A BRIEF INTRODUCTION TO THE TRANSLATIONS

Victor M. Eskew

 

 

The Bible began with the “inspiration” of God.

“God breathed” His words into chosen men who both spoke and wrote His words down.

(II Timothy 3:16-17; II Samuel 23:2; I Corinthians 2:9-13; Galatians 1:11-12; II Peter 1:20-21)

 

            The Old Testament was written in Hebrew.        The New Testament was written in Greek.

 

1.             Originals were called autographs.                             Originals were called autographs.

                        No autographs exist.                                                     No autographs exist.

 

The Providence of God

Matthew 24:35; I Peter 1:25

 

                        Copies were made (meticulous)                                Copies were made (meticulous)

                            Masoretic text                                                                     #28,000

                           Dead Sea Scrolls                                                        Quotes of church fathers:  86,000

                       

  2.               Hebrew texts were formed.                                           Greek texts were formed.

 

                        Masoretic text                                                                      Majority text

                        Septuagint (Greek OT)                                                        Received text (Textus Recptus)

                        Dead Sea Scroll texts                                                          Wescott-Hort Text

                        Biblica Hebraica                                                                  Nestle’s Text

                        Biblica Hebraica Stuttgardensia                                         Nestle-Aland Text

 

3.              Translations from the texts                                                Translations from the texts

 

                 Committee translations               One-man translations                                Paraphrases

 

                                                                        Theories of translation: 

A.    Word-for-word, literal, formal equivalence

B.      Dynamic equivalence, thought-for-thought

 

Hundreds of Translations (See next page)

 

KJV                                         Phillips                                             Living Bible Paraphrase

ASV                                        Young’s                                            Amplified Bible

RSV                                         Moffatt

NASB                                      The Message (Peterson)

NIV                                         Hugo McCord’s NT

NKJV

NLT

ESV

 

4.         Thoughts:

A.    Committee translations are better than individual.

B.      Each translation has its strengths and weaknesses.  We must know these.

C.     Differences for the most part are negligible (1% to 2%).

D.    Compare the different translations.

E.      Study the Bible:  every word, sentence, paragraph, chapter, and book.