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BIBLE TRANSLATIONS

Lesson 65

REASONS FOR DIFFERENT BIBLE TRANSLATIONS

Let! Restrain! Today these words have opposite meanings. We usually understand let to mean permit or allow, but centuries ago it also meant to restrain. That is why the King James or Authorized Version at 2 Thessalonians 2: 7 says, "He who now letteth," and the American Standard Version says, "one that restraineth now," and The Emphatic Diaglott, "the one restraining for the present." When the King James Version was made, let meant restrain; therefore it was a good and accurate translation. But now let means just the opposite; so a change is necessary to bring out the correct meaning today.

Another instance is the last part of Isaiah 35: 8. The King James Version says, "Fools shall not err therein." Today that conveys a meaning entirely different from what

it conveyed to readers of this version when it was first published, over three hundred years ago. A reference to a dictionary will show that the archaic meaning of the word err was wander, and that the word therein used to mean "into that place"; hence, in modern English one gets, "Fools shall not wander into that place"; and that is just what this scripture means and just what the words "Fools shall not err therein" meant to the readers of the English Bible centuries ago. This constant change of language with the passing of time is only one of the reasons for different Bible translations.

Another reason for different Bible translations is the difference in the texts from which the translations are made or a difference in the reading of the texts. The ancient manuscripts ran the words together without any spaces between them. Sometimes the spaces may be put in a different place, and thereby the text may have a somewhat different meaning, as in Psalm 73:10. The usual word division of this text gives its last part the meaning of "And waters of fulness are drawn off for them." By dividing the letters differently it may be given the meaning of "And find no fault in them". —Smith-Goodspeed translation.

A different vowel: The old Hebrew manuscripts were written without vowels. By supplying different vowels for the same consonants different words could be formed. For example, Genesis 47:31. The Hebrew with the vowels usually considered to belong to the consonants of that verse says, "And Israel bowed himself upon the bed's head." (A.V.) The word for bed here is MiTTaH. The same consonants with different vowels mean "staff", MaTTeH. Paul read it this way, as shown by his quotation of it, "Upon the top of his staff." —Heb. 11: 21.

A different consonant: > (th) instead of (h) at Psalm 49:13 changes "their followers" (Roth. Bible) to "their future" (Roth. Psalms). Substituting (R) for (K) in Psalm 76:10, "shalt thou restrain" (A.V.) becomes "will keep festival to thee". —Roth. Psalms.

One letter less: With one letter less "a thousand hills" of Psalm 50:10 becomes 'God's hills'. —A.V.; Roth. Pss., footnote.

Different punctuation: By using a period instead of a comma, Judges 11:39, 40, "And it was a custom in Israel, that the daughters of Israel went," becomes "And it was a statute in Israel. The daughters of Israel went". —The Watchtower of 1942, p. 380.

Different words altogether: At Job 32:3 the word God occurs in the older Hebrew MSS., but was changed later to Job, and so appears in later Hebrew MSS. —See The New World, p. 274, and footnote in Rotherham's translation.

In the Greek text also a difference of one letter may make quite a difference in the meaning. This is shown at Luke 2:14. The Emphatic Diaglott has

Manuscripts of the fourth (Vatican and Sinaitic), fifth (Alexandrine) and sixth (Bezae Cantabrigienses) centuries read,

Just the addition of the ς at the end makes it of good-will, which the Lord, through His channel The Watchtower, has shown to be the correct reading.

Sometimes a completely different word appears in different manuscripts, as at James 2: 20 in the expression "faith without works is dead". The word dead (Greek: νεχρα) is found in the Sinaitic MS. (manuscript), the Alexandrine MS., most of the MSS. which contain the Byzantine recension, the standard Roman Catholic edition of the Vulgate, and in most of the Syriac Versions. Instead of the word dead, the word unproductive (Greek: αργη) is found in the Vatican MS., the Ephraemi MS., and a few others, and the older copies of the Latin Vulgate.

Different punctuation of the Greek text may change the meaning of a text. For example, Luke 23:43, "Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise." (A.V.] "Verily I say unto thee this day: With me shalt thou be in Paradise." —Rotherham; Lamsa.

Sometimes a word in the Hebrew or Greek text may have more than one meaning, just as one word in English may have several meanings; for example, the word bow in the sentence "He made a bow" may mean a bending of the head or body, a weapon for driving arrows, or a knot with a loop or loops.

The one Hebrew word at Psalm 102:23, 'iNNaH, may mean either "he weakened" or "he answered". (A.V.; Roth. Pss., footnote) In Greek also there are words which may have more than one meaning, as the conjunction kai (χαι), which may mean and as in Matthew 1: 2, "Judas and his brethren"; yet, as in John 16:32, "yet I am not alone"; but, as at Luke 2: 51, "but his mother kept all these sayings in her heart"; indeed, as at 2 Corinthians 11:1, "and indeed bear with me"; very, as at Matthew 10:30, "the very hairs of your head are all numbered." At times kai may also mean verily, really, in fact, yea, certainly.

But translating is not merely the translation of words; it is the transferring of thought from one language into another. It is necessary that a translator understand what the original says. This knowledge has not always been had. The kind of Greek in which the Greek Scriptures were written began to be studied about three hundred years ago. Little progress was made in this regard until a little over a hundred years ago. The discovery and study of Greek papyri of the first few centuries before and after Christ have cleared up many points of grammar and vocabulary in the language of the Greek Scriptures. These discoveries were made in the early part of the twentieth century. This fresh knowledge made necessary new translations.

Even with all this additional information on the original languages of the Scriptures, different translators have dif-

ferent styles of translating and different motives in translating. Styles of translating range all the way from literal word-for-word translations, as the interlinear in The Emphatic Diaglott, to free translations, such as the Goodspeed translation. The belief of the translator may give a certain bias to his translation.

With such a variety of actual and possible translations, how is the Theocratic minister to know which gives the correct meaning as God purposes His people shall understand it? Only by giving heed to the channel the Lord is pleased to use in communicating the unfolding of His purposes and the fulfillment of His prophecies, the publications of the Watchtower Society.