How should we judge the trustworthiness of a given Bible translation?
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Cliche Christian answer: pray about it. I'm guessing that isn't the answer you're looking for though, so I will say "research."
For example, looking at Wikipedia you can see the New International Version "translation took ten years and involved a team of up to 100 scholars from the USA, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa. The range of those participating included many different denominations such as Anglicans, Assemblies of God, Baptist, Christian Reformed, Lutheran and Presbyterian." Also, "Recent archaeological and linguistic discoveries helped in understanding traditionally difficult passages to translate."
Having a large team of international, inter-denominational scholars helps quite a bit to remove bias and helps to ensure an accurate translation. Then, using different discoveries gives further insight.
You can easily do this research (and more in depth research) for the other translations as well. I only used NIV as an example because it is what I see quoted most often. With so many scholars using so many different translations, it is usually pretty easy to find out when a translation is inaccurate.
If worried about bias, consider purchasing a parallel Bible so you can always compare two or three translations
Upvote:0
A bible translation is deemed "trustworthy" according to how well it can translate the concepts described in one language into the vocabulary of another. The NIV does not do this well in a few cases. Every instance where it says "sinful nature," should really be translated as "flesh." "Sinful nature" denotes that sin can be a part of our human nature, whereas actually sin makes us less and less human (and therefore cannot be dubbed as a part of our human nature). A good bible translation is one that can convey timeless Gospel truths as best as possible. However, we must remember that translation is interpretation. And that in any translation it is impossible to not do some amount of interpretation.
People can denounce a translation as not being very accurate, but the real question at root is whether or not God can use a poor translation to bring about transformative change in a person and community's collective soul. So maybe instead of asking what is our basis for a good translation, we could be asking, is there any medium that God is not content to use in order to reach who he wants?
Not only that, but all text has an agenda. Scripture definitely has an agenda, to point us towards Christ. The real issue is trusting that the Holy Spirit has and does continue to guide the Church universal through means that we might deem "not good enough" if we were God. But then again, thanks be to God that God can work through any and everything to his glory.
Upvote:0
Most Bible translators have integrity and the majority of translations are therefore valid, however bias and inaccuracy will creep in.....you might be interested in reading 'Truth in Translation' by Jason David BeDuhn which compares the bias and accuracy of 9 of the most widely distributed versions of the Bible including the King James, NIV, NWT and the New American Bible.
Upvote:3
You can view this in different ways. I think the three viewpoints I'm going to tell about all have their merits.
The optimistic answer
Warning: don't apply the following reasoning to sectarian translations, e.g. the New World Translation. Seriously.
All (notable) Bible translations are very carefully created. Every one of them is trustworthy on all of the more important points. Any minor translation errors will be minor enough not to matter too much.
The realistic answer (in other words, what I recommend!)
All translations have errors. You should read different translations side-by-side (eg. using an online parallel Bible), and be careful with any translation choices that are found in only a few versions.
Practically, it's slow to do this for everything you read. It might suffice to do it only when in doubt.
The ultra-cynical answer
All translations have errors. Read the original, then. But some of the manuscripts have errors, too. And many things don't make sense to us, in a very different culture than which the texts were written in.
So become a Greek and Hebrew scholar, a historian, an archaeologist, a theologian, etc.
Or the less cynical variation: realize that sometimes a non-expert will need to do a lot of research. And they might still be wrong.
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