1. Bible Translations Why So Many Translations? Which Is Best?
Marshall Swindall 2019

2. The Bible is unquestionably the most important literary
work in the world!
“It ain't those parts of the Bible that I can't understand that bother me, it is the parts that I do understand.”
- Mark Twain

3. Bible Translations - NT
Jesus wrote nothing.
All His teachings were oral.
After the resurrection of Christ and beginning of the church – instruction was oral: teaching and sermons.
Disciples began to spread the gospel “Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria to uttermost parts of the world.”
Churches were being established and needed to be taught and stabilized with a consistent theology.

4. Bible Translations
From the 40’s AD through 90’s AD apostles and disciples began to write letters to churches, the Gospels and Acts were written.
Gospels were written to provide information about Jesus, His teachings and Acts were written to detail the history of the beginning of the church.
Letters were written to instruct church members in all facets of living the Christian life and basics in how to conduct worship and operate churches.

5. Many NT books were originally written on Egyptian Papyrus…a kind of early paper and not very durable.

6. Galatians was written first – 48 AD
Revelation was written last – 96 AD
AN AUTOGRAPH:
THE original HAND-written document
These no longer exist
Written on papyrus – not durable – lost to antiquity.
Written in Koine Greek – everyday Greek
Many were written in UNCIALS…
WRITTENINALLCAPITALLETTERS WITHOUTSPACINGORPUNCTUATION

7. MANUSCRIPT: hand copy of an autograph.
“And when this letter has been read to you, see that it is also read before the church at Laodicea, and that you yourselves read the letter which will be forwarded from there.”
Colossians 4:16
When churches received letters they made copies or manuscripts…
We do not have all the letters that were written.

9. There are four kinds of manuscripts
Papyri - 97 papyrus fragment manuscripts of the NT – parts of verses.
Uncials – ALL CAPS, NO PUNCUATION – 267 are in existence.
Cursives – lower and upper case letters used – over 2,000 are known to exist.
Lectionaries – copies made to be read aloud during church services – over 2,700 are known to exist.

10. So, there are at least 5,309 surviving Koine Greek manuscripts that contain all or parts of the New Testament.
In addition there are more than 19,000 ancient New Testament manuscripts in Latin, Syriac, Armenian, and other language versions.

11. Expert language scholars compare and contrast these surviving manuscripts to determine what the NT should read like.
This work is an on-going process. New manuscript discoveries are made from time to time as archaeologists keep digging.
Result of this scholarly effort is that we have a NT in the 21st century that is 98.4% accurate.

12. Three of the most famous uncial New Testament manuscripts are from the fourth century:
Codex Sinaiticus (330 A.D.)
Codex Vaticanus (340 A.D.)
And the fifth century:
Codex Alexandrius (425 A.D.).
Each has an interesting history of how they were discovered.

13. Codex Sinaiticus (330 A.D.)
Codex Sinaiticus is named after the Monastery of Saint Catherine, Mount Sinai, where it had been preserved until the the nineteenth century.
An Italian visitor to the Monastery of Saint Catherine in 1761 saw the manuscript first.
1844 German biblical scholar, Constantine Tischendorf visited St. Catherine’s and discovered both the OT/NT in Koine Greek.
The codex was taken to Russia and given as a gift to Tsar Alexander II.
1933 Josef Stalin sold the Codex for L100,000 to the British to raise money for the Communist Soviet Union. Resides in British Museum.

14. St. Catherine’s Monastery Where the Codex was discovered.

15. The manuscript has been housed in the Vatican Library since 1475.
Codex Vaticanus (340 A.D.)
Codex Vaticanus is one of the oldest extant manuscripts of the Greek Bible (OT/NT).
The Codex is named after its place of conservation in the Vatican Library.
The manuscript is believed to have been housed in Caesarea in the 6th century.
It was moved to Constantinople during Byzantine period and later taken to Italy.
The manuscript has been housed in the Vatican Library since 1475.

16. Codex Vaticanus – from the fourth century A.D.
First page of Hebrews

18. Codex Alexandrius (425 A.D.)
It derives its name from Alexandria, Egypt where it resided for a number of years before it was brought by the Eastern (Greek) Orthodox Patriarch Cyril Lucaris from Alexandria to Constantinople.
Then it was given to Charles I of England in the 17th century.
Until the later purchase of Codex Sinaiticus, it was the best manuscript of the Greek Bible and was deposited in Britain.
Today, it rests along with Codex Sinaiticus in one of the showcases in the Ritblat Gallery of the British Library.

19. Codex Alexandrius

20. VERSION: is the translation of a manuscript into another language
VERSION: is the translation of a manuscript into another language. For example, the Septuagint (LXX) is the Koine Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament.
Earliest versions were Latin, Syriac, and Armenian.

21. Early NT Translations Translated into multiple languages
Is The Bible God's Word?
Early NT Translations
Translated into multiple languages
NT translated into Syriac in 150 AD
NT translated into Latin in 3rd century AD
NT translated into Coptic Egyptian in 3rd/4th century AD
Armenian in 4th/5th century AD
Georgian in 5th century AD
Ethiopic and Nubian in 6th century AD
More than 19,000 MSS in other languages
@ Dr. Heinz Lycklama

22. Bible Translations Differences in translation philosophy
Literal - Word for word – actual words (KJV, ASV, NASB, NKJV, ESV)
Popular - Thought for thought (what is the idea) NIV, NLT)
Paraphrase (rewording) (TLB, LBP)

23. Version ESV NLT NKJV NIV NASB KJV SIX LEADING BIBLE TRANSLATIONS
Based on earliest
Version
Word for Word
Greek and Hebrew
Publication Year
Manuscripts
ESV
YES
2001
NLT NO
1995
NKJV
1983
NIV
1978
NASB
1973
KJV
1611

25. Bible Translations
Bible sales can be a lucrative market

26. Bible Translations

27. Bible Translations

28. Bible Translations Which Translation Should You Use? Lots of choices…
Many scholars > one man
Word for word > thought for thought
Simple text > study Bible
Readability (layout, font size)

29. Bible Translations
Personally I regularly use/read several different English versions.
For study: NASB
For comparison: ASV, ESV, NIV
Suggestion:
Get a Readable font
Purchase a quality binding
One good thing: I have never seen a translation that did not contain the Gospel of Christ if the person wanted to learn.

30. Bible Translations A Word about Study Bibles.
These are Bibles which have notes that can provide helpful and interesting information about the Bible text. However, these extra study notes sometimes are used to teach false doctrines.
For example, the Scofield Study Bible has notes which are designed to teach the false doctrine of premillennialism.
Another example is the Thomas Nelson King James Study Bible which was published in Error is taught in several places…

31. In Mark 16:15-16, Jesus gave the Great Commission: Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believes and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.
The Thomas Nelson study notes for verse 16 states: “Only faith, not baptism, is essential for salvation…” (Nelson Study Bible, page 1530).
Matt. 16:15-16 teaches: He that believes and is baptized shall be saved. The study notes contain false doctrine. People could be misled by this. They could be led to think that the Bible actually teaches one does not have to be baptized to be saved.

32. Interesting Facts about the Bible
The Bible is actually excluded from book bestsellers lists because it is always the number one best seller.
The annual sales of all versions of the Bible routinely tops $425 million.
More than 66,000 people are using a Bible app at any given second. 3 people share a Bible verse on their social network every second as well.
77% of people say they read the Bible more frequently because they have it available on a mobile device.
66% of people prefer Bible apps because it gives them access to multiple versions of the Bible.

33. Sad Facts about the Bible
The week after the September 11, 2001 attacks in the US, some retailers saw 40% increases in Bible sales.
A Gallup survey found that less than 50% of Americans can name the first book of the Bible.
Only 1 in 3 American Bible owners know that Jesus delivered the Sermon on the Mount. Billy Graham is a most popular answer.
12%. That’s the percentage of Christians who believed that Noah was married to Joan of Arc.
Marshall Swindall