Mind of a Christian

"My translation is better than your translation"

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EDIT: IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT
The Bible itself has no mistakes. It is the divine word of God, and I by no means am saying that the Bible has mistakes.
However, this chapter will talk about how translations have mistakes. These mistakes can be small, or they can be big. Many of these mistakes don't affect the message that the Bible is saying, but a small amount do (e.g. a Jehovah's Witness Bible translation).

Having a sense of understanding of the translation you're using is a simple enough precaution to ensure that you're receiving the word of God properly.
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In one of my bible study sessions, a ten year old student pointed in his bible and told me, "my bible says something different. It's saying you instead of thee." He asked me this after another student was reading Genesis 3 in the King James Version (KJV), so the topic of bible translations came to mind.

There are thousands of different versions of the bible covering hundreds of languages. What's important to note is that none of them is 100% accurate in the intended word use and structure. Many come close, which is why we are able to trust in using the KJV, NIV, NASB, TLV, and so on, but there are mistakes, wrong translations, or simply variations that make these different Bible translations "imperfect".

Probably the closest exception to this rule is the original text of the Torah, because there are strict laws and rituals involved when writing a Torah scroll. I've heard from my youth leader that if a scribe made a mistake in writing a Torah scroll, the scroll had to be burned. This practice is important to them. Now, whether or not this absolute emphasis on accuracy translates over to the rest of the Hebrew bible, the Tanakh, I do not know yet.

But anyways, we're probably concerned with English translations. Some people will passionately defend the King James as God-given scripture, others will do the same for their own personal translations, and others may equally as passionately denounce some translations. As I've learned, here's the best way to approach any version:

Know the history of the version you're using. When was your version written? Who commissioned it? I'll be using the KJV as an example for this chapter. The Church of England had William Tyndale killed because he made his translation with the word ekklesia as congregation (Gruber). The Church specifically wanted the word ekklesia to be translated as Church, instead of it's true and intended meaning, congregation, and changed Tyndale's version to fit their needs (Gruber). That's not the brightest origin story of the KJV.

Understand the shortcomings of the version you're using. Since the KJV purposely mistranslates ekklesia to church, for example, I know that any mentioning of the word church was translated from a Hebrew/Greek word meaning assembly, congregation, or gathering. Because I identified this, I am capable of reading through the KJV just fine, because in my mind, I'll replace the word church with congregation.

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Edit:

Let's say I'm unsure of the meaning behind a set of verses and I want to make sure that I'm understanding it fine. One way to make sure that what I'm reading is properly conveying God's message is to cross-reference those verses across different translations. I do this a lot with the TLV, NIV, and NASB, and it's easy to do in this day and age because Bible apps have features that let you do just that.

This conveniently gives me the opportunity to say this: the Bible app is free :)

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But Ethan, why is this important?

By understanding how your bible version mistranslates things, you can play an active part in correcting yourself when reading through the verses.

Now, I'm not saying that the KJV is bad (actually, I probably would have said that a few weeks ago, but I've learned otherwise). I'm saying that there's a way to work around these shortcomings. Being aware and correcting yourself will bring you closer to the intended meaning of the scriptures, regardless of which version or translation you use (to a realistic extent).

So, do you have a KJV? Maybe a New International Version, New American Standard Bible, or Tree of Life Version? Just figure out where each version is coming from, and correct yourself in their mistakes, and you'll be just fine.

Sources:

Gruber, Daniel. Copernicus and the Jews. Elijah Publishing, 2005.