This is a common misconception. Some people think that the Bible
was written in one language, translated to another language, then
translated into yet another and so on until it was finally translated
into the English. The complaint is that since it was rewritten so many
times in different languages throughout history, it must have become
corrupted . The "telephone" analogy is often used as an illustration. It
goes like this. One person tells another person a sentence who then
tells another person, who tells yet another, and so on and so on until
the last person hears a sentence that has little or nothing to do with
the original one. The only problem with this analogy is that it doesn't
fit the Bible at all.
The fact is that the Bible has
not been rewritten. Take the New Testament, for example. The disciples
of Jesus wrote the New Testament in Greek and though we do not have the
original documents, we do have around 6,000 copies of the Greek
manuscripts that were made very close to the time of the originals.
These various manuscripts, or copies, agree with each other to almost
100 percent accuracy. Statistically, the New Testament is 99.5%
textually pure. That means that there is only 1/2 of 1% of of all the
copies that do not agree with each other perfectly. But, if you take
that 1/2 of 1% and examine it, you find that the majority of the
"problems" are nothing more than spelling errors and very minor word
alterations. For example, instead of saying Jesus, a variation might be
"Jesus Christ." So the actual amount of textual variation of any
concern is extremely low. Therefore, we can say that we have a
remarkably accurate compilation of the original documents.
So when that we translate the
Bible, we do not translate from a translation of a translation of a
translation. We translate from the original language into our language.
It is a one step process and not a series of steps that can lead to
corruption. It is one translation step from the original to the English
or to whatever language a person needs to read it in. So we translate
into Spanish from the same Greek and Hebrew manuscripts. Likewise we
translate into the German from those same Greek and Hebrew manuscripts
as well. This is how it is done for each and every language we
translate the Bible into. We do not translate from the original
languages to the English, to the Spanish, and then to the German. It is
from the original languages to the English, or into the Spanish, or into
the German. Therefore, the translations are very accurate and
trustworthy in regards to what the Bible originally said.
Comparison Chart
The following chart represents
a compilation of various ancient manuscripts, their original date of
writing, the earliest copy, the number of copies in existent, and the
time span between the originals and the copies. If the Bible is singled
out to be criticized as unreliable then all the other writings listed
below must also be discarded.
|
Author1 |
Date
Written |
Earliest Copy |
Approximate Time Span between original & copy |
Number of Copies |
Accuracy of Copies |
|
Lucretius |
died 55 or 53 B.C. |
|
1100 yrs |
2 |
---- |
|
Pliny |
61-113 A.D. |
850
A.D. |
750
yrs |
7 |
---- |
|
Plato |
427-347 B.C. |
900
A.D. |
1200 yrs |
7 |
---- |
|
Demosthenes |
4th
Cent. B.C. |
1100 A.D. |
800
yrs |
8 |
---- |
|
Herodotus |
480-425 B.C. |
900
A.D. |
1300 yrs |
8 |
---- |
|
Suetonius |
75-160 A.D. |
950
A.D. |
800
yrs |
8 |
---- |
|
Thucydides |
460-400 B.C. |
900
A.D. |
1300 yrs |
8 |
---- |
|
Euripides |
480-406 B.C. |
1100 A.D. |
1300 yrs |
9 |
---- |
|
Aristophanes |
450-385 B.C. |
900
A.D. |
1200 |
10 |
---- |
|
Caesar |
100-44 B.C. |
900
A.D. |
1000 |
10 |
---- |
|
Livy |
59
BC-AD 17 |
---- |
??? |
20 |
---- |
|
Tacitus |
circa 100 A.D. |
1100 A.D. |
1000 yrs |
20 |
---- |
|
Aristotle |
384-322 B.C. |
1100 A.D. |
1400 |
49 |
---- |
|
Sophocles |
496-406 B.C. |
1000 A.D. |
1400 yrs |
193 |
---- |
|
Homer (Iliad) |
900
B.C. |
400
B.C. |
500
yrs |
643 |
95% |
New
Testament |
1st
Cent. A.D. (50-100 A.D. |
2nd
Cent. A.D.
(c. 130 A.D.) |
less than 100 years |
5600 |
99.5% |
As you can see,
the New Testament documents are very accurate. Therefore, when the
scholars translate from the Greek into the English (or into any other
language), we can trust that what is translated is accurate and
reliable.
______________________
1. This chart was adapted
from three sources: 1) Christian Apologetics, by Norman Geisler,
1976, p. 307; 2) the article "Archaeology and History attest to the
Reliability of the Bible," by Richard M. Fales, Ph.D., in The
Evidence Bible, Compiled by Ray Comfort, Bridge-Logos Publishers,
Gainesville, FL, 2001, p. 163; and 3) A Ready Defense, by Josh
McDowell, 1993, p. 45.