A friend recently emailed me and asked me how to respond to someone who is asking in essence “How can the Bible be trusted – there’s so many translations?”
Here was my response (edited slightly for the blog):
For someone to imply that the Bible (God’s Word) has been corrupted in the modern English translations, simply manes that they are uniformed. Haven’t done much homework on the topic.
The English Bible has been translated ONCE… from the orignal languages the Bible was wirtten in (Greek, Hebrew and Aramaic) into ENGLISH. Best I can tell, that’s one language translation to the other – not a whole bunch of times. Most contemporary English Bibles can be trusted (not all – some have been intentionally corrupted). I “personally” prefer the translations that attempt a word for word translations like the ESV or NASB because they are more suited for word studies. But the thought for thought Bibles still communicate God’s Truth just the same (like the NIV) and are the preferance of many others. (more…)