Lost in Translation
How many?
How many translations of the Bible are there? No one really knows. The number is so vast, and the answer would be so divers that we really can’t say definitively. There are thousands of languages and every imaginable configuration of different parts of the Bible. There are pocket New Testaments, Psalms, Proverbs, study Bibles, paraphrases, Gospels, Harmony of the gospels, Amplified, Modern language versions, International versions, International Readers versions, Living versions, Good News versions, Standard, American Standard, New American Standard, Revised, Revised Standard, New Revised, Millennium, Third Millennium etc. etc. on and on. The number of English translations alone is estimated to be over 900. Astoundingly, that number is growing.
If new translations and new versions are the key to understanding the scriptures then surely we are the most highly astute biblical geniuses of all time.
Why so many?
It’s noteworthy that the production of new translations is big business. There is a lot of guaranteed money to be made exploiting the huge captive Christian market that has been left to think the challenge in understanding the Bible is in the verbiage. Commercial ambition keeps pumping out the supply but the demand rises from innocent misunderstanding of spiritual understanding.
The truth is the gap between contemporary and ancient languages is a minor obstacle. It would not speak well for God if He left life’s most important resource out of reach because of an impassible barrier of language. If a thousand translations are necessary, that impasse is real.
True understanding
Understanding is a spiritual dynamic. Jesus pointed out that unless we have “ears to hear, we cannot hear.” So stop the translations, that’s not the problem. They are useless without ears to hear.
Christ demonstrated this in His day. He spoke directly, to multitudes, and they still didn’t understand. He spoke in their language with their slang, no translation was involved. They clearly heard every word He said. All were perfectly familiar with the traditions He referred to. They were all keenly aware of the context of the times. The historical events He referenced and the illustrations He used were not obscure but vivid in their frame of reference. And the specific meaning of His words required no explanation. He wasn’t crucified because they needed a better translation.
“but I don’t understand the Bible”
With all the translations and versions, you’d think that would be impossible. But “I don’t understand the Bible” will always be a comment of the natural man about its content, it always has been. Even the great Hebrew Scholars and Rabbi’s agonized daily, as they painstakingly analyzed the Torah for its meaning.
The truth is, the only way to understand the Word of God is by a direct relationship with its author. In fact, Jesus actually said, “God hides these things from the wise and learned and reveals them unto babes.”
Spiritual understanding is different from natural understanding. It’s not just mental or intellectual. Spiritual understanding is given. It’s a gift of God’s Grace reserved for the humble, “babes.” It’s not a matter of figuring it out through our brilliance or by consensus, conference or debate. It only comes by hearing, never by just reading or studying.
The apostle Paul prayed for the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, and he was an educated man. The Damascus Road experience had jolted him sober to the difference between his natural understanding and the understanding that God gives. Jesus said to the Apostle Peter, “flesh and blood has not revealed it unto you, but my Father which is in heaven,”
Can you hear me now?
Christ said, “he that has ears to hear, let him hear,” implying that some don’t have ears to hear. Some listen to criticize, or analyze or dismiss with haughty skepticism. But those that hear Him with child like trust, understand easily. The disciples were mostly simple uneducated people but they “got it,” they understood. How? No doubt they had a secret stash of various translations. Or did they just “hear” Him.
Scholarship vs. Understanding
In college, a Doctor of Divinity lectured us on Hebrews 6:1-6 for three long sessions. He told us he had spent four years in exhaustive study of just these six verses. His conclusion at the end of his marathon discourse was “we can’t know definitively what is meant here.”
That was the most enlightening darkness of my entire education. Every resource, translation, commentary, paraphrase, and historical interpretation was explored in his research. Lesson; you can labor intellectually your whole life and not hear God. What a waste! And sadly, he didn’t get the lesson. Paul coined it, “ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.” 2Tim.3:7
Jesus taught His disciples to study hearing God’s voice unlike the studious religious leaders who were obsessed with studying the scrolls. At twelve years old he had more grasp of the scriptures than anybody in the Temple and they were all amazed because of their inverted priority of scholarship.
Today we think the same way with the same idolatry of school. But Jesus said, “Man shall live by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.” Costa Deir’s great quote is called for here. “Higher education is good. Education from on high is better. It’s best to have both.”
Addendum of Respect
Here is the addendum that you will never see in the preface of any modern translation. “The very words of The Holy Scriptures are sacred and never to be tampered with.”
Projecting the false idea onto the Bible that it only contains the thoughts and ideas of God, is blasphemous. Translating interpretations and opinions of what God meant vs what God said, is a presumptuous intrusion upon The Holy Spirit. Trying to assist God with His communication skills is insulting. It’s like re-writing Hemingway’s novels for him, so people can understand what we think he meant. What would he think of that?
Jesus made it clear that not only are the words inspired, but even the punctuation in the originals is to be revered. “Not one jot or tittle of the law shall pass away till all be fulfilled.”
A good version of the scriptures upholds this standard of respect. But you have to go back a long way to find a translation with that kind of sanctity. There would be far fewer versions of the Bible if it were revered at that level. The fear of The Lord is the most important earmark in any version of God’s word. You can’t detect it in most of them.
A great Bible teacher once said, “A paraphrase at best, is no good.”
The Holy Ghost Version
Men did not write the Bible, they wrote it down. They are its scribes not its author. The Bible says of itself that the words themselves were “God breathed,” (GK).Those men were moved by an intimate interaction involving themselves and the Holy Ghost when they penned God’s word. “Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.” 2Pet.1:20-1
We are dependent upon that same interaction with the same Holy Ghost to understand His meaning in what He said. It’s really quite simple, much simpler than four years of vain study of a single passage.
“If any man lacks wisdom, let him ask of God who gives to all men liberally, …. and it shall be given him.” Jms.1:5.
When He speaks to your heart you understand because its direct, internal and intuitive regardless of what your brain may be studying. His communication is far superior to that of your brain. As with His scribes, He uses your thoughts, your language, your feelings, your spiritual senses and your frame of reference. No translation is needed.
Obviously, it has to be that simple in order to reach an extremely divers world. Otherwise how many hundreds of versions would a primitive tribe need before they could understand the Bible. How many versions does it take to hear God’s Holy Spirit telling you what He means in His word?
What language barrier?
The day of Pentecost answered the confusion of tongues that began at the Tower of Babel. That event demonstrated that The Holy Ghost speaks all languages perfectly.
We have that same Holy Ghost. His mission is to “guide us into all truth,” and “teach us all things Christ said to us.”
If you read the Bible as His version, He’ll look over your shoulder and whisper to your spirit what it means.
The solution
If your spouse tells you something you don’t understand, the solution is not to go out and find yourself a different version of him or her, no matter how many may be available. But then ask yourself, what would the solution to that lack of understanding be? In that answer is the understanding of true understanding.