Page 78 - Yahwehs Book

information Yahweh chose to communicate through His holy prophets. They end up being like a
Cliffs Notes version of the Bible. These translations are focused only on the surface account, giving
no heed to that which lies beneath. Christianity today is very shallow in its comprehension of
spiritual truth. Human reasoning and mental apprehension have largely replaced a focus upon divine
inspiration. Most Christians see only that which human reasoning can disclose to them. The
mysteries of God which can be grasped only through divine revelation and spiritual enlightenment
remain hidden from their sight.

Returning to the two verses in the book of Joshua that we have looked at, we can see that the divine
intent has been missed by these modern paraphrases. The words “about 1,000 yards,” and “about a
half mile” do not contain the same information as the words “about 2,000 cubits.” Although these
substitutions may be functionally equivalent on a surface level, denoting a similar distance of space,
they are not equivalent at the many deeper levels in which Yahweh communicates truth selectively
to those who are granted insight. Yahweh hides truth that His sons and daughters might search it out.
However, in a dynamic equivalent translation, much of this hidden information is no longer present.
These types of translations transform the Bible into something that appears good on the surface, but
which has no depth underneath. That so many have cast off literal translations of the Bible to
embrace paraphrastic translations is an indictment upon the shallow state of the body of Christ in this
hour of apostasy.

The many books and writings I have made available to the body of Christ are filled with hundreds
of examples of the parables hidden in Yahweh’s word. In my studies of the Scriptures, I have always
relied upon a class of Bibles that are described as “essentially literal translations,” or “formal
equivalency” translations, terms which are used interchangeably. These Bibles preserve the
information contained in the original autographs of the Scriptures. An essentially literal Bible
translation makes only those alterations to the text that are necessary to adapt the Hebrew and Greek
Scriptures into a modern language. These changes are generally minor, consisting in the
rearrangement of words, the addition of punctuation, and the addition of words that render the text
more readable, such as inserting the definite article “the” before a noun. Many of these essentially
literal translations indicate where such words have been added, often by printing the added word in
italics.

Because essentially literal translations strive to reproduce the original text of the Hebrew and Greek
Bibles faithfully, with a minimum of alteration, there is a high correspondence between them. Leland
Ryken, in his book The Word of God in English demonstrates the correspondence between
essentially literal translations by citing a portion of I Thessalonians 1:3. He begins by citing four
essentially literal versions of the Bible.

"... your work of faith, and labour of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ..." (KJV).

"...your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ" (RSV).

"...your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ" (NASB).

"...your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ" (ESV).