THE CANON AND LATER TRANSLATIONS

THE CANON AND LATER TRANSLATIONS

Although it is asserted that the autographs were inspired by God, we no longer have them. (They were probably worn out by frequent use and repeated copying.) So how, then, can we trust the text we have in our modern Bibles? The trustworthiness of our Bibles today is tied into canon history and the transmission and translation of the books of the Bible.

The word “canon” means “a rule, a standard, a measuring rod.” Therefore, a book considered canonical is a book that has met certain criteria, or standards. By the time of Jesus and the apostles the thirty-nine Old Testament books were solidly accepted by Judaism as inspired by God. Jesus repeatedly referred to the Old Testament, recognizing that God himself was speaking (e.g., Matt 19:4; 22:29). To attest to the confidence the writers of the New Testament had in the Old, one need but consider that in the hundreds of quotations of Old Testament passages scattered throughout the New Testament, there is only one place where possibly an apocryphal (spurious or doubtful) Old Testament book is quoted. That single reference is in Jude 14–15, where there appears to be a similarity to the Book of Enoch 1:9, and even this is not difficult to attribute to a common oral tradition available both to the writer of the Book of Enoch and to Jude.

What of the New Testament canon? This is a fascinating story all its own, but let us move to the conclusion of the story, into the fourth century. In A.D. 367, the most orthodox theologian of the time, the great champion of biblical truth, Athanasius, sifted through all the books being circulated in the Mediterranean world purporting to be apostolic documents. His examination disclosed twenty-seven books, the ones we have today, to be God’s Word.11 Thirty years later, quite independently of Athanasius, a church council met in Carthage to discuss the problem of what books were genuinely Scripture.12 They applied four tests to the documents considered: (1) Apostolicity: Was the book the product of an apostle or a close associate of an apostle? (2) Universality: was the book widely accepted and used in the churches? (3) Contents: Did the subject matter of the book appear to be on a plan with known Scripture? (4) Inspiration: Did the book bear the special quality that speaks of divine inspiration? Note that three of the four tests to which the books were subjected were objective, a matter of factual evidence. Only the fourth, the matter of inspiration, could be considered subjective, a matter of personal judgment. The Council of Carthage, after considering the facts, concluded that the twenty-seven books we now have in our New Testament were the only books in circulation at that time that measured up to the criteria established. For all practical purposes, the question of canon was closed until the advent of modern rationalism.

The other question remaining about the trustworthiness of the Bible is the accuracy of the transmission of the text. Inspiration extends only to the autograph; no case is made for the inspiration of any particular translation (version) of the Bible. You may ask, Just how nearly does my Bible conform to the original documents inspired by God?

Let us look first at the New Testament, which is nearer to us in time than the Old Testament text. Most remarkable is that there are over 5,300 ancient hand-written copies (manuscripts) of the New Testament in the original Greek. Some come from the third and fourth centuries. One fragment of the Gospel of John comes from about A.D. 125, within 30 years of the time it was written. This is in contrast to other ancient writings. The oldest manuscript we have of Virgil comes from about 350 years after his death. The oldest of Horace is from 900 years after his death. Most of the manuscripts of Plato come from 1,300 years after his death.13 Sir Frederic Kenyon, noted biblical scholar, speaking of modern discoveries in biblical archeology, said, “They have established, with a wealth of evidence which no other work of ancient literature can even approach, the substantial authenticity and integrity of the text of the Bible as we now possess it.”14

The Old Testament text has had a dramatic breakthrough in this century. With the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1947, manuscripts of all or part of every Old Testament book except Esther have been uncovered. They come from as early as 250 B.C., taking us back 1000 years earlier than the previous best manuscripts available in the Hebrew text. In fact, probably the most important contribution of the Dead Sea Scrolls is the light cast on the text of the Old Testament books. The net result is that we are given massive reassurance of the accuracy of our Bibles. They make possible the comparison of a large number of texts that let us know the Old Testament “has remained virtually unchanged for the last two thousand years.”15 In fact, there is remarkable conformity of the Dead Sea documents to our present-known texts.

God’s purpose in calling Abraham and choosing Israel as His servant (Isa. 44:1) was to prepare the way to bring blessing to all the nations of the earth (Gen. 12:3; 22:18). It was important therefore that the Bible be put into the various languages of other nations. All nations need the Bible because it is the sword of the Spirit (Eph. 6:17); it is the only means of winning spiritual victories. It is also God’s hammer, His tool to break down opposition and to build God’s building (Jer. 23:29). It is a lamp to light life’s pathway (Ps. 119:105). Even when people are blinded by sin, and the Bible seems foolish to them, such “foolishness” still gives to preaching the wise and powerful content that the Holy Spirit uses to save those who believe (1 Cor. 1:18, 21). The Bible is also necessary for the continued growth of believers. Consequently, as soon as the Church began to spread into countries where they did not speak the original Hebrew and Greek of the Bible, Christians wanted the Bible translated into their own languages.

The story of Bible versions (translations) is thrilling.16 It actually begins before the time of Jesus. As a result of the conquests of Alexander the Great, Greek became the language of trade, commerce, and education in the Middle East. The city of Alexandria in Egypt became the great center of Greek language, learning, and culture. Jews living there wanted the Old Testament in Greek. Over the period of 250 to 150 B.C. they gave the world the famous Septuagint Version.17 This version was often used by early Christians in preaching the gospel during the first generation after Pentecost. (This is indicated by New Testament usage.) At the same time the Holy Spirit directed the writers of the New Testament to write their books, not in the classical Greek used several hundred years before by the great Greek philosophers, but in the everyday Greek spoken by the common people on the street and in the marketplace.

God has always wanted His Word to be preached in the language the people actually spoke. Moses wrote the Law not in the hieroglyphics used by the scholars of Egypt but in the Hebrew spoken in the tents of Israel. Jesus preached and taught with a simplicity of language that made the common people listen to Him with delight (Mark 12:37). When the gospel spread, people naturally began to translate the Bible into their own languages. Four centuries after Christ, when neither Greek nor the old Latin was spoken any longer in the Western Roman Empire, Jerome made a new translation into the “vulgar,” or “common,” Latin spoken in his day. This version became known as the Vulgate.18

Unfortunately, the Vulgate was made the official version of Western Europe and England. Further attempts to translate the Bible were discouraged even though in time the common people did not speak Latin at all. When in A.D. 1380 Wycliffe translated the Vulgate into English, large numbers were converted to Christ. But after his death in 1384, persecution of his followers arose due to their rejection of some Roman Catholic doctrines. In 1415 a general council of the Roman Catholic Church condemned his teaching. Then in 1428 Bishop Richard Fleming had his bones dug up, burned, and the ashes thrown into a stream.19 Most of the copies of his handwritten Bible were also burned.

God, however, was working. The invention of printing made a difference. Between 1462 and 1522 at least seventeen versions and editions of the Bible appeared in German. They helped prepare the way for the Reformation under Martin Luther, which brought to the people a scriptural understanding of salvation by grace through faith. Martin Luther himself then went to the Hebrew and Greek to make a new, better translation into German. As a result of Luther’s influence, William Tyndale made the first important printed translation of the New Testament into English in 1525.20 Many copies were burned but the printing presses kept pouring out floods of Bibles. Since they could not burn all the Bibles, they arrested Tyndale and burned him at the stake. Even so, other translations soon followed. After Henry VIII broke with the Roman Catholic Church, a translation known as the Bishop’s Bible became the authorized version of the English Church. It was not popular, however, and most people preferred the Geneva Bible, a version translated by English refugees who fled from Catholic persecution to Switzerland. It was this version that was brought to America by the Pilgrims and Puritans in 1620 and 1630.21

Many English leaders recognized the need for a better translation, so King James I appointed several groups of scholars to revise the Bishop’s Bible. It was an opportune time: The English language under the influence of Shakespeare and other literary giants, was at a new height. All the best English was poured into this revision, which was completed in 1611 and “authorized” by King James to be read in the churches of England; it ultimately became known as the King James Version (KJV). It was not only beautiful English; it was the English of the day. In fact, the KJV translators took pains to make the Bible more understandable to the common people than the previous English translations were. For example, they took the Israelite expression “Let the king live!” and translated it by the corresponding phrase then used in England: “God save the King!” In the New Testament, the Greek phrase meaning “Let it not be!”, or “Do not let it happen!” is very emphatic—more emphatic than a literal translation would make it, so the KJV translators substituted a phrase the people would understand: “God forbid!” They also translated the Greek word ekklēsia, meaning “assembly” (an assembly of free citizens), by the more common word “church,” though they did translate it “assembly” in three passages (Acts 19:32, 39, 41).

Translating from one language to another has its own set of problems.22 There is, for example, no one Greek word for “miracle,” but two words contain that idea (dunamis and semēion). So the KJV translators used “miracle” for both; but for variety, and to bring out other shades of meaning, they also translated them as “powers” (Heb. 6:5), “mighty works” (Matt. 11:21–23), “strength” (Rev. 10:10), “might” (Eph. 3:16), “virtue” (Luke 6:19; 8:46), “mighty deed” (2 Cor. 12:12), “sign” (John 20:30), “wonder” (Rev. 13:13), and “token” (2 Thess. 3:17). Still another problem came from the fact that both Anglicans and Puritans practiced sprinkling for water baptism, and the Greek word baptizō means “plunge under,” “dip,” “immerse.” So the KJV translators did not translate the word. Instead, they transliterated the Greek word into English letters (thereby giving us the word “baptize”). In this way they avoided a controversy that might have kept some people from reading this new version of the Bible. At other times they were overliteral. For example, they took the Greek word monogenēs apart, translating mono as “only” and genēs as “begotten.”23 However, the word in New Testament times had come to mean simply “only,” in the sense of unique, special. Hebrews 11:17 uses it of Isaac as the special, promised son, even though Abraham had another son, Ishmael. Though we become “sons” [children] of God through Christ, Jesus is God’s beloved Son in a special, unique sense that we never can be.

The richness of the Greek also is difficult to put into English. The KJV translators used one English word for a number of different Greek words. For example, they translated nine different Greek words as “abide,” twelve different ones as “bear,” five as “cast out,” thirty-one as “come,” twelve as “deliver,” fifteen as “keep,” nine as “mind,” six as “power,” six as “preach,” twelve as “think.” In each case, each Greek word represents fine shades of meaning. However, in English a great number of words would have to be used to describe the shade of meaning. This is one of the reasons commentaries and expanded or amplified translations are helpful.

In many cases, however, the KJV translators tried to bring out whatever shade of meaning is being emphasized in a particular passage.

GREEK WORD

TRANSLATIONS IN THE KJV

ekballō

“cast out” (John 6:37); “bring forth” (Matt. 12:25); “send forth” (Matt. 9:38); “send out” (James 2:25); “leave out” (Rev. 11:2)

apolutrōsis

“redemption” (Eph. 1:7); “deliverance” (Heb. 11:25)

hislastērion

“propitiation” (Rom. 3:25); “mercy seat” (Heb. 9:5)

hilaskomai

“make reconciliation” (Heb. 2:17); “be merciful” (Luke 18:13)

Amen (Heb.)

“amen” (Deut. 27:15–26; Rom. 1:25); “so be it” (Jer. 11:5); “truth” (Isa. 65:16); “verily” (Matt. 5:18)

anomia

“iniquity” (Matt. 7:23); “transgression of the law” (1 John 3:4); “unrighteousness” (2 Cor. 6:14)

hikanos

“meet” (1 Cor. 15:9); “worthy” (Matt. 3:11); “sufficient” (2 Cor. 2:16); “able” (2 Tim. 2:2); “good” (Acts 18:18); “great” (Mark 10:46)

apeitheō

“disobedient” (Romans 1:21); “unbelieving” (Acts 14:2)

agapē

“love” (John 15:9–10, 13); “charity” (1 Cor. 1–13); “feast of charity” (Jude 12); “dear” (Col. 1:13)

aiōnōn

“ages” (Col. 1:26); “the beginning of the world” (Eph. 3:9)

chrisma

“anointing” (1 John 2:27); “unction” (1 John 2:20)

sōzō

“save” (Matt. 1:21); “heal” (Acts 14:9); “whole” (Matt. 9:21); “make whole” (Matt. 9:22); “preserve” (2 Tim. 4:18)

elegchō

“reprove” (John 16:8); “rebuke” (Rev. 3:19); “convict” (John 8:9); “convince” (John 8:46); “tell [his] fault”

elpizō

“hope” (1 Pet. 1:13); “trust” (Matt. 12:21)

kairos

“season” (Mark 12:2); “time” (Matt. 13:30); “opportunity” (Gal. 6:10)

makarios

“blessed” (Matt. 5:3–11); “happy” (John 13:17)

marturia

“witness” (John 1:7); “testimony” (John 3:32–33); “record” (John 1:19); “report” (1 Tim. 3:7)

homologeō

“profess” (1 Tim. 6:12); “confess” (Matt 10:32); “promise” (Matt. 14:7); “give thanks” (Heb. 13:15)

paraklesis

“consolation” (Rom. 15:5); “exhortation” (Acts 13:15); “comfort” (Rom. 15:4); “entreaty” (2 Cor. 8:4)

Then because the Hebrew does not contain the word “have,” nor does it use many common English words, such as helping verbs or “to be” as connectives, the KJV translators added them and many other words to make the translation understandable and smooth reading in English. For example, they added the word “art” in Nathan’s words to David, “Thou art the man” (2 Sam. 12:7).24 The result was an excellent translation in the language of the people who lived in England in 1611.

At first the KJV, as a new version, was rejected by many. The clergy preached against it. One Hugh Broughton went so far as to say “that it was so poorly done that it would grieve him as long as he lived. He insisted that he would rather be tied between wild horses and torn apart than to let it go forth among the people.”25 For fifty years many continued to condemn it, but it gradually won favor because it was a superior translation. It was worthy of the place it came to have in the hearts of the people.

Unfortunately, all languages are constantly changing. We no longer speak Shakespearian English with its “thees” and “thous.” In fact, meanings of some words have changed considerably: “Let” in 1611 meant “hinder.” “Prevent” meant “precede.” “By and by” meant “immediately.” “Charger” meant “wooden platter.”

Missionaries want to get the Bible into the language the people actually speak. Believers everywhere are blessed when they read an easy-to-understand version in their own language. The world, including the English-speaking world, is a mission field today. This is the reality that has called forth new versions in modern English. Admittedly, none of them are final perfection, but all, except those put out by some of the cults, have enough truth in them for the Holy Spirit to use them to make the way of salvation clear.

Some modern versions, such as the New Berkeley Version, use a high English style that seems to be aimed at college professors instead of the average reader. In contrast, the New Century Version is aimed at a third-grade reading level. Some, such as The Good News Bible26, The Living Bible, the Phillips translation, and the New English Bible, are paraphrases, which do more interpretation than strict translation. The Phillips translation seems to catch the spirit of the Greek, however, especially in Paul’s epistles. The Revised Standard Version is fairly good in the New Testament, but the Old Testament is too subjective in the way it changes the Hebrew vowels and divides Hebrew words, so it is not useful as a study Bible. The New Revised Standard Version is an improvement over the earlier RSV. The New American Standard Bible is faithful to the original languages, but sometimes overliteral and not very readable. In between is the New International Version (NIV), which is a good translation made by Bible believers and is also very readable.27 Whichever version you choose, it is important to seek out the full meaning of the original languages (Greek, Hebrew, Aramaic) using concordances, commentaries, Bible dictionaries, as well as comparing with other versions.

Reading a new translation may stimulate thinking. Comparing various translations also helps one to see the various shades of meaning that are in the Scripture. As Dr. Jack Lewis points out, “The religious problems of the world are not caused by people reading different translations; the most serious problem is that many read no translation.”28

The KJV is still a good translation and worthy of respect. Its beauty, especially in the Psalms, will probably never be surpassed. But the important thing is to get people to read the Bible. As the people read, the Holy Spirit will illuminate their hearts and minds and make the truth of God’s Word real to them. In the providence of God, the inspired words of prophets and apostles of old have been preserved for us in the most remarkable of all books, the Holy Bible.

The Bible is a miracle of God’s care. The Holy Spirit acted at the time of the first writing. This we call inspiration. He has preserved for us the text. Now, today, the same Holy Spirit who inspired the writers helps the reader and the hearer. The unregenerate is not promised this assistance, being blind to the truth of God (1 Cor. 2:14). But the believer is promised special assistance from the Holy Spirit (John 16:13–16; 1 Cor. 2:10). God wishes to speak to the reader—and His Spirit is pleased to shed light on the truth and its application to your life.

11 Everett F. Harrison, Introduction to the New Testament (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Pub. Co., 1982), 108.

12 Ibid.

13 Sir Frederic Kenyon, The Story of the Bible, 2d ed. (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Pub. Co., 1964), 26.

14 Sir Frederic Kenyon, Our Bible and the Ancient Manuscripts, 5th ed. rev. (London: Eeyre & Spottiswoode, 1958), 318–319.

15 Geza Vermes, The Dead Sea Scrolls in English, 2d. ed. (Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England: Penguin Books, Ltd., 1975), 12.

16 Much of the following discussion of translations is taken from Stanley M. Horton, “Perspective on Those New Translations,” Pentecostal Evangel, 11 July 1971, 6–8.

17 Gleason L. Archer, Jr., A Survey of Old Testament Introduction, rev. ed. (Chicago: Moody Press, 1981), 44.

18 Ibid., 80.

19 Jack P. Lewis, The English Bible/From KJV to NIV: A History and Evaluation (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1981), 19–20; K.B. McFarlane, John Wycliffe (London: The English Universities Press, 1952), 106.

20 Ibid., 20–21.

21 However, “John Alden’s Bible, preserved in Pilgrim Hall at Plymouthm Massachusetts, is a KJV.” Ibid., 32–33. See also Christopher Anderson, The Annals of the English Bible, abridged and continued by S.I. Prime. (New York: Robert Carter & Brothers, 1849), 486.

KJV King James Version

KJV King James Version

22 One of the problems missionaries face today is that in translating from one language to another it is often difficult to find exactly equivalent words in both languages. For example, Missionary John Hall told of a problem he had while translating the Bible into the Mossi language of Africa. The Mossi people had no word for “anchor.” They were an inland people who rode horses. They tied their horses to picketing pegs, so Hall translated the first part of Heb. 6:19: “Which hope we have as a ‘picketing peg’ for the soul which cannot be rocked loose or broken.”

KJV King James Version

KJV King James Version

23 In Luke 7:12; 8:42; and 9:38, the KJV translators did use the word “only” instead of “only begotten.”

KJV King James Version

KJV King James Version

KJV King James Version

KJV King James Version

24 Many (though by no means all) of these added words, which are necessary in English, the KJV translators put in italics.

KJV King James Version

25 Lewis, English Bible, 29; cf. Hugh Broughton, A Censure of the Late Translation for Our Churches, ca. 1612 (S.T.C. 3847).

26 Today’s English Version. Some Bible versions are published under more than one name.

27 Several Assemblies of God scholars have been involved in some of the recent translations.

28 Lewis, English Bible, 366.

KJV King James Version

William W. Menzies, Bible Doctrines: A Pentecostal Perspective, ed. Stanley M. Horton (Springfield, MO: Logion Press, 1993), 28–39.