Page 80 - Yahwehs Book

This graphic, created by Brent MacDonald, notes which Bibles have adopted gender neutral
language, which Bibles include the Apocrypha, and the approximate reading grade level of the
Bibles. The reading skill level varies from third or fourth grade for the Easy to Read Version and the
New International Readers Version, to twelfth grade reading level for The Amplified Bible, and grade
13 for the KJV. This higher reading level for the King James Bible is largely due to its employment
of archaic words that have fallen out of common usage.

(Note: I am personally hesitant to place The Amplified Bible so high on the scale of literal
translations, for as its name implies, it “amplifies” the original text, adding many explanatory words
to bring out the fuller meaning of the Scriptures. I do find The Amplified Bible to be a valuable
resource, however, and I refer to it frequently.)

I have found the New American Standard Bible version to be a much better translation for study than
the New International Version, or far looser translations such as The Message. Yet, even the NASB
translators have failed to maintain fidelity to the original Hebrew and Greek in a great many
instances. There are no “perfect” Bible translations today. I have not even found one that I would
describe as “excellent.” There are some good Bible versions, but all of them contain errors, many
of which are serious, and all have strayed from the original manuscripts in numerous places.
Consider the following example from the New American Standard Bible which is rated as one of the
more literal English Bibles.

Luke 24:13
And behold, two of them were going that very day to a village named Emmaus, which was about
seven miles from Jerusalem.
NAS

The writers of the New Testament did not express distances in miles. In the verse above, the Greek
manuscripts use the word “stadia,” a common measure in Roman times. Stadium is the singular form
of this Roman word, and stadia is plural. The English equivalent of the Roman stadia is the furlong
which equates to 606.14 feet, or 185 meters. The passage above from Luke’s gospel actually records
that the distance between Emmaus and Jerusalem is about “60 stadia.”

I do not believe there is a number found anywhere in Scripture that does not bear some divine
significance. It is therefore inadvisable for translators to alter the text of the Bible using modern
measurements that will change the numbers Yahweh has inspired holy men to record. The NAS
Bible states that the distance between Jerusalem and Emmaus is about “seven miles.” The number
seven is nowhere to be found in the Greek manuscripts. The only number given is “hexekonta,”
which translates as “sixty.” Only a translator who does not perceive that every detail of Scripture is
significant would place so little emphasis upon rendering every word as literally and accurately as
possible.

I am sympathetic to the fact that a literal translation is more difficult to understand, but it is the only
form of translation that preserves the divine mysteries and manifold parables contained in holy writ.
I believe a better translation policy would have rendered Luke 24:13 accurately as “sixty stadia”
while adding a parenthetic comment stating that this distance equates to seven miles. Following is