The 39 books of the Old Testament were
written in Hebrew, and the 27 books of the New Testament were written in
Greek. We do not have the original
manuscripts of these books and have to rely on copies that were made many years
later. Over the years, Bible researchers
continue to find copies that come closer to the originals. There’s an entire field of study called
textual criticism, to analyze these ancient texts to determine what the
original manuscript may have said. Bible
scholars also continue to learn more about ancient Hebrew and Greek, in order
better to understand what the words mean and how to translate them into our
language. As a result, each generation
of Bible translators has more accurate resources than the generations before.
In addition, the English language
itself continues to change. For example,
people don’t say “thee” and “thou” anymore, as they commonly did five hundred
years ago. As another example, a 1952
Bible translation of 2 Corinthians 11:25 translates Paul’s words to say “once I
was stoned.” Those words can mean
something very different for today’s reader!
A good Bible translation keeps up with changes like these.
Bible translators also have a decision
to make: do they want an accurate translation, or a readable one? Some versions, such as the New American
Standard, translate the Hebrew and Greek very accurately, but they are awkward
to read. Others, such as the
Contemporary English Version and the Good News Bible, emphasize making the
Bible easy to read, but don’t precisely follow the original Hebrew and
Greek. A good translation finds a middle
ground between readability and accuracy.
Some examples of these are the New Revised Standard Version, the English
Standard Version, and the New International Version. Other Bible versions, such as the Living
Bible and The Message, aren’t translations but paraphrases. In other words, the writers tell us the
meaning of the Bible in their own words.
For more than 25 years, Old Union has
used the New International Version (NIV), which came out in 1984. By using it across the board (in worship, in
Sunday School, Bibles given to new members, and so on) and by encouraging members to use the same translation for their personal reading, it is easy for the words
to become familiar and to sink into the heart.
In 2011, the NIV was updated to keep
up with Biblical scholarship and changes in the English language. For example, many people now use
gender-neutral words. Fewer people today
consider “man” to refer to all humanity, or that “brother” includes both men
and women. About 60% of the Bible verses
in the updated translation are exactly the same as the 1984 version, and more
than 90% of the words are the same.
Our church leadership is currently working plans to replace our use of the 1984 NIV translation with the 2011 translation. We have selected the updated NIV instead of the other good available options to make the transition as smooth as possible.
