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Question #30
QUESTION: The King James Bible is a mere
translation from Greek to English. A translation can't be as good as the
originals, can it?
ANSWER: A translation cannot only be "as good" as
the originals, but better.
EXPLANATION: There are three "translations" spoken
of in the Bible. In all three cases, the translation referred to is better
than the original. Since we accept the Bible as our final
authority in all matters of faith and practice, ITS
"practice" will have more authority than any "mere human" opinion.
1. The first translation mentioned in scripture is found in II Samuel
3:7-10.
7 "And Saul had a concubine, whose name was Rizpah, the daughter
of Aiah: and Ishbosheth said to Abner, Wherefore hast thou gone in unto my
father's concubine?
8 Then was Abner very wroth for the words of Ish-bosheth, and
said, Am I a dog's head, which against Judah do shew kindness this day
unto the house of Saul thy father, to his brethren, and to his friends,
and have not delivered thee into the hand of David, that thou chargest me
to day with a fault concerning this woman?
9 So do God to Abner, and more also, except, as the LORD hath
sworn to David, even so I do to him;
10 To translate the kingdom from the house of Saul, and to
set up the throne of David over Israel and over Judah, from Dan even to
Beersheba."
After the death of King Saul in I Samuel 31, Abner, who had been the
captain of Saul's army installed Ishbosheth as King instead of David. (II
Samuel 12:8,9)
Later Ishbosheth and Abner had a falling out. Abner, in anger,
announces to Ishbosheth that he is going to "translate" the Kingdom of
Israel from Ishbosheth to David..
It is obvious by Abner's statement of II Samuel 3:9 that the LORD
wanted David to be king over all twelve tribes of Israel.
Therefore the "translation" of the kingdom of Israel to David was
BETTER than the "original" state which has a split kingdom with
David rightly ruling over one portion and Ishbosheth wrongly ruling over
the other section. (Remember the law of first mentions.)
2. The second translation spoken of in scripture is found in
Colossians 1:13.
"Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath
translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son:"
Here the "translation" spoken of is the conversion of a lost sinner to
a new life in Jesus Christ. No one in their right mind could even
pretend that this translation is not a massive improvement over
the "original" condition.
3. The third translation found in the Bible is located in Hebrews
11:5.
"By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and
was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation
he had this testimony, that he pleased God."
The word "translate" only appears five times in scripture. Once in II
Samuel, once in Colossians and the remaining three times here in Hebrews
11:5.
A Christian with even a shallow knowledge of the Bible is familiar
with the story of Enoch from Genesis 5. Enoch walked with God and is known
to have pleased God. He was a prophet (Judges 14) and a man of faith. God
saw fit to physically take Enoch to heaven so that he
would not have to experience death. This individual action is a miniature
version of what Christians call "The Rapture," mentioned in I Corinthians
15, I Thessalonians 4, Titus 2 and various other places in the Bible.
Since the word "Rapture" appears nowhere in scripture a more proper name
for this future occurrence might be "The Blessed Hope" (Titus) or "The
Catching Up" (I Thessalonians) of "Our Translation" (Hebrews).
It is obvious that Enoch's translation was an improvement over his
"original" condition.
Thus we see that every translation mentioned in our final
authority in all matters is an improvement over
the original.
If you are a simple Bible believer you will have no trouble accepting
this. If you worship education or just hate to be wrong you will reject
this Bible fact as easily as you have rejected every
Bible fact that you couldn't agree with.
It should be noted here that the perplexed translators of both the New
American Standard Version and the New International Version, when faced
with this glaring contradiction of their own personal
prejudice, could not bring themselves to allow the word "translation" in
any of the above mentioned passages.
Which will you follow, the Bible or men?
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