The Old Testament was originally written in the Hebrew language
while the New Testament is originally in Greek. To understand how it came to be the
Bible we have today, let’s take for example Paul’s letter to the Romans. After
he had hand-written it, it was sent to the churches in Rome as intended. After
this, they made many copies of that original letter to share with other
believers in other places. As time went by, so increased the number of these
copies, reaching to where ever the Gospel reached. Those who did the coping
were called Scribes and the copies became known as the manuscripts.
So far, there are more than 25 000 Bible manuscripts that have been discovered.
A collection of these manuscripts is what produced books that were later
compiled into one book called the Holy Bible. The final process is when these
learned men translated the Bible from the Hebrew and Greek languages to many
languages that the Bible is written in today. But can we trust the
Bible since it has gone through a lot of this copying process? (that is the
excuse they use in believing Scripture). Yes, we can trust the Bible
because all these 25 000 manuscripts that have been discovered, and copied at
different times by people in different places, all contain the same thing
regardless of minor spelling and grammar mistakes. One good example is the
Dead Sea Scrolls; the very ancient manuscripts recently discovered that
contained a portion of the Old Testament, which was compared to the modern
Bible and found to be an exact match. All this is proof to us that God has
preserved His Word for our sake. Indeed, you have every reason to trust your
Bible you have now. It is the exact Word of God that was originally
written
What is the
Apocrypha?
Our common Bible
contains only 66 books, but it is obvious you have seen another version of the
Bible that contains more books than that, it has the book of Tobit, Judith,
Sirach and Maccabees among many more. These were not part of the Hebrew
Scriptures that we now know as the Old Testament because they were
examined and rejected by Jewish scholars. These books are called
the Apocrypha. When the New Testament came into existence, so did
more books appear that claimed to be part of Scripture. These were the gospel
of Thomas, the gospel of Mary and many more. Just like the Old Testament ones,
these were also examined and found to contain heresies. So, what must we do
with these Bibles that contain the Apocrypha today? Answer; they are not
Scripture and must be rejected at once. Only the Bible containing 66
books is the tried and tested Word of God
According to the
eternal plan of the Almighty, the Bible has already been translated to almost
all languages available. However, English is the only language that now has
more than 50 Bible versions under its umbrella. The most used and obvious bestselling
of those is the KJV Bible. Translated from the Greek manuscripts
called the Textus Receptus (received text), which were
the only manuscripts discovered at that time, it was authorized for public use
in England by a king who was called James VI in the year 1611,
hence it was given the name 1611 King James Authorized Version.
Some understand the KJV to be the first Bible translation that is closer to the
original manuscripts and the only version that must be regarded as the Word of
God. Well, it was not the first translation because before it
was the Bishop Bible, the Geneva Bible and the Tyndale Bible, however, it is
understandable that many think it is closer to the original because of its wide
use throughout Church history. It wasn’t long before more manuscripts were
discovered that were many years older than the Textus Receptus, these were
called the Majority Text – from which came more Bible
versions. The outcry was that the KJV has old English, was too formal to be
understood and is derived from later manuscripts which were further from the
original. Another reason for the existence of so many English Bible
translations is that thing called money; book publishing is one of the lucrative
businesses of our time, therefore new Bible versions always mean more cash for
bookstores and publishers.
Why does my
Bible have missing verses?
Take out your KJV
Bible and open John 5:4 or Matthew 17:21,
open the same verses through the NIV and you will find there is nothing; just
an empty verse. As we said that these two Bibles are sourced from different
manuscripts of different dates. Since the KJV is based on the only manuscripts
that were available at that time, when they discovered the older manuscripts
so did they notice that these did not have anything on John 5:4, Matthew
17:21, Mark 16:9-20 and Acts 8:37. Therefore, they concluded that
the omitted verses are actually added verses that were added later in time,
therefore not part of the original. Hence the NIV and other new versions
have empty spaces in some verses. But why would anyone add to the Bible text?
The explanation goes that those who were doing the copying from originals
(scribes) also added small explanations in the form of footnotes, then later
when the manuscripts were being copied further by another band of scribes, somehow,
they included the footnotes as part of the Bible text. In the end, our Bible
came with a few verses more than the original. In all this, let us remember
that these so-called omitted verses (or additions) do not change the
meaning of the context nor do they tamper with the fundamental doctrines of the
Christian faith.
Which
version is best for me?
Now comes the real
question; which Bible version is best for your spiritual growth? As we pointed out above that all of Scripture, regardless of language or version, though
different in the use of words, is based on similar manuscripts and can therefore
benefit us in understanding the basic doctrines of Christianity, namely the
Gospel. But what if we really want to go deep in learning the Scriptures, which
version better conveys the original meaning?
There are two
types of Bible versions; the formal Bible and
the dynamic Bible. The formal one is a Bible version which was translated
word for word from the original Greek/Hebrew language. It never tries to
explain the meaning but simply attempts to translate words as they were. The
advantage of this is that readers get to read the Bible as the words were
arranged in Greek or Hebrew, then they can interpret for themselves what they
think it means. The disadvantage of such translations is that since each
language communicates differently, it is unhelping to just get original words
that are not properly arranged for the reader’s understanding. Examples of
formal Bible versions are the KJV, NKJV, ESV and the NASB. The second type of
Bible version, the dynamic translation is that Bible which was translated in a
way that seeks to explain or interpret from the original Greek to the modern
English that is understandable. The advantage of this kind is that readers can
read and easily understand Scripture without any hindrances, while the
disadvantage is that in some verses the translators used their own
understanding to get the meaning which might not be the same meaning that the
original authors had in mind when they wrote the Bible. Examples of the dynamic
Bible versions are the NLT, GNB, NET and perhaps the NIV which tried to balance
between being dynamic and being formal. Therefore, the best version for
believers who preach is the formal Bible (KJV, NKJV, ESV), because it
allows the preacher to read the original arrangement of words so that he can
interpret and explain them to his listeners the best way he understands. On the
hand, the dynamic versions (NLT, GNB) are best for believers in their Bible
study time, so that they can understand the meaning of Scripture as easily
explained for them.
Run away
from these versions!
Above we warned
about the Bible that contains extra books (apocrypha), more than the common 66
books that we know. There are more Bibles to run away from. The first one is the
NWT (New World Translation), which is exclusively used by the JW (Jehovah
Witness Church). This is the only Bible translation that was translated by
individuals who were not trained Bible scholars and also the only version that
was deliberately twisted to suit the theology of the Jehovah Witness church.
Following the NWT on the same line of dangerous “Bibles” is the Book of Mormon.
The Mormon church is obviously a heretic movement that denies the Deity of Christ
(God nature of Jesus), salvation by faith alone (they teach salvation is by
works) and the inspiration of our Bible (they say our Bible contains errors
therefore their Book of Mormon is the right Bible). Many years ago, I was given
the Book of Mormon by a couple of well-meaning LDS brothers and guess what I
did with it? It fell from my hand into the rubbish can. I will also caution you about another new version called the Passion Translation. Which was written (not translated) by a certain charismatic guy named Brian Simmons. Just stay away from that pseudo "Bible" and you will thank me later.
Conclusion
Friends, thank you so much for
reading this long letter until this point. The point is to educate fellow
believers who meet these challenges in their daily Bible studies. After all, no
one cares to teach these in the Church today. I hope you learned something
today. Until we meet again on the other side of the River; may the Lord bless
you and your family.
Sinothi
Ncube
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