Sorry, I guess I had the wrong Blog. I knew you were talking about ‘Translating’, but I thought that meant conveying the true message in more understandable words, not changing the message by ‘Interpreting’ it.

But to convey that message in understandable words requires the translator to interpret it! Otherwise how will they know what to convey?

I think that it is definitely true that some translators spend more time interpreting the original text than others do. Many people see that as a bad thing, and think that it is better for the reader to interpret more than the translator. I can’t disagree with that, but I don’t think it reflects reality. Unfortunately I think that all of us readers of the Bible could stand to spend more time and effort to carefully study and interpret the scriptures. But we don’t.

Which is better?
- if the reader avoids expending energy to study the Bible, is it better for the translator to avoid interpreting or should they interpret it more so that such a reader’s simplistic reading of the Bible will at least result in them understanding the right message?
- if the reader does expend lots of time and energy to study the Bible, is it better for the translator to avoid interpreting the Bible, or should they also expend energy to carefully translate the Bible (which will also mean that this careful reader will not end up with a subtly wrong interpretation based on dodgy translation)?

I believe that whether our Bibles are read and studied carefully or not, the best results will always be achieved when the translators carefully interpret the source texts. But of course we also need to be encouraging everyone to have their thinking caps on when they read their Bibles!

This blog is about translation issues. Its all about the nit-picking. Its not designed to teach religion or deepen your faith at all.

That is CD-Host’s personal opinion. It is not the view of the BBB team, or which CD-Host is not a part. The first and third sentences are true, but not the way I as a team member would have put the matter.

No one here is talking about “changing the message”, but everyone about “conveying the true message in more understandable words”. However, we can only convey that true message if first we understand it, both the individual words and the way they are put together. Sometimes, where the meaning is uncertain or disputed, that does require the kind of detailed exegetical work which you call “nit-picking” – and it also requires prayer for God to help the translator, not by revealing new Scripture but by clarifying the meaning of the old one.

“It is not designed to teach religion, or deepen your faith at all.”

You have succeeded. You are not teaching religion or deepening anyone’s faith. But that was always the purpose of the writings of the prophets. That was why the prophets ‘talked with God’. That’s why the prophets taught that the people should ‘talk with God’.
I said: ‘Most of the prophets did that, and so can yu, with enough faith. Try it. You’ll like it’.

“I have. It was Fun.’

Was it ‘fun’ when Moses talked with God? Or Isaiah? or Jonah? or Malachi? Or John the Baptist? or Paul? or Peter? No, CD-HOST, you have not tried it, or you would not have said it was fun. To talk with God, one needs to be humble, one needs to be obedient to the teachings of the Savior, one needs to become ‘righteous’, and then one needs to be willing to DO whatsoever He commands, with no regard to personal gain, or wealth, or glory or even life itself. I said, ‘you’ll like it’, because what greater love can you feel than to know that God trusts you enough to give you an assignment. and if you love the Lord, you’ll like it!

” What does that have to do with Translation?’

That was just about the STUPIDEST question I have ever heard.
You are talking about receiving an answer to your prayers. The perfect, flawless, undeniable exact meaning of the scripture that you are concerned about ‘translating’, getting the answer direct from God, Himself, and you ask ‘what does that have to do with translation?’ It has this to do with translation: It renders ‘translation’ totally unnecessary. You, then, will have become a ‘prophet’, and like all prophets, you must write what you have received as the Book of CD-Host. NEW SCRITPTURE. Unless you have so little faith as to think that perhaps God, the Creator of all things has now become impotent, incapable of communicating with man. If I were you I think I would be on my knees asking for forgiveness. I don’t care which ‘Version’ of God’s Word you read, but if you will study it, you will find He says: Ask, and you will receive. He is not a liar.
I will be praying for you.
Am I missing something here?

This blog is about translation issues. Its all about the nit-picking. Its not designed to teach religion or deepen your faith at all.

Most of the prophets did that, and so can you with enough faith. Try it. You’ll like it.

I have it was fun. What does that have to do with translation?

Yep. That’s how they all came out. I assume you are KJV guy. What do you think the context was in the early 17th century. Lots of new translations being done by breakaway factions, the KJV being one of those. It just had a big budget.

Who and what originally wrote the Bible? … The answer is, of course, Prophets of God, book by book.

Not quite that easy. First off you are ambiguously using bible here, before there was a bible. You want to talk about specific books. Those books were part of collections. Those books within the collections had variations that were cleaned up mostly in the 3rd century. And there was tremendous arguments about which books should or should not be in the collection.

And in both the Old Testament, and the New Testament, they are not placed in ‘chronilogical order’, but according to someone’s thinking the best order to study

Actually no. They are organized by type. The Pentateuch, Historical, Psalms and Writings, Prophets, Gospels, …

other posts declare ‘Breaking News’ And then state something about as new as ‘Hollywood Actress has an affair!’ That’s news? So, someone doesn’t like the ‘current’ version, so they come out with a ‘new and improved’ version, like some kind of new soap.

My whole point is this: Who and what originally wrote the Bible? I am not asking who ‘translated’ it?, or who ‘revised’ it? The answer is, of course, Prophets of God, book by book. Then later, men, Inspired? by God, joined the books together. And in both the Old Testament, and the New Testament, they are not placed in ‘chronilogical order’, but according to someone’s thinking the best order to study. Somewhere I read: The wisdom of man is foolishness with God.

Just about every version that I have read indicates that the ‘Prophets’ talked with God, in a language that they, the prophets, could understand. Then, the prophets were commanded by God to write what they have learned.

So, if I (being God) were to want to talk to a termite, and how do you know that as God I don’t, I would have no problem doing so. Where is your faith? We have some of the writings of prophets of olden time, not the ‘original’, but somewhat reliable copies, So, instead of nit-picking over the meaning of each word, we would try to understand the ‘message’, we would be a lot better off.

What is the message? That each living human being has the right and more than right, the duty to ‘talk with God’ personally. Most of the prophets did that, and so can you with enough faith. Try it. You’ll like it.

No translation is the Word of God. They are just human translations of the Word of God. But God provided us with the ability to make these translations, and biblical justification for doing so. So let’s do them to the best of our ability, and as best as we can into natural modern forms of every language.

I’ve been told that the Bible is the ‘Word of God’. So, it really shouldn’t be that hard to understand,

Why not? Lets assume you tried to have a conversation with a termite, would you expect the termite to understand what you were trying to say?

And who gave you authority to change the Word of God?

Change it from what to what?

And do you have God’s permission?

Me, yep. I have a signed and even notarized certificate as final authority on all matters of translation. I was upset I actually wanted layout rights and didn’t get them. Wayne, has me beat he’s fully licensed to release multiple bibles. Suzanne got permission from God’s wife, regarding the rights to update all versions.

And which version of the Holy Bible is the word of God? Because they not only use different ‘translations’ but sove versions are plainly just the opposite of the other.

You got that right. And not only that there are issues of differences regarding the original Hebrew/Aramaic/Greek because of different sources, differences about which aspects to emphasize. Maybe you might want to rethink the idea that there is going to be a simple answer to your question.

Sounds like a bunch of people trying to make changes to justify (hmmm, is that the wrong word, their own personal opinion.