Page 36 - Yahwehs Book

A Sampling of English Bible Translations

Loyalty toward a particular Bible version for many is not unlike the attitude of sports fanatics who
root for their favorite ball team, or individuals who believe the state or nation in which they were
born and raised is superior to all others, simply because it is their state. These types of loyalties are
frequently dissociated from fact and evidence. They represent emotional decisions, for their favored
Bible version was the Bible their parents used, or the one their pastor, church, or denomination reads
from.

As disciples of Christ, our loyalty should be to God and His kingdom, and our allegiance should be
to truth wherever we may find it. Bible translations need to be judged upon their individual merits
and shortcomings. It does no one any good to suspend a critical and unbiased examination of the
evidence available to them. Yet, many turn a blind eye, and stop their ears, to any explanation of the
merits and shortcomings of a beloved Bible translation. A soulish sense of loyalty has closed their
minds to consider that their translation may in fact be flawed.

Christians may be surprised to learn that the type of bias manifested by zealous proponents of the
KJV Only crowd is not a new phenomenon. Indeed, the history of manuscript and translation bias
provides some examples that make the KJV Only proponents appear downright mellow. For
centuries, the Roman Catholic Church dominated Europe and they forbid the Scriptures to be read
in any language other than Latin, or in any translation other than Jerome’s Latin Vulgate. The penalty
for violating this order was either excommunication, or, in darker times, death by drowning, burning
at the stake, or some other form of torture that the inquisition could dream up. The Roman Catholic
Church has given abundant evidence to the fact that religious people, even those who profess faith
in Jesus Christ, when not subject to the leading of the Holy Spirit, are often some of the most
prejudiced, hateful, and violent among all humanity.

The predilection for favoring a particular translation has frequently been due to a language, or
cultural bias. At times, it has even been due to a prejudice against the Jews, as in the case of some
who favored the Greek Septuagint translation over the Scriptures in the original Hebrew tongue. As
far back as 2,000 years ago, there were religious men quarreling over Bible translations. When the
Greek Septuagint gained popularity, some suggested that it was a far superior Bible than the Hebrew
Scriptures from which it was translated. There even developed myths that suggested that the 72
translators of the Septuagint were divinely aided in their work. One legend recorded in the
Babylonian Talmud states that King Ptolemy of Egypt gathered the 72 Jewish scholars who created