WEBVTT 00:00:00.720 --> 00:00:08.880 One common question we often hear is, "Has the Bible been preserved or has it been perverted over generations?" 00:00:09.240 --> 00:00:16.440 Sometimes people will use something that we refer to as "the telephone game." We are in the 21st century now and the Bible was finished at the end of the 1st 00:00:16.440 --> 00:00:16.680 century. 00:00:17.400 --> 00:00:18.360 So how do you know it is trustworthy? 00:00:18.860 --> 00:00:26.040 So the illustration will go: one guy in the 1st century talked to another guy in the 2nd century, to another guy in the 3rd century, all the way to the 21st 00:00:26.040 --> 00:00:26.290 century. 00:00:27.400 --> 00:00:29.260 How do you know that the Bible is true? 00:00:30.160 --> 00:00:37.260 And so many translations exist today in English—if you look at it, people would assume from the outside, it looks kind of silly that we really don't 00:00:37.260 --> 00:00:38.330 even know what the Bible says. 00:00:38.920 --> 00:00:45.500 I would say both of those assumptions are wrong and can lead you down the wrong path, if that's really what you believe. 00:00:45.580 --> 00:00:47.120 But they are great questions to ask. 00:00:48.240 --> 00:00:55.540 When it comes the preservation of Bible it's important for you to know that we have 25,000 manuscripts totaling over 1.8 million pages of the Old Testament dating 00:00:55.540 --> 00:00:57.020 older than Jesus. 00:00:57.280 --> 00:01:00.550 For the New Testament, within the first generation after it was complete. 00:01:01.580 --> 00:01:07.960 So when we talk about translating the Bible, we're not taking a 20th century translation to translate into the 21st century. 00:01:08.320 --> 00:01:11.900 We're not taking the 13th century translation to translate into the 21st century. 00:01:12.340 --> 00:01:15.820 We're going back to the early manuscripts and translating them into English today. 00:01:15.880 --> 00:01:16.630 We have that available. 00:01:16.860 --> 00:01:24.020 In fact, there are people called textual critics who dive in the textual criticism to look at the early manuscript, to translate for us 00:01:24.020 --> 00:01:25.160 into English today. 00:01:25.720 --> 00:01:32.300 The reason we have so many different translations in English isn't because we don't know what's in the 1st century text of the Bible. 00:01:33.480 --> 00:01:40.780 The reason we have so many translations into English is because a translator always has to answer the question: what type of translation would you like to conduct? 00:01:41.760 --> 00:01:46.740 There are word for word translations, there are thought for thought translations, and there are paraphrase translations. 00:01:47.500 --> 00:01:54.860 Anyone who's from another culture or another language knows you can't always translate exactly word for word into another language. 00:01:55.480 --> 00:02:02.660 Which is why if you're interested in knowing what the first early translations of the Bible say, I would encourage you to pick up an interlinear 00:02:02.660 --> 00:02:03.010 Bible. 00:02:03.420 --> 00:02:08.080 It will take the early language and it will put the English word right below it. 00:02:08.220 --> 00:02:12.930 What will see as you read across in English is that the sentence structure doesn't work in our language. 00:02:13.320 --> 00:02:19.120 So what a translator has to do as he translates from the original language in our language today, is decide how to do that. 00:02:19.980 --> 00:02:22.000 A lot of translations are word for word. 00:02:23.060 --> 00:02:29.300 Those will be the King James Bible, the New American Standard Bible, or the New King James Bible and are considered word for word. 00:02:29.380 --> 00:02:30.410 Some are thought for thought. 00:02:30.780 --> 00:02:34.420 The NIV translation and the New Living translation are thought for thought. 00:02:34.940 --> 00:02:39.420 They take some of the difficult work of understanding a word for word translation out for us. 00:02:40.240 --> 00:02:44.520 Meaning, if you read Hebrew idiom, in the Hebrew language, sometimes we won't understand it. 00:02:44.600 --> 00:02:49.940 But, a thought for thought translation can rephrase that in an English idea we can understand it better. 00:02:50.600 --> 00:02:52.620 There are even translations that bridge that gap. 00:02:52.720 --> 00:02:58.840 The English Standard Version, the ESV, is between a thought for thought translation and a word for word translation. 00:02:59.900 --> 00:03:02.920 Sometimes there is even the paraphrase translation. 00:03:02.920 --> 00:03:08.980 A paraphrase translation like The Message, where originally written for children. 00:03:09.100 --> 00:03:16.420 A father wanted his child understand the Bible better, and so he gave him a paraphrase 00:03:16.420 --> 00:03:19.800 translation of scripture, It began to teach his child about the Bible. 00:03:20.160 --> 00:03:22.460 I will confess, sometimes, I will read a paraphrase translation. 00:03:23.460 --> 00:03:25.180 It even works as a good commentary on Scripture. 00:03:26.100 --> 00:03:33.380 When I get to places in the Old Testament, especially genealogy, that I just wanna breeze through without getting 00:03:33.380 --> 00:03:36.310 to the nitty gritty of it, I'll read a paraphrase translation. 00:03:36.520 --> 00:03:43.820 But for the most part, I like to read a word for word translation, to best understand what the original Greek said, what the original Hebrew said, in the 00:03:43.820 --> 00:03:44.670 Bible. 00:03:45.180 --> 00:03:48.800 I would encourage you, if you're worried about translations: grab a few different ones. 00:03:49.160 --> 00:03:49.680 Compare them. 00:03:50.020 --> 00:03:51.510 You're going to see that they are not different. 00:03:52.320 --> 00:03:58.420 There are different translations styles but they say the same thing, because they are related to the original Greek and Hebrew text. 00:03:58.960 --> 00:04:00.820 I hope that helps you in your study. 00:04:01.240 --> 00:04:04.520 God's word has been preserved and that's important for us.