FOLLOWING
THE COPIES
Also Go to
There's
a saying in investigating crimes: “Follow
the moneys.”
To search for the original message
of the Bible, it could be, “Follow the copies.” This
necessarily includes translations. This
article is intended to answer some who are against translations of
the Bible. Since the dispersal from the tower of Babel, however,
due to differing languages, communication to the various nations must
include translations.
ISLAM'S
KORAN (Qur'an). The
Koran's Arabic is considered literally by Muslim believers a language
from Heaven. Arab
News
has the following quote: “No
one can reproduce the magnificence of the Qur’anic language.
What we need to understand is that the Qur’an, in its original
Arabic text, is God’s word. Its translation is an expression by
the translator of what he has understood of the Qur’an.
Therefore, it is liable to error.”ii
This author admits though that it is necessary to translate to those
that are not versed in Arabic or are not able to learn the language.
But this admission insists that such translation can never be
trusted.
ISLAM'S
CRITICISM.
Criticisms
of the Bible is that there are so many “translations”
that one cannot expect to know the true message from Heaven. But a
converted Muslim tells the following story. He was finishing his
telephone call to his Arabic mother. He commenced to tell his
college friend about what his mother had said but in the English
language of his friend. The friend asked him if that was truly what
she said. He insisted that it was. The friend responded that that
was like the translations of the Bible into English. We can tell
what was said but in our own language. We do not have to know Arabic
in order to know what the Koran says if it is translated to us. And
so it is with knowing the Bible (originally in Hebrew and Greek) when
it is properly translated in copying for us.
ORIGINAL
AUTOGRAPHSiii
?
Can
we copy from the original Bible books?
No.
There is currently no existing original Hebrew or Greek manuscript of
the Bible (Old or New Testaments). But that's okay.
Neither
is there an original Koran written by the hand of Muhammed.
"Instead,
the revelations were preserved in the 'memories of men,'" said
David Thomas and Nadir Dinshaw, both religious professors at the
University of Birmingham.iv
What
Koran that is available is in Arabic but is admittedly copied from
memories of Muslims claiming to remember words delivered to them by
Muhammed while he was present on Earth.
WHAT
ABOUT THE BIBLE?
There are either ancient copies or
translations of Bible books that
we can copy. For example, currently there is no original
copy of the Ten Commandments (which disappeared with the ark of the
covenant, around 600 BC) or for that matter any of the original
autograph writings of Moses.
TRANSLATING
IS PART OF THE GREAT COMMISSION
.
Matthew 28:18-19, Williams New Testament,
“Then
Jesus came up to them, and said, 'Full authority in heaven and on
earth has been given to me. Go then and make
disciples of all the nations,
baptize them into the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy
Spirit, and teach
them
to practice all the commands that I have given you. And I myself will
surely be with you all the days, down to the very close of an age .'”
The summary is … 1.
Go to “all nations.” 2. Disciple, teach them the
commands of Jesus.
AND TRANSLATIONS.
In
order to go and teach all nations, the apostles had to be able to
translate the gospel into all the languages of the respective
nations. This began on the day of Pentecost in Jerusalem
approximately 33A.D. The resulting translations to the audience “out
of every nation” were miraculous to the hearing.
Acts 2:6, “Now
when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together, and were
confounded, because that every man heard
them speak in his own language.”
THE GREAT COMMISSION TRANSLATION IS STILL NEEDED. “Ages ago” while I was attending the University in Gainesville, Florida, I became acquainted with and appreciated a religious organization on campus that was dedicated in supporting the translation of the Bible among the indigenous tribes of Africa. A missionary would move into an illiterate society with the intent of learning their unique language so that they could translate the Word of God into the language of the locals. Jesus' great commission (Matthew 28) is still needed today including copying in the respective languages. This is true in primitive societies that are in such isolated places such as Nepal but even among our “native” Americans who still hold on to their ancestral languages .v ; vi
TYPES OF TRANSLATIONS INTO ENGLISH. According to the above chart there are at least three chief purposes for the translators of the Bible. (1) Word for word; (2) Thought for thought; and (3) paraphrasing it. I question whether the last two can be copied without being tainted by the translator's prejudices. The revisers of the NKJV contrast their purpose with their counterparts, “The NKJV revisers followed essentially the [1]* literal method of translation used in the original King James Version, which the NKJV Preface calls 'complete equivalence,' in contrast to the [2]* 'dynamic equivalence' of less literal versions.” vii *[ ] numbers are my addition.
KING JAMES' AND ACCURACY. A writer on Quora.com commented that an English Bible translation is not “accurate” because it is not truly a word-for-word translation of the original. The article was good except for his defining of “accuracy.” The point apparently was that the KJV changes the word order from the Greek. But accuracy is not just based on words per sentence equivalences. Accuracy has to take into account the ordering characteristics of words in a respective language. Greek is like German; the subject and action words are understood by their endings. English is not like that. The only “endings” in English is whether the word is singular or plural. English requires word order in the sentence for correct understanding; i.e., the subject of an English sentence is before the verb (e.g., action word or word of being) except in questions. In order to translate into English the equivalent thoughts of Greek or German must be placed in sentence order; e.g., subject (first)-verb (second)-predicate word/object with respective modifiers.
GREEK ORDER. A casual selection of NT passages indicate that NT Greek word order is similar to English with the following exception. The Greek translator Bill Mounceviii describes it. “The normal [Greek] word order is conjunction, verb, subject, object, and modifiers.” Mounce uses John 15:1 as an example. “εγω ειμι η αμπελος η αληθινη και ο πατηρ μου ο γεωργος εστιν.” ::: “I am the vine the true and the father of mine the farmer is.” Mounce reasons from this passage, “You can hear the slight comparison on Jesus and the Father as a contrast to each other, and the slight emphasis due to their placement at the beginning of both clauses.” ix
So the endgame of the selecting of copies is what is your purpose in reading the gospel and the Bible? We can be confident that God has provided the tools. The choice is up to us. “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you” (Matthew 7:7).
-- GAYLON WEST edited by Janie W. Ward, Mary L. West
i https://www.pinterest.com/pin/297519119144578443/
ii“Is Translation Of The Qur’an Forbidden?” Adil Salahi, Arab News. https://www.arabnews.com/node/298269
iii Autograph: Merriam-Webster online, “something written or made with one's own hand: a. an original manuscript or work of art.”
iv https://www.livescience.com/51638-quran-manuscript-oldest-known-copy.html
vhttps://news.americanbible.org/article/tell-every-nation; https://www.wycliffe.org/
vi
https://www.wycliffe.org/;
https://news.americanbible.org/article/tell-every-nation
; etc.
viihttps://www.bible-researcher.com/nkjv.html; https://superiorword.org/errors-in-the-king-james-version/
viii Bill Mounce has had a distinguished career as an author, translator, and teacher. As the founder of BiblicalTraining.org and also serving on The Committee for Bible Translation to create the NIV translation of scripture. https://www.biblicaltraining.org/professors/bill-mounceTcreate the NIV
ix https://www.billmounce.com/monday-with-mounce/normal-sentence-order
