, but they begin using ‘readers’, like ‘Jane, see the dog’. So a new believer may be told, or think, that there are no translation errors even in our KJV. There are some errors in translation. I won’t try to hide that Truth. Acts 12:4 with the word ‘Easter’ is one such obvious error. The Greek word is ‘pascha’, meaning ‘passover’. There’s no way that the Greek word ‘pascha’ can be translated to the word ‘Easter’. The word ‘Easter’ came from a pagan ritual named ‘Eostre’ and linked to a type of ‘grove’ worship. The early Church around the seventh century allowed many pagans to keep some of their old ways in appeasing them to convert to Christ. The Easter celebration became the name for the celebration of the time of Christ’s resurrection. Ever wonder why Easter eggs and bunny rabbits are not mentioned in God’s Word? Our Lord Jesus held the ‘Passover’ with His Apostles. That was the ‘last supper’. Christ Jesus ‘became’ our ‘Passover’ sacrificed for us, as Paul states in 1 Cor.5. Acts 12:4 with that word ‘pascha‘, which was wrongly translated ‘Easter‘ by the KJV translators, can be easily verified using practically ‘any’ Greek Bible Lexicon (dictionary). Even though there are little errors such as this in several places within the KJV translation, It’s still the best English translation from the Manuscripts, to date. Those errors only become apparent through ‘deeper’ study. They will not be noticed much by the new student of God’s Word. God’s overall Message is still not lost in the KJV. An example of the newer ‘New King James Version’ Bible in Luke 4 omits some of the Greek Manuscripts of The New Testament. Here’s the basis of measure starting with the original King James Version of 1611: Luke 4:9-12 9 And he brought Him to Jerusalem, and set Him on a pinnacle of the temple, and said unto Him, “If thou be the Son of God, cast Thyself down from hence: 10 For it is written, ‘He shall give His angels charge over Thee, to keep Thee: 11 And in their hands they shall bear Thee up, lest at any time Thou dash Thy foot against a stone.'” 12 And Jesus answering said unto him, “It is said, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.” (KJV) The above verses taken from the original KJV, is about Satan tempting our Lord Christ. Satan is very good at quoting Scripture. That’s one of his strongest methods used to deceive with, even today with many. Satan is quoting from Psalms 91, and notice the phrase, “lest at any time” in verse 11 above. It’s very important to recognize. Ps 91:11-12 11 For He shall give His angels charge over Thee, to keep Thee in all Thy ways. 12 They shall bear Thee up in their hands, lest Thou dash Thy foot against a stone. (KJV) Here’s the KJV verses in Psalms 91 where Satan was quoting from. Do you see the phrase, “at any time” within It? No… it’s not there. Satan ‘added’ to God’s Scripture, just as he did with tempting Eve. That phrase “at any time” which Satan added would mean Jesus could tempt The Father, while He was made flesh walking upon the earth, anytime He wished to, and He would suffer no harm. Notice Christ Jesus’ answer to Satan. Our Lord Jesus ‘knew’ Satan had ‘added’ to His Word there, and caught it, rebuking Satan with “Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.” Now let’s go to the NKJV Bible (New King James Version), and see how they handled all this: Luke 4:9-12 9 Then he brought Him to Jerusalem, set Him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down from here. 10 “For it is written: ‘He shall give His angels charge over You, to keep You,’ 11 “and, ‘In their hands they shall bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone.’ ” 12 And Jesus answered and said to him, “It has been said, ‘You shall not tempt the Lord your God.'” (NKJ) Note verse 11 here in the NKJV. The translators of that newer version left out totally the phrase “at any time” which Satan added to the quote from Psalms 91:12. That omit destroys the main teaching of our Lord being tempted there. That phrase Satan added, “at any time”, IS in the Greek Manuscripts. Thusly, with the New King James Bible (NKJV), part of Luke Chapter 4 is ‘missing’. There are more similar ‘blatant’ errors in the newer New King James Version, and more in the NIV (New International Version Bible). The newer Bible versions is one of the greatest deceptions happening today among many of our brethren/sisters in Christ. If a student wants to still use their easier to read NKJV, NIV, American Standard, Living Bible, etc., then they should be warned to ‘always’ verify back to the original King James Version of 1611, and then… to the Manuscripts using a Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance. This is also part of a test upon all Christians today. And using an original KJV with a Strong’s is not that difficult of a habit to establish.