There are three primary reasons for the differences between translations. (KJV=King James Version, ESV=English Standard Version, NKJV=New King James Version, and NIV= New International Version.)
First, some of the words in KJV have changed their meaning over time. These older words are often updated.
For example, the KJV will use the word "conversation" to mean
someone's whole life, not just their speech. You can see this in Philippians
1:27. The NKJV says, "Conduct," where the KJV says, "conversation." When the KJV was written conversation meant someone's entire way of
living. Now it means just our speech. This is just a matter of updating
the Bible as words in our culture change meaning.
Second, different translations
translate words different ways. For example, in Acts 2:27 the word is literally
"Hades." It is not hell or grave. The ESV and the NKJV translate it
as Hades. The KJV translates it as hell and the NIV as grave. Whenever
you take a word from one language and translate it into English you have to
decide which English word best fits the word in that other language. This
accounts for a lot of differences in Bible translations. Another example is
Matthew 13:4. In the NIV the sower scatters. In the ESV, KJV, and NKJV the
sower sows the seed.
Third, different translations use
a different set of manuscripts. Manuscripts are all the old copies of the
Bible, especially the New Testament, that we have. We have thousands of them.
These manuscripts do not always agree with one another. These manuscripts were
copied by hand so there are some mistakes in them. Men have sat down and tried
to decide which manuscripts are best. This is a difficult and messy task. Those
who translated the KJV and the NKJV use one set of manuscripts, while those
who translated the ESV and the NIV used another. This explains why when you
read Ephesians 5:30 in the KJV you will find the phrase, "of his flesh and
of his bones." But in the ESV it is missing.
These are the three main reasons
you see differences in translations.
I would recommend using either
the English Standard Version or the New King James Version. They are both good translations and easy to read. I use mainly the NKJV because I
think they use the better manuscripts. But I always reference the ESV in my studies
and I keep a KJV on hand to compare with these two translations. There are
places where the ESV is plainly inferior to the old KJV and NKJV. I am not as high on the ESV as some other people are.
I would not recommend the NIV. It
was not a great translation to begin with and they continue to
make it more politically correct.
1 comment:
Thanks for providing a nice, concise summation of the different translations available to Christians. The smorgasbord of translations and study Bibles can be daunting at times. More daunting is consistently staying in God's word.
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