Seek God's Word - Bible Translation Manuscripts

Introduction:

The Bible was originally written in Hebrew, Greek and Aramaic;
1. the Old Testament mostly in Hebrew, but parts of Daniel in Aramaic
2. the New Testament is written in Greek
3. Most of the 68 quotes of the Old Testament found in the New Testament come from the LXX (Septuagint) a Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures.
The LXX began in the third century B.C. when Demetrius of Phaleron, Ptolemy Philadelphius invited Jewish scholars to Alexandria to prepare a Greek translation for the library there. It is reported that seventy scholars worked on it, thus the name “Septuagint.” The LXX was the Greek Bible of the early church.
In time, Greek was not the language of most Christians. Consequently, the Bible was translated into Syriac, Ethiopic, Coptic (Egypt), and Latin. Jerome was commissioned to translated the entire Bible into Latin and succeeded amid opposition in 404 A.D.
The first English translation came at the hands of John Wycliffe in 1382 A.D. Opposition grew quickly to his translation. The Council of Constance in 1415 ruled that Wyclif’s body be disinterred and burned, and the ashes thrown into the river Swift. Only 300 manuscripts survive of this early translation.
In 1453 Johnannes Gutenberg invented the printing press, which greatly reduced the cost of books and greatly assured accuracy and agreement of the copies. This invention along with the Reformation played a part in the demand for a Bible in English vernacular.
William Tyndale completed his New Testament in 1525. He said that if God spared his life before long, he would make the boy who drove the plough to know more Scripture than the cleric (priest) did. His New Testaments were first printed outside of England in Cologne and Worms and smuggled into England. Church officials identified his writings with Lutheranism and vigorously opposed their circulation. Tunstal, Bishop of London, claimed to find 3,000 errors in Tyndale’s New Testament. It is estimated that 92 percent of Tyndale’s translation was carried over into the King James Version. Tyndale was condemned and burned at the stake in 1536.
Other early English Versions include:
1. Coverdale 1535
2. Matthew’s Bible 1537
3. Great Bible 1539 the first Bible to be authorized by the king of England. But in 1553 the public reading of Scripture was condemned. Church Bibles were confiscated, martyrs abounded.
4. Geneva Bible 1560 the first English Bible printed with verses in paragraphs (Calvinism)
5. Bishops’ Bible 1568 (Anglican)
6. Rheims-Douay 1582 (Catholic)

I. The King James Bible 1611

The KJV was born out of a need to still the voices of critics who had opposed the Bishops’ Bible and out of a need to bring uniformity into a confused situation. The desire was to make one translation out of many good ones, to which men could not justly take exceptions.” (1604)
King James himself never contributed any money to its production nor gave us any record of his official authorization of the finished product. In no sense does the word “authorized” refer to Divine authorization.
There were perhaps twenty-five New Testament manuscripts known in 1611; 1,500 in 1885; and now 5,480 Greek manuscripts and fragments.
The translators were made up of 54 people, of whom we know only 47 names. The preface makes is clear that the translators of 1611 did not claim they were inspired or made a perfect translation.
The Council of Trent in 1545 declared the Latin Vulgate to be the official Bible of the Roman Catholic Church. The KJV was heavily influenced by Latin.
The translators of the KJV anticipated much opposition to their efforts from Catholics and from non-conformists.
1. Hugh Broughton declared in 1612 after examining the translation that it was so poorly done that it would grieve him as long as he lived. He insisted that he would rather be tied between wild horses and torn apart than to let it go forth among the people. He contended that the translators had put the errors in the text and the correct readings in the margins.
2. In 1629 John Lightfoot objected to the Apocrypha’s being included between the two Testaments.
3. printing errors plagued early editions.
4. Printing outside of England of the KJV was not permitted until after America had broken away from British rule. The first English Bible printed in America (1782) was the King James Version.
5. In time the KJV came to be loved by English speaking people, much because English law demanded that it be used. Its value, however, was that it was easily understood for two centuries by the common man.
The current KJV differs in significant details (though not in general content) from the one issued in 1611. Early editions had many printing errors.
1. Matt. 26:36 KJV “then cometh Judas” rather than “then cometh Jesus.”
2. “Wicked Bible” omitted not in the seventh of the ten commandments.
3. “Unrighteous Bible” the “unrighteous inherit the Kingdom”
4. “Vinegar” Bible has the parable of the “Vinegar”
5. “Ears to Ear” Bible (ears to hear)
6. by 1613, as many as 413 changes were made in the KJV
7. Dr. Anthony Scattergood added 7,250 marginal reference notes in 1683.
8. Bishop Ussher’s chronology was added to the margin in 1701.
9. Benjamin Blayney made extensive revisions in 1769 adding 76 notes and 30,495 new marginal references. Spelling and punctuation were modernized.
10. Currently, the KJV is not the most completely intelligible to all readers; it is no longer the most accurate and the most readable English rendering of the Word of God.

II. The Need for Revision

The Oxford English Dictionary recently completed its supplement to the original edition with more than 75,000 entries of words that have come into use in this present century. No one can tell how many words have gone out of use in that same period. Note these examples:

“Jacob sod pottage.”
“Lot was sore vexed by the filthy conversation of the people of Sodom”
“The people could not get to Jesus because of the press”
“Enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray…”
“Take no thought saying, What shall we at, or, What shall we drink, or Wherewithal shall we be clothed?” (Do you obey this command as stated?)
“Having your conversation honest among the Gentiles” (1 Pet. 2:12)

The task of translation is on-going not only in English but also in all the languages of the world. The whole Bible has now been translated into 314 languages, and the New Testament into 715. The KJV, the NIV, or the NASB cannot meet the needs of those who do not speak English. Are there inspired translations in languages other than English?

Though some people have at times tried to claim inspiration for the Septuagint, the Vulgate, and the KJV, translation is not an inspired activity. There are no perfect translations, old or new. Inspiration did not operate in 1611 or 1901 and then leave all other translations to fallible human activity.

Jack P. Lewis said, “I am quite willing for any person to point out any defect he thinks he sees in any translation, old or new. I reserve the right, however, to make up my own mind about whether I think he is right or wrong, and about whether he is being fair. I insist that he not change yardsticks when he measures the new translations from that which he uses with the old ones. In other words, I am not willing to listen to him when he is examining new translations with microscopic lenses but then puts on blinders when any questions about the old ones come up.” (Questions You’ve Asked About Bible Translations, p. 28)

When Erasmus first printed the Greek New Testament in March 1516 in his bilingual Greek and Latin text, he used somewhat carelessly about five manuscripts. None were earlier in date than the twelfth century, and adequate textual criticism was not done at that time to establish the best readings for the printed text. In some instances when the Latin and Greek manuscripts differed with each other and the Greek seemed defective, Erasmus made a Greek translation from the Latin and put that into his printed Greek text. The result is that some of his Greek readings are found in no known Greek manuscript. Erasmus’s Testament went through five editions with corrections and changes made in the process.

The translators of the KJV chiefly used Theodore Beza’s editions of 1588-89 and 1598 of the Greek New Testament. These editions were largely in agreement with the text of Erasmus and Estienne (Robert Stephanus). It is estimated that by 1611 not more than twenty-five manuscripts were used. None of these were earlier than the Middle Ages. Beza’s Testament was later published by the Elzevir brothers, who in a publishing blurb called this the “text now received by all” (Textus Receptus). The text remained the standard for two hundred years. In about a dozen places it has readings supported by the Latin Bible but by no Greek manuscripts. The Textus Receptus is more like the text type called Byzantine than the others; yet it is not identical with it, for it rests on only a few of the many manuscripts in the Byzantine grouping.

The State of the Greek New Testament

Date	Collector	Number of MSS	Text Type Available
1516	Erasmus	6	Byzantine
1550	Robert Stephanus	12-15	Byzantine, Western
1598	Theodore Beza Textus Receptus	25	Byzantine, Western
1707	John Mill 30,000 changes	78	Byzantine, Western Church fathers
1881	Westcott & Hort	1500 1 papyrus 64 uncials	Byzantine, Western, Alexandrian, Caesarean, Neutral
2003	UBS 4^th and Nestle-Aland 27^th	5,480 116 papyrii 299 uncials	Byzantine, Western, Alexandrian, Caesarean, Neutral

“While recognizing variants in manuscripts, scholars are reasonably well agreed on what the reading of the bulk of the New Testament should be. The major doctrines of the New Testament about God, Christ, and the church are not based on textually disputed passages. The major duties of man toward God and his fellowman are not solely laid out in textually disputed passages. The questions of which we speak are not new in the church; they have been under debate for centuries; they need not be disturbing to faith.” (Jack Lewis, Questions You’ve Asked About Bible Translations, p. 113.)