From God to Man The Story of How We Got the Bible Part 5 – Translation

How We Got the Bible “the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of Jehovah” – Isaiah 11:9 1. Revelation 2. Inspiration 3. Documentation 4. Formation 5. Preservation 6. Translation 7. Application 8. Propagation From God To Man

Translation

The Original Bible Languages The OT was originally written in Hebrew with some portions in Aramaic (Ezra 4:8-6:18; 7:12- 26; Dan. 2:4b-7:28) The NT was originally written in Koine Greek Translation from one language to another is necessary unless we learn the original language

The Original Bible Languages The practice of “translation” is found in some places in the NT (Mk. 5:41; 15:22, 34; Jn. 1:38, 41; Acts 4:36; 1 Cor. 14:26-28; Heb. 7:2) A Bible “version” is a particular “translation”

Early Translations / Versions Greek Septuagint (c. 280 B.C.) – Used by Jesus (Mk. 7:6-7; Isa. 29:13) – Use by the apostles, and NT writers (Ac. 8:32-33) – Approximately 2/3 of the OT quotations in the NT are from the LXX (over 300 times)

Early Translations / Versions (LXX quotations in the NT ) Matt. 1:23 / Isaiah 7:14 - behold, a "virgin" shall conceive. Hebrew - behold, a "young woman" shall conceive. Matt. 3:3; Mark 1:3; John 1:23 / Isaiah 40:3 - make "His paths straight.“ Hebrew - make "level in the desert a highway.” Matt. 9:13; 12:7 / Hosea 6:6 - I desire "mercy" and not sacrifice. Hebrew - I desire "goodness" and not sacrifice. Matt. 12:21 / Isaiah 42:4 - in His name will the Gentiles hope (or trust). Hebrew - the isles shall wait for his law.

Early Translations / Versions (LXX quotations in the NT ) Matt. 13:15 / Isaiah 6:10 - heart grown dull; eyes have closed; to heal. Hebrew - heart is fat; ears are heavy; eyes are shut; be healed. Matt. 15:9; Mark 7:7 / Isaiah 29:13 - teaching as doctrines the precepts of men. Hebrew - a commandment of men (not doctrines). Matt. 21:16 / Psalm 8:2 - out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou has "perfect praise.“ Hebrew - thou has "established strength.”

Early Translations / Versions (LXX quotations in the NT ) Mark 7:6-8 - � This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the precepts of men. Luke 3:5-6 / Isaiah 40:4-5 - crooked be made straight, rough ways smooth, shall see salvation. Hebrew - omits these phrases. Luke 4:18 / Isaiah 61:1 - and recovering of sight to the blind. Hebrew - the opening of prison to them that are bound. Luke 4:18 / Isaiah 58:6 - to set at liberty those that are oppressed (or bruised). Hebrew - to let the oppressed go free.

Early Translations / Versions (LXX quotations in the NT ) John 6:31 / Psalm 78:24 - He gave them "bread" out of heaven to eat. Hebrew - gave them "food" or "grain" from heaven. John 12:38 / Isaiah 53:1 - who has believed our "report?“ Hebrew - who has believed our "message?” John 12:40 / Isaiah 6:10 - lest they should see with eyes...turn for me to heal them. Hebrew - shut their eyes...and be healed. Acts 2:19 / Joel 2:30 - blood and fire and "vapor" of smoke. Hebrew - blood and fire and "pillars" or "columns" of smoke.

Early Translations / Versions (LXX quotations in the NT ) Acts 2:25-26 / Psalm 16:8 - I saw...tongue rejoiced...dwell in hope. Hebrew - I have set...glory rejoiced...dwell in safety. Acts 4:26 / Psalm 2:1 - the rulers "were gathered together.“ Hebrew - rulers "take counsel together.” Acts 7:14 / Gen. 46:27; Deut. 10:22 - Stephen says "seventy-five" souls went down to Egypt. Hebrew - "seventy" people went. Acts 7:27-28 / Exodus 2:14 - uses "ruler" and judge; killed the Egyptian "yesterday.“ Hebrew - uses "prince" and there is no reference to "yesterday."

Early Translations / Versions Aramaic Targums (400’s B.C.) The Samaritan Pentateuch (400’s B.C.) The Samaritan Targums (100’s A.D.) Other Greek translations by Aquila, Theodotian, and Symmachus (100’s A.D.) Old Latin Versions (100’s – 200’s A.D.)

Early Translations / Versions The Old Syriac and the Peshitta (200’s A.D.) Egyptian or Coptic (200’s A.D.) Ethiopic (400’s A.D.) Gothic (400’s-500’s A.D.)

Early Translations / Versions The Latin Vulgate (Common), c. 405 A.D.; Jerome attempted to be very accurate in his translation and was highly criticized for making changes to the Old Latin Versions Armenian (400’s A.D.) Georgian (400’s A.D.) Slavonic (800’s A.D.)

Early Translations / Versions Arabic (700’s A.D.) Slavonic (800’s A.D.)

The Bible in English The “Dark Ages”: factors leading to the translation of God’s word into English – Oppression: the oppressive control of the Catholic Church; reading / learning was discouraged (see Lk. 11:52) – Scarcity of Bibles: expensive, some chained to the pulpit – Latin language: the church service was in Latin

The Bible in English The “Renaissance”: factors leading to the translation of God’s word into English – Printing: the invention of the printing press by Johannes Gutenburg (1456 A.D.) – Education: the rise of “Christian Humanism” and classical learning (1500’s A.D.) – Reformation: the rise of protestants (1500’s A.D.)

The Bible in English The Anglo-Saxon Bible of Aldhelm and Bede (735 A.D.) The Anglo-Saxon Gospels of Aldred (950 A.D.) The English Bible of John Wycliff (1382 A.D.); called “Lollards” (mutterers); his body was exhumed, burned, and ashes spread by order of Pope Martin V in 1428

The Bible in English The William Tyndale Bible (1526) – learned Greek at Cambridge and moved to Germany to translate the NT into English; arrested, strangled, and burned at the stake in 1536 The Coverdale Bible (1535) – Miles Coverdale worked with Tyndale to translate the OT into English; it was a translation of a translation (Latin and German texts)

The Bible in English The Matthew’s Bible (1537) – a revision of the Tyndale/Coverdale Bible by John Rogers (Thomas Matthew, later revised by Richard Taverner in 1539); burned at the stake by Mary I in 1556 for his work in translating the Bible into English The Great Bible (1539) – Miles Coverdale revised the Matthew’s Bible, but this time using the Hebrew OT text

The Bible in English The Geneva Bible (1560) – Puritans who fled England to Geneva during the reign of Mary I, a Catholic (“Bloody Mary” outlawed the reading of the Bible in English); William Whittingham, John Calvin’s brother-in-law revised the Great Bible with Calvin’s notes The Bishop’s Bible (1568) – unhappy with Calvin’s notes, Queen Elizabeth I ordered a revision of the Geneva Bible

The Bible in English The Douay-Rheims (1582, 1609) – a translation into English of a translation (Latin Vulgate) for Catholics The King James Bible (1611) – 47 scholars from Oxford, Cambridge, and Westminster were assigned by King James I to produce a version; a translation of the earlier English translations (80-90% of the wording was taken from Tyndale)

The Bible in English English Revised Version ( ) American Standard Version (1901) Revised Standard Version ( ) New American Standard (1963, 1971) New International Version (1973)

The Bible in English New King James (1982) English Standard Version (2001) There have been more than 500 versions of the NT in English (over 160 versions since 1900)! The have been translations into more than 1000 dialects!

From God to Man Translation

Results of Translation Great sacrifices were made to transmit God’s word into the language of the people (Jer. 36:23ff) God wants his word to be read and understood everywhere (Neh. 8:1-8; Eph. 3:4; 5:15) God’s word continues to go “into all the world” via translations (Mt. 28:19)

Results of Translation Our Bible in English was born, not just from a language need, but from a desire to follow the Bible alone without the Catholic Church – “Sola Scriptura” (2 Tim. 3:15-17) The practice of translation generally was one of literal, word-for-word transmission (Rom. 4:3); loose paraphrases were not produced until the mid 1900’s A.D.

Results of Translation The practice of placing man-made comments in the margin at this time was highly scrutinized after the appearance of the Geneva Bible (Mt. 15:3-6); today it is an common and accepted practice to have man- made notes in the margin The greatest gift you can give is a Bible in someone’s own language!