Saturday, June 17, 2017

Non-Literal Bible Translations

Few Christians actually know their Bible well enough to know what is or is not in the Bible. These days, most professing Christians cannot identify incorrect information taken from the Bible (such as the fact that there were no wise men at the manger), let alone identify sayings that have no origin in the Bible (such as God helping those who help themselves). Most professing Christians are illiterate of the book from the Saviour they claim to love, but fail to demonstrate.

Years ago, because there was mainly only the KJV, if you quoted the Bible and got it wrong, people were more likely to notice. Today, because of so many non-literal paraphrased "translations" that are used, practically no one can tell for sure whether something presumably from the Bible is being quoted accurately or not. Very few people actually catch on to false statements being attributed to the Bible that have no place in the Bible. These professing Christians' ignorance of the Bible is astounding.

Herein lies the problem with having non-literal paraphrased "translations," which are nothing more than extremely poor commentaries at best. As long as you are quoting from a literal translation (Geneva, KJV, NASB, NKJV, ESV), even with the minor differences in translation (the words chosen to translate a word), someone who knows their Bible well will be able to identify if you are quoting the Bible accurately, because they all largely read the same. However, with these non-literal paraphrased "translations," even if you are quoting it accurately, someone who knows their Bible well will not be able to tell if you are quoting it accurately because it veers off from the way every literal translation reads.

Not only do non-literal paraphrased "translations," which are nothing more than extremely poor commentaries, add things that simply are not found in the original Hebrew, Aramaic, or Greek, but if someone added their own opinion or quoted one of the several phantom passages out there, no one would be able to tell. That is how Satan can introduce lies to the text and convince ignorant Christians who do not know their Bible of false beliefs. Sadly, many professing Christians prefer knowing "biblical passages" that reinforce their pre-existing beliefs and pre-suppositions rather than knowing and conforming to the truth.

How can you say you love God when you never crack open His Word and read? How can you defend the faith when you do not know what the Bible says or does not say? Throw out your non-literal paraphrased commentary-of-a-"translation," which is no Bible at all, and obtain a literal translation that is true to the original languages the Bible was first written in. Then read it daily, meditate upon it, pray daily, abide in Christ, walk by the Spirit, and grow in your knowledge of God. Do this and watch your life change. Watch yourself start to resemble a biblical Christian as defined and described in the Bible.