Major Bible English Translations: Strengths and Weaknesses

C Mc

What do you know about the following?

1. What is a translation?
2. What is a paraphrase? Are they reliable?
3. What is a Bible version?
4. What are the major English Bible Translations? What are they based upon?
5. What are the strengths and weaknesses of the major English Bible Translations?
6. What are the differences between a translation and a version?
7. What is a Bible Manuscript? How many are in existence today?
8. What is the least reliable Bible translation?

The Bible and its development, let's explore. CM

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Curious about opinion(s) of Logos Wiki page Bible Translation Spectrum ?

What is missing ? What could be improved ?

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@Keep_Smiling_4_Jesus

What is a translation?

In the context at hand, a translation is the transfer of a text (written or spoken) from one language into another language.

What is a paraphrase? Are they reliable?

A paraphrase is a summary type phrasing of a text; it is reliable to the degree it is correct.

What is a Bible version?

A version is an adjusted reproduction of a Bible text or translation

What are the major English Bible Translations? What are they based upon?

What are the strengths and weaknesses of the major English Bible Translations?

Depending on views of those who put together lists of Bible translations, they may differ. The above link to the Logos Wiki page Bible Translation Spectrum has such information.

What are the differences between a translation and a version?

Translation is about transfer from one language into another language, Version deals with an existing text in a language and makes adjustments.

What is a Bible Manuscript? How many are in existence today?

Manuscript refers to hand written text; in connection with Bible, the manuscripts refer to older hand made copies of Bible texts that have been preserved and found. There are many ....

What is the least reliable Bible translation?

Least reliable in what regard? No Bible translation can be considered to be the originally God-inspired word of God (already for the simple fact that they are not in the original's language). A Bible translation is as reliable as it correctly represents the words and meaning of the text in the original.

C Mc

@Wolfgang said:

Manuscript refers to hand-written text; in connection with Bible, the manuscripts refer to older handmade copies of Bible texts that have been preserved and found. There are many...

Bible manuscripts are interesting to follow. We had only about one hundred at the time the first King James Version was written in 1611.

Since then, searchers have discovered about 2,000 manuscripts of the Old Testament and about 5,000 of the New Testament.

• Some are tiny, with only a few verses included, such as the Chester Beatty papyri.
• Several are no larger than a postage stamp.
• Others, though, such as the Codex Sinaiticus ("codex" means manuscript book), contain almost the entire Scripture.
• The Dead Sea Scrolls were found in a cave at Qumran in the 1950s. It's dated back to the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC. This period was a great century for manuscript discoveries (the 1800s).

Behold! We have Great Treasures In Earthen Vessels!

The three oldest MSS have the three great branches of the Christian church.

• a. Alexandrian (called Codex A) belongs to Protestant England and is kept in the MSS. room of the British Museum.
• b. Vatican (called Codex B) is in the Vatican Library of Rome.
• c. Sinaitic (Codex Aleph) is one of the treasures of the Greek Church and is now in the British Museum.

These MSS show us the Bible as it existed soon after the apostolic days. There are others of less importance and of a later date that will not be considered here.

One can be sure of its essential accuracy. The late Sir Frederic Kenyon, one-time director of the British Museum and an authority on Bible manuscripts, put it this way:

"The Christian can take the whole Bible in his hand and say without fear or hesitation that he holds in it the true Word of God, handed down without essential loss from generation to generation throughout the centuries."

We are so blessed with God's revelation and preservation! Why are there so much doubt and rejection when we have enough materials to do Textual Analysis? CM

SOURCE:

• Frederic Kenyon, Our Bible and the Ancient Manuscripts (New York: Harpers, 1940), p. 21.