Why are there so many different versions of the Bible?

A lot Bible Versions of many manuscripts

One of the reasons we see different versions of the Bible is because of the number of manuscripts available. To date, there are more than 5,800 Greek manuscripts from New Testament, more than 10,000 manuscripts of the Old Testament in Hebrew and more than 19,000 copies in Syriac, Coptic, Latin and Aramaic languages. The oldest fragment of papyrus is in England at the John Rylands Library at the University of Manchester, P52. The fragment dates from no later than the year 150 and as early as the year 100.

Manuscript families

Scholars have divided these ancient manuscripts into two main families: the Alexandrian text type (also called neutral or Egyptian) and the Byzantine text type (also called majority text).

• THE Byzantine The text type examines all manuscripts and determines the final reading based on what the majority of manuscripts say.

• Rather than seeking a collective majority, the Alexandrian The text type mainly corresponds to the date of the manuscript and the region of the world from which it comes.

Philosophy of translation

Once manuscript families are determined for Bible translation, translators must determine which translation philosophy they will follow. There are 3 main philosophies: formal equivalence, functional equivalence and optimal equivalence.

1. Formal equivalencefocuses on word-for-word translation and strives to be as literal as possible. Bibles that fall under the philosophy of formal equivalence would be the ESV, KJV, and NASB.

2. Functional equivalencefocuses on thought-for-thought translation (dynamic equivalence). Its goal is to make the text easy to read and understand. The Bibles that fall into this camp are either the NLT and the NIV.

3. Optimal equivalenceis a balance of word for word and thought for the reader to understand better. The HCSB would be considered an optimal equivalence approach.

You will also find Bibles that are paraphrased but lack precision and sometimes go beyond a thoughtful approach. These Bibles are useful for better understanding the story or text, but for explicit preaching, it is best to stick with a word-for-word or thought-for-thought Bible.

Why are there so many English versions of the Bible?

With so many manuscripts (some different from each other) and different translation philosophies, we have about 50 major versions of the English Bible today. If we count the revisions, we are well into the hundreds of Bibles.

Another reason why there are many versions of the English Bible is that over time the English language has changed significantly. Old English sounds and reads different from modern English. Some readers may be confused when reading certain passages and some words have changed meaning.

For example: in the KJV you will find that in 1 Corinthians 13 instead of using the word “love”, he uses “charity”. Charity means something completely different today than it did back then.^th century. Today we use the word “love” and when we talk about charity we are talking about the act of being generous or an organization.

Another example is in 2 Timothy 2:15. The modern NIV says, “Do your best to present yourself to God as an approved person” in modern versions of The Bible. In the KJV it says, “Study to prove yourself approved.” At the time, study didn’t want to learn new things, but just do their best.

Before the KJV, there was the Wycliffe Bible, completed in 1382, and the Tyndale Bible (New Testament complete), published in 1526.

Below are 12 of the Protestant Bibles commonly used today. Here is a list of the best-known translations with a brief description of each of them.

Amplified Bible (completed 1965)

Christian Standard Bible (Completed in 2017)

Holman Christian Standard Bible (completed 2004)

The King James Bible (completed 1611)

The Living Bible (completed in 1971)

The Message (completed in 2002)

New American Bible (in 1970)

English Standard Version (completed in 2001)

New living translation (completed in 1996)

New international version (completed in 1978)

New American Standard Bible (completed 1971)

New Version of King James (completed 1982)

Bible Versions and Bible Translations

Bible translations and Bible versions are terms often used interchangeably, but we should consider them separately. Translations relate to language and versions to difference or variety. Therefore, we can have one English translation of the Bible and 50 versions in this language alone.

English speakers have received many translations and versions of the complete Bible. But what about people talking about each other 7,360 living and known languages? According to Wycliffe Global AllianceOf the 2018 data, 1.5 billion people still need parts or all of the Bible translated into their language.

Wycliffe Global Alliance reported that at least part of the Bible had been translated into 3,350 languages. This number includes more than 680 languages ​​with complete Bible translations, more than 1,500 languages ​​with complete New Testaments, and more than 1,000 with Bible excerpts and stories.

This tremendous milestone is the result of everyone’s hard work. And the hard work continues to translate the Bible into the remaining living languages ​​to provide the entire world with access to the Word of God.

Edward Antonio is the founder of Elevate your life and student of theology and church history. He lives in Orange County, California, and is a member of Harvest Christian Fellowship. Find it on Instagram has: https://www.instagram.com/mredwardantonio/ or by answering Bible questions at: https://elevatingyourlife.org/.

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