133. Freedom In The Church - Bible Translations - The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

Welcome to the For Freedom Podcast. This podcast exists to bring the freedom of the gospel for everyday Christians with everyday issues. Now here are your hosts, James Saferick and Brett Martin. Welcome back to the For Freedom Podcast. It's exciting to be back with you. We are winding down for our first half of the year 2024. It is crazy to think that we're in the month of May and we are getting closer to our summertime. Me and my wife, Brett, we're just now talking about our summer. And she said, hey, I need you to send me all of the summer dates so we can make sure that our calendars are lining up. And I'm going to be, I sent her these dates. I want to look at this with you here. It was one, two, three, four, five weeks in the summer that we have something planned the entire week. We've got our convention coming up. We've got youth camp. We've got kids camp. We've got vacation Bible school. And then we're doing what's called a serve week where we're going to set up a shop here in the local community. And we're just going to serve however we can. Basketball camps, volleyball camps, baseball camps. We're going to go out door knocking. We're going to do some service at home projects, cutting down trees, cleaning up people's yards, mowing the school, painting walls at the school, just whatever we can do to serve, hand out food boxes that whole week and just be a blessing to the community. So five weeks out of our eight week summer, we're, we've got something going on. Plus somewhere in there, we're going to do a vacation. So we are, we're winding really close to our summer break, but it won't quite be a break. We're still going to be doing a lot of stuff just with our churches and families. So how are you doing, man? Are you excited about winding this down and getting ready for the summer? Well, you know, funny you should mention that because tonight I'm getting ready to, I'm going through a book on Wednesday nights. I'm going through growing up, you know, by Robbie Gallaty, you know, how to be disciples and make disciples. And I've been doing this. I was like, how long, when did I start going through this book? And I started back in December and that's been five months. And it's amazing that we have been, you know, we have been plugging along and the year's almost halfway done. It's unreal. And yeah, we've got, we've got busy, we've got a busy summer too on schedule. Not only do we have our vacation Bible school, we've got Indianapolis around the same time. And then we're having a mission where we're going to another church in the area that, you know, they're struggling and they want a revitalization. And we're going to help them put on a vacation Bible school. So our workers are going to drive to their church and help them put on a vacation Bible school. And they just got a pastor two weeks ago. And we're excited about that. I'm excited to get in touch with him and we're going to help that church out and reach out to them. We just had a meeting, me and you with our, you know, missionary that we're going on a mission trip this fall. And then after we got done with our meeting, I had some more people reach out to me from my church and say, I want to go on the mission trip with you to Nicaragua. Let me see if I can get the days off work. And so a lot of things happened, a lot of things going on, busy, busy ministry. And like I said, that is, I tell you what, I just got back from Jacksonville yesterday, a couple of days ago. And man, the work was just piling up on my desk. Like it's like the closer I got driving home, the closer I got home, the more stuff I thought of that I need to do. Every five minutes, I was like, Siri, remind me to do this. Siri, remind me to do this. I was making phone calls the closer I got home. And for the last two days, I've been nonstop, hit the ground running. But you know what? I would rather be busy doing ministry work than I would be at a factory somewhere. I'd rather be, you know, busy doing ministry work than changing oil like I did for 15 years. So I am not complaining. I am enjoying what the Lord has for me. And we're looking forward to just moving forward with the ministry. I love it. That's so good. And I was telling Brett when we got on here before, he got his accredited degree and became a full-time official senior pastor with all the roles and responsibilities. I'm not quite there with the busyness yet. That's what's keeping me from becoming an accredited degree is because, you know, I just don't want to add on all those extra bells and whistles and smells and bells of things. And so I get to wear the collar now. That's right. You get to put on the priestly collar, the peace priestly collar. And you have to start calling me reverend. Reverend. Reverend is when you get ordained. In the South, I would say in the South. Where we're at, if you're not ordained, you're pastor. If you're ordained, you're reverend. And so, reverend. I love it. Well, hey, we have a great, exciting episode today. Before we get started with that, we have, as both of us mentioned, the convention is coming up right around the corner. JC just here to post about if you're going to be at the convention to go by and see the Luther Reith booth where him, I guess he's going to be there with Marcus. And so that's going to be great. And so we're going to be there. So I guess JC is going to be able to hang out with us. And so if you want to meet up with us while we're there, let us know. And we're going to have a great time of fellowship, a great time of just hanging out. And then after that, Brett, we've got another time of hanging out. Yeah, for the sake of the gospel conference in Catoosa County, Georgia, which is near Chattanooga, Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia. And that's going to be at JC's church. And it's kind of Chattanooga is, you know, it's centrally located, you know, for people, you know, kind of in the central states and the eastern seaboard to kind of meet together there in Chattanooga. So some of you as far as Texas can come. And like I said, we had we had a couple from Alaska come to the last for the sake of the gospel conference when it was in Asheville. But, man, it's going to be big this year. It's going to be JC has already talked to me about how big he wants it to be. And it's going to be first class and you're not going to be disappointed. If you can get away for a couple of days, come to Catoosa and come to Hope Church Catoosa and come to the for the sake of the gospel conference. It's going to be a refresh, a recharge, and it is going to be something that you remember. Every worship service that I've ever been to at a meetup or for the sake of the gospel conference has been some of the best worship that I've ever experienced in my life. And so, you know, it's hymns only, KJV only. So, but anyway, so, yeah, you're going to enjoy it. Come to that. And then what we got next is real. Israel's coming up. Brett, before we talk about Israel, I received this yesterday. We were at a our association. It's the second year we did it. It was the it's called the senior adult revival. I've never been a part of it before my life. I've only been to this association here in Elkin Baptist Association for six or seven months now, almost eight months where we're at. And some reason someone suggested me to come preach on that Monday night or the Monday afternoon. They do it at 11 o'clock and they give everybody a meal afterwards. And so they asked me to come and preach. And so I preached on Monday and got to share the share the word. I talked about Epaphroditus in Philippians where he was an encourager and a servant. Talked about servanthood. It was a great service. Great time. I was the youngest guy in the room by like 20 years. So that was really encouraging. I told him they must have really been scraping the bottom of the barrel to find a 35 year old guy to come in and preach the senior adult revival. Um, but the next day they did it two nights. The next night was next day was at a different church and a man came up to it to me and gave me, uh, you can see it, but it's a little quilt looking pattern. And on the back, it says, this is a proc, a pocket prayer quilt. It says my, our prayer is that when you touch the cross that's inside of this, you'll feel the comfort and love of Jesus surrounding you today. I just thought, you know, it's got one of those little metal crosses in it that we talked about the other day and, uh, just someone being unique with trying to share the gospel. And he had a whole stack of them and he was giving them out to people that was there. Uh, I just think it was a great way of evangelism and sharing the gospel with people, uh, in a really cool way. And so I wanted to share that with you. Uh, it was sitting here on my desk and it reminded me of it. Um, yeah, Israel, yeah, Israel's coming up, man. We're excited about Israel. Um, everything's still a go and, uh, we hope you'll join us again. Our registration link is on our website. Uh, we've already got several people signed up for that from the previous trip. And then we'll be going back this year, uh, with the rescheduled trip. Uh, and I'm sorry, next year, 2025. And so we hope you'll go and enjoy that time with us. It's going to be a great time learning, seeing the Holy land, seeing what we got to see and even more. And, uh, I know your spiritual life will be encouraged by it. So if you have any questions about that, please reach out to me or Brett, uh, through messenger or our direct cell numbers or email, however you want to do that. And, uh, we would love to entertain any questions that you may have. Brett, why don't you intro the episode of what we're going to be talking about today? We're going to do something a little different. And, uh, Brett's going to talk about what that's going to be here. So we're in our series, uh, freedom in the church. And, uh, we've went through several aspects of the church. And one of the things that we wanted to address were Bible translations, because we are talking about in the church, what are the, you know, what are some of the pros, cons, uh, peculiarities of certain translations, uh, that you use in church. And, uh, uh, you know, a while back in our church, I preached a message. I preached a little series of message messages on, uh, where we got our Bible. Where did it come from? Has the Bible changed over the years? And then the last message in that series was Bible translations, the good, the bad, and the ugly. And it's where we, we, we go through several modern translations and describe where they came from. What was the motivation behind them? Are they word for word, thought for thought, dynamic equivalents, things like that. What are some peculiarities about that particular translations? We go through several modern translations and, uh, you know, we were talking about how we can incorporate this into, uh, an episode. And then me and James kind of had the same thought. Well, let's just post the sermon. So, you know, this is from my last sermon in that Bible translations series, uh, that I preached. We're going to play that for you in just a second. Now I want to preface this with saying that a lot of, you know, who Mike Winger is. I want you to know that, that this, this message that I'm about to preach has come from Mike Winger. And I told my people that when I started the series, uh, that he, Mike Winger, he's got a YouTube channel for those of you who don't know. Um, he was one of the people that kind of, you know, corrected me on the King James only issue before I even got into the RFP. I was listening to Mike Winger and he was already correcting my thinking on some wrong doctrines that I had been taught. One of them being the King James Bible. And, uh, this is part of his series, uh, that you're about to hear. I kind of take his message. I kind of adopt it and, uh, preach it to my people because it's good information. So, like I said, I don't want to take all the credit. Most of the credit needs to go to Mike Winger. Uh, but this is still good, good stuff, especially when it comes to talking about some of the modern translations that we use in our churches today. Great. Well, I hope you enjoyed today and without further ado, let us play this for you. We are continuing in our series. This is our last message in our series on how we got the Bible. And, uh, we're going to talk about Bible translations tonight, the good, the bad, and the ugly. We don't have the screens tonight. I apologize, but we don't have that many verses and I'm going to read them to you. Um, like I said, I want to start out by saying this does not come from me. This is from a study done by a pastor named Mike Winger. He's on YouTube. Uh, but when I listened to this mess, this series of messages six years ago, it changed my life. And, uh, so I want to share it with you. And this is a very good, uh, message on Bible translations. So the issue here is, can I trust my English translations of the Bible? What are the differences in these translations? Are there any translations out there that are meant to undermine my faith? Because that a lot of people say that, um, in this series, we've talked a lot about the Greek transmission of the text. Uh, but we're not, we don't speak Greek, do we? We speak English. And so before we get into these new translations, let's talk for a few minutes about why new translations come out in the first place. I hate to say this, but the number one reason new translations come out is money. Money is the reason. Publishing companies, they want their own translation of the Bible where they don't have to pay another publishing company money when they quote the Bible. So, um, they don't want to pay royalties to another publishing house. And, uh, so that's, that's number one, um, number one reason. Listen, Bibles are big. Bibles are popular. Bibles are constantly left off the bestseller last lists. You know why? They're ignored because they'd always be number one. The Bible is the most bestselling book of all time. And that's a good thing. The second reason is that English changes over time. And we'll get into that more when we talk about the King James Bible, uh, because it's a much older translation. We'll get into specific words. And I hope we can understand that English changes quick. It's, it's changing quickly every day. There's always new words being added to the dictionary. A third reason why we have new translations is new Greek manuscripts being discovered. Okay. So we've always had basically two readings of certain passages. We've had reading A and reading B. Reading A would be in the text. Reading B would be in the footnote. Then we discover these new Greek manuscripts and we read them and they're like, oh, it's the other way around. So we'll put like reading B in the text and A in the footnote. So it's not like when we discover these new Greek manuscripts, we're getting brand new readings. Um, so let me give you a brief overview of what I mean when I say we have new Greek manuscripts. In 1611, when the King James Version came out, they based the King James Version basically off of six Greek manuscripts. The earliest manuscript was from the 10th century. So that's a thousand years removed from Christ. The latest manuscript was from the 13th century. So in 1881, when the revised version came out, it was based on about 2,000 manuscripts. And the earliest of those wasn't the 10th century. It was the third or fourth century. Okay. So this is what I mean when I say we have a lot more manuscripts. We have a lot more evidence for what the disciples actually wrote and said. Today, there's over 5,800 Greek manuscripts. The earliest dates back to the late first, early second century. So from 1611 to now, there's a lot more evidence to sift through. So we have money. We have English language changing. We have new manuscripts. So number four, we have new insights into old languages. So this is about our understanding of Greek changing. In 1895, we came to learn that the Greek that was spoken in the New Testament was common Greek. Koine Greek. Okay. It's the common language that everybody spoke. Now, that's not news to me and you, but back then, they didn't know that. Okay. They didn't know that around the time when the King James was being written, the versions, the Bibles before and after the King James. They didn't know that. In fact, a lot of people thought that the Bible Greek was special Greek that was made up by the Holy Spirit. Okay. There were like 500 Greek words. Nobody knew what they meant. So they had 500 Greek words that weren't used anywhere else. So you had to look at the context of where the word was in the Bible and guess at the meaning of the word. You know, they had a name for this. They called it Holy Ghost Greek. All right. That's literally what they call it. They called it Holy Ghost Greek. Now, today we have about 50 unknown words. So we've dwindled that down from 500 down to about 50 words. These are words we can't find used anywhere else outside the New Testament. So as our understanding of these Greek words grow, it would stand to reason we need a Bible translation that reflects that. All right. Let me give you a couple of examples. It is finished. Testelestai. Testelestai. Now, I know you've heard it preached that a preacher would get up and say, man, when that phrase testelestai, when Jesus said that, what they would do is they would take that phrase and they would write that on your receipt when you paid your bill and admit you're paid in full. And, man, that's a beautiful meaning of that word. And we didn't know that until post-KJV. So now we have a fuller understanding of it. Another example is only begotten. We've come to know that only begotten literally means one and only unique son. We know that today. That doesn't change things drastically. It just gives it more clarity. And so it was thought that Bible translations should reflect the original. And since the Bible was written in common Greek, it probably should be written for English-speaking people in common English that everybody uses. Most people want to use whatever version your church uses. And that's fine. I mean, you want to be on the same page as the pastor. You don't always want to be, you know, not knowing where he's at. Some people say, man, they're just the KJV. There's just, man, there's just nothing that feels like the KJV. There's nothing that, it just feels like the Bible. It just, it sounds like the Bible. But the thing is, the reality is whatever you used to sounds like the Bible. All right, whatever you used to. Some people can go into big cathedrals with big stained glass windows and the tapestries and the artwork and the mural and just come in and be like, ah, this just feels like church. Just feels like church. And I go in there, I'm like, what? Just a big building. To me, I'm like, hey, your church is in a storefront? Man, that feels like church. You know, that's what I think church feels like, you know? So, you know, it's a little subjective to say that. It's fine to be used to something. But don't say it's the only word of God just because it feels like the word of God that's too subjective. Let's not spiritualize things we're used to. In the early church, the Bible sounded like common language. So, you know, there is no Greek equivalent to thee and thou. It doesn't have no Greek equivalent to that. So, it's okay, but it's not required. It's acceptable, but it's not required. It's not in the Greek, so let's not insist on it. Okay, so you do realize you have a translation in your hands. This is a translation you have. Paul did not speak English. In fact, English did not exist in the day of Paul. The joke goes, well, if the King James Version was good enough for Paul, it's good enough for me. Well, he didn't have the King James English Version. Back then, it wasn't around. It didn't exist. We are second language Christians. We take the Bible from the Greek and we try to understand it in our own language. And we're lucky. We have hundreds of translations to choose from. Way more than I have to go over in one service. So, what we're going to do is we're going to look at translations. We're going to look at some of the most popular translations tonight. We're going to compare some of the different versions. So, the first thing we're going to look at is what is the textual basis. So, is it newer manuscripts or older? The second thing we're going to look at with each translation is the translation methodology. Is it word for word? Or is it more thought for thought? Excuse me. And, of course, word for word, the fancy term for that is formal equivalence. That's the fancy term. And the advantage of a word for word translation is, man, you get to dig in and really see what those word means. And you get nuance from the text. But the disadvantage is that if you translate it word for word all the time into English, it would just be nonsense. Because it's another language. And then there's thought for thought or phrase for phrase. And the fancy term for that is dynamic equivalence. And this is where you're willing to change the exact wording in order to preserve the exact meaning. Okay? For instance, in Matthew 118, it talks about how, you know, it tells us that Mary was pregnant and it says she was with child. Okay? In the actual Greek, it reads, and I quote, Mary was found to be having it in the belly. That's what it says in the Greek. Now, if you were a Jew, that would make sense to you. If you're Greek first language, Bible Greek, man, that would make sense to you. English people, not so much. Okay? So these types of translations are easy to understand. The thought for thought, word for word translations. But anytime you simplify something, you lose nuance. Okay? So there's disadvantage to both. So most translations have a sliding scale between these things. Some will be more word for word. In other areas, there'll be more thought for thought. And then number three will be, we'll just call number three, be peculiarities. I have a hard time with that word. Don't get on to me if I slaughter that word. All right. So let's get right into it. Of course, the first thing we're going to talk about is the 1611 King James Bible. Okay? It turns out to be the ancestor to a lot of our modern translations. The textual basis is six Greek manuscripts that Erasmus put together, that they used to make the King James Bible. Funny enough, it's not a direct translation into Greek, from the Greek. Okay? They took influence from other English Bibles, such as the Geneva Bible, the Tyndale Bible, the Bishop's Bible, were all used in creating the King James Bible. It's interesting that I always thought this is interesting. I can't remember if I've told you all this in a couple weeks past as we've been in this or not. But this is an interesting story. When Erasmus was putting together this text that the King James is based off of, he's translating it, and he figures out that the last couple little pages of Revelation fell out. This is a true story. It's well documented. And so what he did, so he didn't have those last verses of Revelation, is he went to the Latin, Vulgate, and he guessed at what the Greek words would have been. Okay? So what we have is the last several verses of Revelation. Revelation, the result is new Greek readings that don't exist in any other Greek manuscript on the planet Earth. Okay? It's nothing horrendous. It's just like close but not exactly right. So at the end of Revelation in the King James when it says this part will be taken out of the book of life, well, the problem is in Latin the word for book and tree are very similar. You look at any other modern translation, it's going to say tree of life. Okay? So, but we know, so it is more likely original is tree. You know, but whether your name's taken out of the tree of life or the book of life, it ain't good. Okay? So nothing, nothing big, nothing big doctrinally hangs on this. Okay? It's all bad. All right? It's just interesting, I think. So they basically use what they call the majority text for the King James, which means that they also include 1 John 5, 7, unique readings for the end of Revelation. So the King James Version has some things in it that don't source back to the Greek at all. So then later on they said, after the King James was printed, we want to have a Greek version of the King James. So they took the King James and they translated it into the Texas Receptus or the received text. So a lot of people today say, man, you shouldn't have a translation unless it comes from the Texas Receptus. That's where the King James came from. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. No, the Texas Receptus came from the King James. It's the other way around. And so they say, we'll accept anything that comes from the received text. They don't understand what they're talking about. And a lot of people that say that still won't use the New King James. So they don't understand. The reason why I'm going over this is because there's only one group out there that says only our translation is right. And that's the King James only crowd. They're the only group that says it. Okay. Anybody else is pretty much open to anything that's an accurate translation of the Bible. There's only one group that says our translation and no other. And that's the King James only crowd. The crowd I grew up with. So the methodology used in making King James is word for word. But it's more literary than literal. So they would enhance the text to make it more beautiful. It has like a high church feel to it. Listen, I'm not going to lie. The King James Bible is a literary masterpiece. It's like beautiful artwork, man. You're not going to get a book more beautiful, beautifully and elegantly written than the King James Bible. That doesn't make it more accurate. It just makes it more beautiful. Here's some peculiarities about the King James Bible. It's a highly respected work. It's a very good translation. It's not the original King James version. A lot of people say in your Bible, 1611. You don't have the 1611. 1611, the words are shaped differently. I have one at home. I meant to bring it. I forgot. But it's very hard to read. 1611 had the Apocrypha in it. Okay? So you don't have 1611. You have the 1769 version. There's over 300 words in the King James version that no longer mean what they meant in 1611. All right? Let's look at some of these words. Chapter. Not chapter. Chapter. Quatrain. Ambassage. You use these words on a daily basis? Immerse. Yeah. How about this one? Hibergeron. Okay? Most people need a dictionary to look up these words to see what they mean. So some words still exist, but their meaning has changed. They're still used in our vocabulary. But they don't mean the same thing they used to mean. Like compel. Doesn't mean the same thing in modern day that it used in the King James English. Like the word closet. It's not a place where you put your clothes. Jesus said go into your closet. He didn't mean go into your laundry hamper. Okay? That's not what Jesus meant. It was a good translation for then, but it's just not a good translation for us now, but it was then. Conversation. To them, conversation meant a way of life. Today, conversation means a dialogue between two people. Carriages. Back then, carriage meant 1611. That meant luggage. That's what a carriage meant. Instant. Didn't mean right away. It meant insistent. If you're instant, you're insisting on something. Leasing. Leasing meant lying. Didn't mean lease in a Honda. Okay? Leasing meant lying. Meet. M-E-E-T. Meant proper, fitting, appropriate. Today, it means gathering together. So we can agree that English changes. So the King James Version is an awesome translation, but it doesn't have to be for all time. The church existed 1,600 years without it. Okay? So let's talk about the New King James. This is our next version. The New King James was mass-produced in 1982. The textual basis is the King James Version, the Texas Receptus. Other Greek manuscripts were available in 1982, but they were ignored, and that's fine. They wanted to make a version that was based off the same thing the King James was based off of. So the translation methodology is meant to be an update to the King James Version, so it's word for word. It's very good at it. It's a very good translation. It's updated, so it doesn't have a lot of those archaic words that's used in the King James Version, but that also means it doesn't have the literary beauty of the King James Version. It has very good readings for unlikely passages like 1 John 5, 7, the woman caught in adultery, the ending of Mark. And we talked about that earlier in the series, and some of y'all want to go back and watch that. Fortunately, it does have footnotes explaining why the manuscripts disagree with these passages. It italicizes words. It's not in the Greek. I appreciate that. Telling me it's not originally there, but I appreciate them letting me know. Footnotes are good. If you don't get anything else from this message, get this. Read the footnotes in your Bible. Read the footnotes in your Bible. Now, I prefer the most likely reading to be in the text and the unlikely reading to be in the footnote, but the King James, the New King James, they reverse that. Most of the time, the unlikely reading is in the text and the more likely reading is in the footnote. Okay? Next version we're going to talk about is the RSV, the Revised Standard Version. This was printed in 1952. What they did is they used the King James Bible as a starting point. Their Greek sources were the most up-to-date for 1952. It leaves out many of the verses that are in the King James that we talked about last time we met. The RSV is in between a word-for-word and a phrase-for-phrase. It's right in the middle. It leans more word-for-word. But back in 1952, this was a bold thing to do, to even go a little phrase-for-phrase. They did not do a straight-up word-for-word, so people reacted like it was way out there. But it was just a little bit less word-for-word and more phrase-for-phrase than the King James Version. But it's a good version, and the only reason why it was criticized is because it wasn't King James. It does have its peculiarities. It still has archaic language because of its connection to the King James, which felt a little bit more like the King James. It has thee, thou, hast, and hath, but only in relation to God. So any time we're in relation to God, they would use these terms, thee, thou, hast, and hath, and then other times they wouldn't. Okay? Now, that's not in the Greek, so they're taking a little liberty there. It was criticized because it left out John 7, 5, 3 through John 8, verse 11, woman caught in adultery. We talked about that. It was criticized, and then they put it back in, and their sales went up. Okay? And so the RSV is no longer in print. But the new revised standard version is in print, and it's the next version we're going to talk about. 1989, they did an update to the RSV as the new revised standard version. The textual basis was everything they had available in 1989, which is not very different from what we have today. In the Greek, it isn't much, it's more dynamic than the RFV. It's more like a new, it's more like an NIV type translation. Here's some peculiarities. There's a lot of Old Testament prophecies about the Messiah that are prophesied, that are written in a less messianic way. It's like you could have went either way, but it's like the Old Testament messianic prophecies. Anytime there was a mess, they would always choose the less messianic reading. Okay? Who knows why they did it, but they did it consistently. It's considered a liberal translation by a lot of people. It was one of the first gender-inclusive translations. Now, the term gender-inclusive is a mixed bag, and we'll talk about that later. But in the Bible, when it says men, it could be talking about men or women, or it could just be talking about men. When it says brothers in the Greek, it could be talking about brothers and sisters, or it could just be talking about brothers. It's how they talked. Okay? And so you've got to just read the context. So they said, look, English is changing. Let's say brother and sister instead of just brother. Let's say anyone instead of he. And there is some wisdom in that. I can see it, but the New Revised Standard Version just kind of went way too far for it. So 1 Timothy 3.2 is an example of this. When you get a chance, look this 1 Timothy 3.2 up in a New Revised Standard Version. And it was like they purposely twisted the text to say that women could be bishops. Instead of accurately portraying what the text says, they're like, we have an agenda. This is what we're going to do. Now, it doesn't mean you have a perversion. It just means that, you know, there are places in it where it's skewed a certain way. And it doesn't accurately represent the original, but the rest of it is a fairly good dynamic translation. It's not like, oh, we've got a problem with this verse. Let's burn it. No, no, no, no, no. Let's not do that. Okay? It's just like an issue that we need to be educated about. So now let's talk about the New American Standard Bible, the NASB. This is from 1995. Most of the time when I preach, I'm going to use the New American Standard Version. This morning, for instance, I used the King James. I go back and forth. Most of the time I use New American. The textual basis was the most recent stuff they had in 95. The methodology is word for word wherever possible. The New American Standard Bible is a very good word for word translation. And it's good for digging into the text, finding nuance. They use it in seminaries all across the country. It was very well received. It's used in more seminaries than any other. These are some peculiarities. Anytime they use an idiom, they include a footnote with the word for word translation. I appreciate that. Instead of a paragraph break, what they would do is they make the verse numbers bold. So if you're ever reading through a Bible and the verse numbers are bold, and you're saying, why is that verse number bold? It's because it's starting a new paragraph. Okay? That's what that means. It was criticized for being kind of wooden, kind of stiff. That's what happens when you get to word for word. It becomes wooden. It becomes stiff because it's from another language. There's a newer version that takes out some of the woodenness. So if you look at BibleGateway.com, you'll have two NASBs on there. You've got NASB 95 and NASB, which NASB 95 is the one that I use. In 2004, Dan Wallace said that the New American Standard Bible was probably the closest English translation to the original. And then later on, Dan Wallace came out with his own translation and said his was the closest. They always do that. But back in 2004, Dan Wallace said New American was the closest. Now let's just talk about the ESV. The ESV, the English Standard Version. It was printed in 2001. They used the most up-to-date Greek. They used the RSV as their textual base. It is considered a word-for-word translation, although it's less so than the New American Standard. And what that means, it's more readable, but it's still considered a word-for-word translation. They don't do gender neutral, but they do gender accurate. And all they're saying is, look, if the original reader thought this meant applied to men and women, we're going to say men and women. If it meant brothers and sisters, we're going to say brothers and sisters. Okay? And they do a good job with that. All right? Next version is the Holman Christian Standard Bible. Now this is my personal reader. When I do my daily Bible reading, I read a Holman Christian Standard Bible. I love this Bible. I love this Bible. Chris, the Homan came out in 2004. And unlike other translations we'll talk about tonight, the Homan is not based on any translation. It's a brand new translation of the Bible. It's not based off of any existing version. They went directly from the Greek. It's straight from the Greek. They use up-to-date Greek. The methodology is what they call optimal equivalent. So there's like they come to a passage or a verse and they say, okay, if word for word works better for this, we're going to go word for word. And they come to the next passage, if phrase for phrase works better for this, we're going to go phrase for phrase. They're not afraid to go either way on the scale. Just do whatever works for the passage that they come to. It tends to be more word for word and occasionally phrase for phrase. So here's some peculiarities about it. A lot of people say the Homan Christian standard is the Baptist translation. And that's not necessarily fair. That had over a hundred scholars from 17 different denominations. Okay. So it's not just the Baptist translation. It's got tons of good footnotes. They put a footnote with the word for word. Anytime they did a phrase for phrase rendering. Some people listen to this. Some people say it's too literal and then other people say it's too free. Maybe that means they did a good job. Okay. That means they did a good job with it. I love this version. One of the main reasons why I love this version is because so many times it translate, translate your Lord is Yahweh. I love that. They do that 654 times. Now the name of God is in the text is in the text over 6,000 times. So they don't do it every time, but they do it a lot of the time. They took the word doulos and every time translated it slave instead of servant or another variation, which is correct. It's more accurate. They will often translate Christ as Messiah. Okay. Specifically when it's relating to his messianic duties or titles. Generally, they ignore modern gender issues and they just translate what the original said. They're like, look, we're going to give you what the original said. You figure it out. Okay. I appreciate that. Old Testament messianic passages tend to be more messianic. So this translation has got a lot going for it. Now let's talk about the NIV. The NIV. The NIV is the most popular translation in the world at the moment. It is also the most attacked. And in my personal opinion and experience, no version gets KJV-only-est more angry than the NIV. I can post a new American verse on my Facebook page and nothing is said, but I post the NIV verse on there. And then the KJV-only-est will come after me with a vengeance. I've been called effeminate. I've been called all these different names because I post the NIV. NIV is a very good translation of the Bible. So it was made in 1984. People have claimed that the NIV is the non-inspired version, but let me be very clear to you that it is not. Okay. It accurately translate the Bible most of the time. Now I'm going to give you a few things about it because that's the purpose. And it was totally abandoned. They don't even like to mention it anymore. Okay. They put it in the back room and shut the door. But in 2011, in the dead of night, when everyone was asleep, the NIV just changed magically. It's like they came in in 2011 and without telling anybody, they took the 84 versions off the shelf and put the 2011s off the shelf and did not change the name. Okay. Just acted like nothing happened. So I'm going to tell you some differences between the two. Now, the only NIV version you can get today is the 2011 version. You can't buy the 84 version unless you buy an older one or you can look at it online. Okay. A lot of very well-respected scholars were used to make the NIV and it, a lot of people attack it because they say it's weak on the virgin birth. It's weak on the deity of Christ and it's weak against homosexuality. That is wrong. For sake of time, I could go to verses, but for sake of time, I'm not going to do that. The NIV is strong on the virgin birth. It's strong on the deity of Christ. It's strong. It's homosexuality. Okay. Here's some differences between the 84 and the 2011 version. The 2011 version takes out the word alien and puts in foreigner, which, you know, I'm okay with that. A lot of people think alien. They think a little green man. Okay. So I'm okay with that. The word saint is translated as God's people or the Lord's people. I don't care for that, but it's a preference. Still accurate. There are some gender issues and I would say in most places it does a really good job, but there are a few places, there's a minority of the time where it doesn't do a good job. Matthew 18 basically says that if your brother or sister, if you have aught with them, go get alone with them and work it out. I doubt very seriously that a first century Christian, you'd go get alone with this woman and figure out the problem. But that's being real. That's me being very, very nitpicky there. Some verses made an improvement like Philippians 4.13. There's an improvement. There are many people who constantly take Philippians 4.13 out of context. You cannot take Philippians 4.13 out of context in the NIV. Here's what it says in the NIV. I can do all this through him who gives me strength. Okay. Well, what is this? Okay. Well, I got to go to context and find out that Paul is talking about getting beat up and starving and going through life trials. He's not talking about winning a football game. Okay. So you can't, it's God who strengthens him through these trials. Okay. It's not about getting a 300 on your bowling score. Okay. So you can't mistranslate that in the NIV. They do a good job. Now this is a problem. I think. 2 Corinthians 5.17. Here's what the KJV says. Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature, old things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new. Okay. Here's that verse in the NIV. Listen to it. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come. The old has gone. The new is here. Sounds a little awkward. Sounds a little hokey. Do you know why they worded it that way? They're trying not to say the word he? They're trying to dance around saying the word he. They're messing with the wording because they want us to realize that it's not just men who are part of the new creation. And that's true. It's just awkward how they handled that. The NIV is a very good Bible. There's nothing wrong with reading it. Okay. Let's talk about the living Bible. The living Bible came out in 1971. The living Bible is a paraphrase. It is not a translation. Here's our scope. We got word for word and we got phrase for phrase and paraphrase is somewhere over there. Okay. Paraphrase is over there. It's basically what I think it says. Whoever wrote it, this is what I think it says. It's not like this is what Jeremiah says. It's like, this is what I think about what Jeremiah said. Okay. Billy Graham. Look, I had my first Bible was a living Bible. I still have it. It was my dad's Bible. Billy Graham popularized the living Bible. He would give it out in his crusades. It was the work of one guy. He didn't read Greek or Hebrew. He read the American standard version and reworded it into what he felt would be easier to understand. So it's a dude's interpretation of the Bible. And that's fine as long as you treat it that way. I'm fine with you having a paraphrase. As long as you treat it as a paraphrase and know what it is. So the living Bible made tons of money. They started to publish in house. And so they decided to update it to the new living translation in 1996. The new living translation is a phrase for phrase. And it's a more thought for thought, even more so than the NIV. Here's some peculiarities about it. It avoids theological terms like justification, sanctification, regeneration. Doesn't have those in there. Instead, it says like made right with God, made holy or made new. Footnotes are included when they have free renderings. Gender choices seem to be pretty good. It's good for kids or for those who are poor readers. So we have Bibles that, you know, you know, for everybody. And that's a good thing. It's good to have a lot of options. All right. So now we're going to talk about the message. All righty. So it's like the living Bible taken to Jupiter. I am personally, I'm not a fan of the message. It's a paraphrase to the extreme. It's very idiomatic to the point of losing the original, in my opinion. Let me read you Matthew 5.13 out of the ESV. This is a very familiar verse. You are the salt of the earth, but if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything has set to be thrown out and trampled underfoot. Here's the same verse in the message. Let me tell you why you are here. You are here to be the salt seasoning that brings out the God flavors of this earth. If you lose your saltiness, how will people taste godliness? If you've lost your usefulness, you will end up in the garbage. Proverbs 1.17. For in vain, a net is spread in the sight of any bird. Here's the message. Nobody robs a bank when everyone is watching. That's not a translation. That's not even a paraphrase. Okay? No. That's right. Here's Psalm 1.1. This is the ESV. Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers. Here's Psalms 1.1 in the message. How well God must like you. You don't hang out at Sin Saloon. You don't slink along Dead End Road. You don't go to smart mouth college. Okay? That's right. Sin Saloon. All right. Zechariah 13.6. If anyone asks him, what are these wounds on your back? He will say, the ones I received in the house of my friends. Here's the message. And if someone says, so where did you get that black eye? They say, I ran into a door at a friend's house. This is true. Okay? You can't even call it a translation at all. It's a paraphrase. Eugene Peterson was the guy who did this. He just like, he made up his mind to do it for his youth group, and he did it. He said he translated the Beatitudes in like 10 minutes, and it shows. Okay? Eugene Peterson says he'll go into a, he said that he'll go into churches where they read the Bible from the pulpit, and he cringes a little bit, and this is the guy who wrote it. Peterson says he believes that it should be the first Bible for new believers, and then they should be weaned from it. I don't even believe it should be a first Bible for new believers. Like, you give it to them, and then you take it away, and they're like, it's not about Sin Saloon. What? You know? So, um, but here's some other, all right, the word transgress becomes run roughshod. I don't even know what that means, run roughshod. Strengthened with all power became sticking out over the long haul. Then there are places where the theology is off, so the message would be the bad. All right, so we talked about the good, we talked about the bad, now let's talk about the ugly. The New World Translation, is a Jehovah Witness translation of the Bible. It is the worst English translation you'll probably ever come across, for a few reasons. First off, who did it? The New World Translation won't tell us. They won't tell us who the translators are. Sneaky, sneaky. Um, they will not release the names, although some former Jehovah Witness, uh, people have released some of the names of the translators. Um, why did they do it? Quote, here's quoting from them, to eliminate the leading influence of religious tradition, which have roots in paganism. Okay? This version was made to preach the particulars of the Jehovah Witness faith. It's actually more word for word than the King James ever was, to the point of being bad English. It's klutzy, it's hard to read, it's hard to understand, it's carelessly made, because the people who did it really didn't know Greek very well. Um, it's the most word for word translation on the market, except for the places where the Bible teaches things against the Jehovah Witness religion, and in that case, they don't mind monkeying with the text. Okay? So, let's do a Catholic Bible. Let's do a Catholic version. Let's talk about the NABRE, the N-A-B-R-E, the New American Bible Revised Edition. This is the Catholic, official Catholic translation for the United States. It's used in all the Catholic churches. It's used in the masses, the Catholic greetings for all the United States of America. The textual basis is the new text, so the methodology, the methodology is kind of all over the place. Like, sometimes it'll be word for word, other times it'll be phrase for phrase. They'll change whole passages several times in a row. They'll pull the whole thing and release a new edition under the same name. This Bible's all over the place. Currently, it's a very free phrase for phrase. Here's some peculiarities about it. It is general neutral to the max. To the max. I mean, where it's not necessary and where sometimes where it's not even necessarily justifiable. It has some text issues, but you could fairly get the Bible out of it. Now, keep in mind, it does have the Apocrypha in it. You could fairly get the Bible out of it reliably, but the problem with this Bible is the footnotes. Footnotes are horrendous. They are like anti-Catholic footnotes. Okay? You read the footnotes of their Bible, and they don't even believe Moses wrote the Pentateuch. Okay? And it says that in the footnotes of the NABRE. They believe that Isaiah had multiple authors. They say that in their footnotes. And this goes against traditional Catholic perspectives. Okay? Like, even Catholics are mad about this. Catholics read, they want to study their Bible, and they're reading the footnotes, and it's like having a liberal atheist unbeliever write the footnotes of your study Bible. That wouldn't be good. The footnotes say that Daniel was written in 200 BC. So basically, they're saying that Daniel's a lie. And that's because it says that, see, there are liberal scholars running this thing. Listen, Jesus quotes from Daniel. If Daniel's fake, you can throw every Bible in the trash. Okay? Jesus quotes from Daniel. There's a footnote in Matthew 16 where Jesus foretells his crucifixion and that he's going to rise again. The footnote to that passage says that Jesus didn't actually say that because how could he know? How could Jesus know? Well, where did he come up with this? Okay? Is there any evidence for that? Zero. But it's a liberal assumption that Jesus couldn't have prophesied what was going to happen. It's like you read the text, and then you read the footnote for the text, and the footnote says that the text is a lie. All right? The second most popular Catholic translation is the New Jerusalem Bible. Of course, both include the Apocrypha. It also has really bad unbelieving footnotes, and it's like having a liberal unbeliever write the footnotes for your study Bible. In conclusion, though, most modern translations are good translations of the Bible. If you pick any of the translations I didn't bash, you're doing okay. You're doing good. But if you want to get down, the basically takeaway from this, if you want to get down to the nitty-gritty, if you want to get down to, you know, to really pick apart those words, really get in there and study, you need a word-for-word translation. But, man, if you just want to casually read it, and it's kind of hard for you to understand, and some of it's going over your head, man, get a phrase-for-phrase, thought-for-thought translation. It's all the Word of God. You're going to be okay. And don't feel bad about it. I found my new name. I found that good grace. I found that healing. And the tears fell down my face when I found my beginning that has no ending. I found that second chance. I found my best friend. I found my forgiveness. I found my happiness. I've been singing ever since. I found my freedom in you. Thanks for listening to the For Freedom Podcast. If you enjoyed our content, do us a favor by liking, subscribing, or sharing our podcast on whichever podcast platform you use. Be sure to join us next time for the For Freedom Podcast. For Freedom Podcast.

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