Why So Many Different Bibles?

[Timothy]

I had a co-worker ask me, "Why so many different Bibles?"

Perhaps I will share what I said to him later, but I wanted to see how you would reply to such a question in the lunchroom with a Jewish man.

 

[rsc2a]

"Because language changes over time."

 

[Timothy]

"Because language changes over time."

Well, he was referring to the overwhelming number of Bibles currently available at the local Bookstore. Apparently his scriptures haven't changed much over the years.

 

[rsc2a]

"Because language changes over time."

Well, he was referring to the overwhelming number of Bibles currently available at the local Bookstore. Apparently his scriptures haven't changed much over the years.

Is he considering the NIV for Ladies, NIV for Girls, NIV for Men, NIV for soldiers, NIV for Youth Pastors, NIV for serial killers, NIV for Pagans, NIV for Aliens, NIV for....

...to be different Bibles?

 

[Castor Muscular]

"Because language changes over time."

Well, he was referring to the overwhelming number of Bibles currently available at the local Bookstore. Apparently his scriptures haven't changed much over the years.

Is he considering the NIV for Ladies, NIV for Girls, NIV for Men, NIV for soldiers, NIV for Youth Pastors, NIV for serial killers, NIV for Pagans, NIV for Aliens, NIV for....

...to be different Bibles?

The NIV in the original Klingon?

 

[Timothy]

"Because language changes over time."

Well, he was referring to the overwhelming number of Bibles currently available at the local Bookstore. Apparently his scriptures haven't changed much over the years.

Is he considering the NIV for Ladies, NIV for Girls, NIV for Men, NIV for soldiers, NIV for Youth Pastors, NIV for serial killers, NIV for Pagans, NIV for Aliens, NIV for....

...to be different Bibles?

No. He is talking about NIV, ESV, KJV ... etc etc etc ...

He wants to know why we have so many versions .... but, he said Bibles ... to perhaps read his mind a little, I think he sees the Bible as an authority, so to have so many "different" ones is hard to understand.

 

[Castor Muscular]

"Because language changes over time."

Well, he was referring to the overwhelming number of Bibles currently available at the local Bookstore. Apparently his scriptures haven't changed much over the years.

Is he considering the NIV for Ladies, NIV for Girls, NIV for Men, NIV for soldiers, NIV for Youth Pastors, NIV for serial killers, NIV for Pagans, NIV for Aliens, NIV for....

...to be different Bibles?

No. He is talking about NIV, ESV, KJV ... etc etc etc ...

He wants to know why we have so many versions .... but, he said Bibles ... to perhaps read his mind a little, I think he sees the Bible as an authority, so to have so many "different" ones is hard to understand.

Sounds like he's just yanking your chain.

 

[Timothy]

"Because language changes over time."

Well, he was referring to the overwhelming number of Bibles currently available at the local Bookstore. Apparently his scriptures haven't changed much over the years.

Is he considering the NIV for Ladies, NIV for Girls, NIV for Men, NIV for soldiers, NIV for Youth Pastors, NIV for serial killers, NIV for Pagans, NIV for Aliens, NIV for....

...to be different Bibles?

No. He is talking about NIV, ESV, KJV ... etc etc etc ...

He wants to know why we have so many versions .... but, he said Bibles ... to perhaps read his mind a little, I think he sees the Bible as an authority, so to have so many "different" ones is hard to understand.

Sounds like he's just yanking your chain.

No. I don't think so. He is Jewish ... do they have multiple translations?

 

[rsc2a]

"Because language changes over time."

Well, he was referring to the overwhelming number of Bibles currently available at the local Bookstore. Apparently his scriptures haven't changed much over the years.

Is he considering the NIV for Ladies, NIV for Girls, NIV for Men, NIV for soldiers, NIV for Youth Pastors, NIV for serial killers, NIV for Pagans, NIV for Aliens, NIV for....

...to be different Bibles?

No. He is talking about NIV, ESV, KJV ... etc etc etc ...

He wants to know why we have so many versions .... but, he said Bibles ... to perhaps read his mind a little, I think he sees the Bible as an authority, so to have so many "different" ones is hard to understand.

I try not to read minds.

 

[Castor Muscular]

"Because language changes over time."

Well, he was referring to the overwhelming number of Bibles currently available at the local Bookstore. Apparently his scriptures haven't changed much over the years.

Is he considering the NIV for Ladies, NIV for Girls, NIV for Men, NIV for soldiers, NIV for Youth Pastors, NIV for serial killers, NIV for Pagans, NIV for Aliens, NIV for....

...to be different Bibles?

No. He is talking about NIV, ESV, KJV ... etc etc etc ...

He wants to know why we have so many versions .... but, he said Bibles ... to perhaps read his mind a little, I think he sees the Bible as an authority, so to have so many "different" ones is hard to understand.

Sounds like he's just yanking your chain.

No. I don't think so. He is Jewish ... do they have multiple translations?

I still think he's yanking your chain.  It doesn't take a gentile or a genius to know why there's more than one translation. 

 

[Timothy]

"Because language changes over time."

Well, he was referring to the overwhelming number of Bibles currently available at the local Bookstore. Apparently his scriptures haven't changed much over the years.

Is he considering the NIV for Ladies, NIV for Girls, NIV for Men, NIV for soldiers, NIV for Youth Pastors, NIV for serial killers, NIV for Pagans, NIV for Aliens, NIV for....

...to be different Bibles?

No. He is talking about NIV, ESV, KJV ... etc etc etc ...

He wants to know why we have so many versions .... but, he said Bibles ... to perhaps read his mind a little, I think he sees the Bible as an authority, so to have so many "different" ones is hard to understand.

Sounds like he's just yanking your chain.

No. I don't think so. He is Jewish ... do they have multiple translations?

I still think he's yanking your chain.  It doesn't take a gentile or a genius to know why there's more than one translation.

And why is there more than on translation? Money for multiple publishers? Multiple Opinions? Denominations? .... You can't see how one would ask this question?

 

[rsc2a]

[quote author=Timothy]No. I don't think so. He is Jewish ... do they have multiple translations?[/quote]

The Septuagint is a pretty notable Greek translation of the (mostly) Hebrew Jewish Bible.

 

[christundivided]

I do agree with several in the bible versions debate who believe there too many modern translations. Have said that, there is no comparing a NIV to a KJV. Yet, there really is no reason for all the various modern versions. Well.. there is one. It's called money. There would be hardly nothing lost if half of them were removed from the market. If I had only one to chose from... I'd choose the NET edition.

 

[Castor Muscular]

"Because language changes over time."

Well, he was referring to the overwhelming number of Bibles currently available at the local Bookstore. Apparently his scriptures haven't changed much over the years.

Is he considering the NIV for Ladies, NIV for Girls, NIV for Men, NIV for soldiers, NIV for Youth Pastors, NIV for serial killers, NIV for Pagans, NIV for Aliens, NIV for....

...to be different Bibles?

No. He is talking about NIV, ESV, KJV ... etc etc etc ...

He wants to know why we have so many versions .... but, he said Bibles ... to perhaps read his mind a little, I think he sees the Bible as an authority, so to have so many "different" ones is hard to understand.

Sounds like he's just yanking your chain.

No. I don't think so. He is Jewish ... do they have multiple translations?

I still think he's yanking your chain.  It doesn't take a gentile or a genius to know why there's more than one translation.

And why is there more than on translation? Money for multiple publishers? Multiple Opinions? Denominations? .... You can't see how one would ask this question?

Probably money for multiple publishers, and different publishers think they know how to make the text more clear to the reader.  Why not just tell him the truth? 

 

[rsc2a]

[quote author=Timothy]And why is there more than on translation? Money for multiple publishers? Multiple Opinions? Denominations? .... You can't see how one would ask this question?[/quote]

Like I said in my first post: "Because language changes". In fact, it changes pretty significantly about every 50 years from what I've read. That accounts for why there are so many translations from the past.

For the present variety: translation is not a one-to-one action and there are different approaches to translation such as formally equivalent or dynamic.

To use a common example, the word for "love" in Greek isn't "love". It's eros, or phileo, or agape or... (very simply put) And that doesn't even work right because the English word "love" is an English word and some of our usages wouldn't even make sense to interpret as "love" in Greek. You don't eros tacos. You don't agape tacos. You don't even phileo tacos. And that's just one word. And the Hebrew words for love have different meanings than even the Greek ones.

 

[Castor Muscular]

To use a common example, the word for "love" in Greek isn't "love". It's eros, or phileo, or agape or... (very simply put) And that doesn't even work right because the English word "love" is an English word and some of our usages wouldn't even make sense to interpret as "love" in Greek. You don't eros tacos. You don't agape tacos. You don't even phileo tacos. And that's just one word. And the Hebrew words for love have different meanings than even the Greek ones.

This is why KJVO cracks me up.  If God intended to create a perfect translation, he wouldn't have used English.

 

[Timothy]

"Because language changes over time."

Well, he was referring to the overwhelming number of Bibles currently available at the local Bookstore. Apparently his scriptures haven't changed much over the years.

Is he considering the NIV for Ladies, NIV for Girls, NIV for Men, NIV for soldiers, NIV for Youth Pastors, NIV for serial killers, NIV for Pagans, NIV for Aliens, NIV for....

...to be different Bibles?

No. He is talking about NIV, ESV, KJV ... etc etc etc ...

He wants to know why we have so many versions .... but, he said Bibles ... to perhaps read his mind a little, I think he sees the Bible as an authority, so to have so many "different" ones is hard to understand.

Sounds like he's just yanking your chain.

No. I don't think so. He is Jewish ... do they have multiple translations?

I still think he's yanking your chain.  It doesn't take a gentile or a genius to know why there's more than one translation.

And why is there more than on translation? Money for multiple publishers? Multiple Opinions? Denominations? .... You can't see how one would ask this question?

Probably money for multiple publishers, and different publishers think they know how to make the text more clear to the reader.  Why not just tell him the truth?

That seems sad. The Bible reduced to a way for a publisher to make money over another.

Actually - I told him that the authentic Bible isn't in English and many men try to bring it to the English speaking people. I shared that I believe one version is better than another and one makes a choice in the matter that they generally stick with. Not sure this was best, but I wasn't ready to say they are all perversions and the KJV is the real genuine artifact.

 

[Timothy]

[quote author=Timothy]And why is there more than on translation? Money for multiple publishers? Multiple Opinions? Denominations? .... You can't see how one would ask this question?

Like I said in my first post: "Because language changes". In fact, it changes pretty significantly about every 50 years from what I've read. That accounts for why there are so many translations from the past.

For the present variety: translation is not a one-to-one action and there are different approaches to translation such as formally equivalent or dynamic.

To use a common example, the word for "love" in Greek isn't "love". It's eros, or phileo, or agape or... (very simply put) And that doesn't even work right because the English word "love" is an English word and some of our usages wouldn't even make sense to interpret as "love" in Greek. You don't eros tacos. You don't agape tacos. You don't even phileo tacos. And that's just one word. And the Hebrew words for love have different meanings than even the Greek ones.
[/quote]

Does any other work of fiction or non-fiction get such a translation scrub? I don't remember seeing 24 different translations of Romeo and Juliet.

 

[rsc2a]

[quote author=Timothy]And why is there more than on translation? Money for multiple publishers? Multiple Opinions? Denominations? .... You can't see how one would ask this question?

Like I said in my first post: "Because language changes". In fact, it changes pretty significantly about every 50 years from what I've read. That accounts for why there are so many translations from the past.

For the present variety: translation is not a one-to-one action and there are different approaches to translation such as formally equivalent or dynamic.

To use a common example, the word for "love" in Greek isn't "love". It's eros, or phileo, or agape or... (very simply put) And that doesn't even work right because the English word "love" is an English word and some of our usages wouldn't even make sense to interpret as "love" in Greek. You don't eros tacos. You don't agape tacos. You don't even phileo tacos. And that's just one word. And the Hebrew words for love have different meanings than even the Greek ones.

Does any other work of fiction or non-fiction get such a translation scrub? I don't remember seeing 24 different translations of Romeo and Juliet.
[/quote]

Then you haven't looked hard enough. Have you watched West Side Story? It's Romeo and Juliet. I could name probably five more versions off the top of my head.

 

[Castor Muscular]

[quote author=Timothy]And why is there more than on translation? Money for multiple publishers? Multiple Opinions? Denominations? .... You can't see how one would ask this question?

Like I said in my first post: "Because language changes". In fact, it changes pretty significantly about every 50 years from what I've read. That accounts for why there are so many translations from the past.

For the present variety: translation is not a one-to-one action and there are different approaches to translation such as formally equivalent or dynamic.

To use a common example, the word for "love" in Greek isn't "love". It's eros, or phileo, or agape or... (very simply put) And that doesn't even work right because the English word "love" is an English word and some of our usages wouldn't even make sense to interpret as "love" in Greek. You don't eros tacos. You don't agape tacos. You don't even phileo tacos. And that's just one word. And the Hebrew words for love have different meanings than even the Greek ones.

Does any other work of fiction or non-fiction get such a translation scrub? I don't remember seeing 24 different translations of Romeo and Juliet.

Then you haven't looked hard enough. Have you watched West Side Story? It's Romeo and Juliet. I could name probably five more versions off the top of my head.
[/quote]

It's also English-to-English.  Most modern translations, as far as I know, aren't translations from English to English.