No Bible version in any language achieves absolute perfection. A perfect translation is humanly impossible because words in one language do not carry exactly the same meaning as equivalent words in another language, and human limitations inevitably enter the process.[1] While translations reflect derivative inspiration when they accurately represent the original documents, no translations are perfect and are not themselves God-breathed.[1]
The theological consensus across evangelical traditions distinguishes between original autographs and copies and translations. Inspiration, strictly speaking, applies only to the autographic text of Scripture, which through God’s providence can be determined from available manuscripts with great accuracy.[2] Copies and translations of Scripture function as the Word of God to the extent that they faithfully represent the original.[2]
This distinction isn’t modern invention—it has deep historical roots. The distinction between inerrant autographs and errant copies appears in much earlier writers, including John Calvin and Augustine.[3] Seventeenth-century theologian Benjamin Keach stated that God’s Word “is contained exactly and most purely in the Originals, and in all translations, so far as they agree therewith.”[1]
The practical implication is reassuring: The Old and New Testament Scriptures have reached us with the most extensive and reliable attestation of any ancient documents, and for more than ninety-nine percent of cases, the original text can be reconstructed to practical certainty.[2] A good copy or translation of the autographs functions as the inspired Word of God for all practical purposes.[3]
Footnotes
[1] James B. Williams and Randolph Shaylor, eds., God’s Word in Our Hands: The Bible Preserved for Us (Greenville, SC; Belfast, Northern Ireland: Ambassador Emerald International, 2003), 383–384.
[2] R. C. Sproul, Can I Trust the Bible?, The Crucial Questions Series (Lake Mary, FL: Reformation Trust Publishing, 2009), 2:31, 2:33.
[3] Norman L. Geisler and William E. Nix, A General Introduction to the Bible (Chicago: Moody Press, 1986), 43–44.
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