Bible Translations

How blessed we are to have the written Word of God available to us!

We have an abundance of translations available in multiple formats in many, many languages. And yet so many people seem to get quite pernickety about which translation is the right one, or the official or authorised one. If it contains the 66 books accepted as canon, and hasn’t been deliberately distorted to fit a particular world view or theology (such as the Queen James bible or the New World Translation), then I say, what does it matter?

Of the seventeen English versions I quickly searched (thanks to the wonders of digital technology), every one of them agrees that the word of God is alive and powerfully active. Not all use exactly the same words, but the message is still clearly conveyed. So what difference does it make whether it’s a word for word, thought for thought or paraphrased translation? The importance is not which version you choose to read, but that you are reading it at all!

And who or when was it decided that the KJV should be regarded as the official version we are to defer to? The simple fact is, the King James version is called the authorised version because a king authorised it’s translation, and it was considered official because it was the only version officially state sanctioned by that king at that time. His decision to commission that translation was as much political as it was religious, because he was both head of the church and head of state. But that does not make the King James Version any more or less accurate than any other version available to us these days.

With a click of our mouse (a computer mouse of course, not an actual mouse….although that would be pretty funny), we now have the ability to access multiple versions of the bible, including the historical versions from which the King James Version was itself developed. There is no reason to limit ourselves to a single version.

When Solomon wrote that it was the glory of kings to search out a matter, it was a time when the everyday person was unlikely to have easy access to the written Word the way we do today. The scriptures were protected by the priests as something precious, because they couldn’t just pop down to their local Christian bookstore to get a new one. Each scroll had to be laboriously copied by hand, so each was revered and treasured. How fortunate we are now to have the same privilege as those kings in searching out a matter, because we are able to own or access as many bibles as we like. So why limit our study of this precious Word to only a single version?

There is a risk of developing too narrow an understanding if we dogmatically stick only to a single version. When searching out a matter, wouldn’t it be better to consult multiple versions the same way you might consult a multitude of counsellors? How much easier to truly grasp the message that the original writer was trying to convey? If you include a version that has Strong’s Concordance references in it, you can also easily explore some of the original languages as well.

It’s important to note that the Bible contains four gospels, because each one bears out the information in the other. Each is slightly different in the information it contains and the way it is conveyed, and each is coloured by the perspective of the writer, but there are enough points of reference across them all to verify that the information contained within them is authentic and true. This follows a principle of the Law of Moses:

Referring to multiple versions of the Bible is a protection for us because it minimises the room for potential error in our understanding. It only takes a deviation of one degree to take you off course, and the further you travel along the deviated path, the further away you become from your primary destination. I believe that principle holds true if you try to build your understanding as a believer based on only a single version of the Bible.

We put ourselves at risk of building a false doctrine or developing a skewed understanding if we get hung up or fixated on a particular word or phrase used by the translator simply because it captivated us. It is important that we verify what we are perceiving by looking for other supporting verses and checking it out in other versions as well. Read whichever version you prefer. If something you read captivates you, then for the sake of clarity take the time to search out the matter across other versions. Let the King James Version be one of those versions, but not the only one that you use to build your theology upon.