God Message on the Web
How do we know our Translations are Accurate? - Bob Waldron
1) Are All Translations Correct? There are translations, such as the New World Translation produced
by the Jehovah’s Witnesses, that are altered to support false teaching, and there are perhaps some
translations that reflect theological bias, but with any standard translation, we may be assured that we
have a reliable text of the scriptures. The question we seek to answer in this article is: how can we prove
the reliability of our translations?
2) From What Are Our Translations Made? The reliability of translations depends upon the copies
from which the translation was made and upon the competence of the translators. We need therefore to
look at the sources from which our translations come.
3) Tracing the Lineage of Our Translations. Let us take the American Standard Version as our
beginning point to go back and substantiate the accuracy of our copies of the scriptures. It was translated
in 1901. Actually, the New Testament was done in 1881 and newly revised in 1900, while the Old
Testament was done from 1881-1885 and newly edited in 1901. We still have copies of this version, so no
corruptions could have crept into the Bible in the last 100 plus years.
For most of the last five centuries the version that has been the most famous is the King James Version,
published in 1611. Later translations, such as the American Standard Version, the New American Standard
Version, the New International Version, the English Standard Version, and others have all made use of the
King James Version. In the case of most of these, the reason for a new translation was to update the
archaic language of the King James Version, and, even more importantly, to incorporate information gained
from the wealth of manuscripts found since 1611 into the translation. This Bible is, of course, still
widespread. So we can determine that no corruptions have crept in since the KJV.
The King James Version was based to a great extent on the translation of William Tyndale which had been
printed in 1525. The church condemned Tyndale for his translation, and fiercely sought to destroy all
copies of it. Out of 18,000 copies made between 1525 and 1528, fragments of two copies remain.
A good bit earlier than Tyndale’s translation was the one by John Wycliffe, which goes back even before
the time of printing (ca. 1450). It was copied out by hand, and made its appearance in 1382. Wycliffe’s
Bible was a translation from the Latin Vulgate into English, but it was a translation of the whole Bible.
There are now less than thirty manuscripts containing Wycliffe’s Bible of 1382. But, you see, we have
that Bible with which we can compare the Bibles we have over 600 years later, and no corruptions have
crept into the Bible during the more than six centuries since John Wycliffe’s translation.
One of the truly significant translations of the Bible was the Latin Vulgate. At the request of the Bishop of
Rome, Jerome began his work of translation, at the age of 60 and spent the next fourteen years doing this
colossal work, A. D. 390-404. It became the Bible of all western Christendom, and for a thousand years
was without a rival. Again, we have copies of this Bible. The oldest copy of it dates back to the seventh or
eighth century, over 200 years after its publication. Comparisons between it and the Bibles we now have
show that there has been no corruption of the text.
Thus we have an unbroken chain of overlapping translations, and we have very old copies of these
translations so that we can still compare our translations with them. With the Latin Vulgate we are only
300 years after the apostolic age.
Some of the oldest and best manuscripts we have date back to the year 350 A. D. or thereabouts. No
changes have been made in the text since then, we know, because we have actual copies of Bibles that old,
notably the Vaticanus and the Sinaiticus. These are copies of the whole Bible, Old and New Testaments.
But these are not the oldest of our Greek manuscripts. The oldest Greek manuscripts are written on
papyrus and are called papyri. The two most valuable collections of these are the Chester Beatty Papyri
and the Bodmer collection. Of the Chester Beatty collection Price comments, “We have here, therefore,
the oldest extensive text in existence, the Gospels and Acts being dated to within a century and a half of
the autographs” (Ancestry of the English Bible, p. 163).
The M. Martin Bodmer collection contains one of the oldest considerable portions of the Greek New
Testament, a papyrus codex of the Gospel of John, dating from around 200 A. D. Another of this
collection contains the gospels of Luke and John. It is dated between 175 and 225 A. D.
Also of significance is a small fragment in the John Rylands Library at Manchester, England. It preserves
a few verses from the gospel of John (18:31-33, 37-38). C. H. Roberts, Fellow of St. John’s College,
Oxford, dated the fragment on the basis of the style of writing in the first half of the second century.
The apostle John died sometime after 100 A.D., and we can take it for granted that there were no serious
corruptions in the text of the New Testament while the apostles were still living.
We have a wealth of manuscript information reaching back to within a hundred years of the apostles. The
only period of time when corruptions could have occurred is between the year 100 A.D. and the 200's.
None were made before 100, and we are able to determine that none were made after the 200's.
What about this period of over a hundred years between the end of the first century and the dates of these
various papyri? How do we know there were no changes made during this period? This is the chasm we
must bridge, and we can do it. According to Sir Frederick Kenyon, the earliest Syriac translation was
around 150 A. D. (p. 26). Thus 50 years after the death of the last apostle, the New Testament was
translated into the Syriac tongue (Eastern Aramaic). Also the evidence is not quite conclusive, but it is
pretty certain that there was also a Latin translation of a good portion of the New Testament (perhaps
around A. D. 150 - Kenyon, p. 26). Before the end of the second century quotations were frequently being
made from a Latin translation. Jerome actually lifted whole certain of the books of the Old Latin Version
into his Latin Vulgate.
Also, during every single year between the year 100 A.D. and the year 325 A.D., there were scores and
hundreds of faithful Christian men preaching, teaching, writing. There were New Testament quotations
almost without number that they had to copy. There were not copies enough of the scriptures to make it
possible for every reader or hearer to have a copy. So the man who taught would quote copiously and
extensively from the scriptures. Instead of just giving a citation to a passage, as we do, they would
carefully and painstakingly write out the whole quotation in full. From the writings of one man, Origen,
nearly three-fourths of the New Testament can be found. Probably, if all of Origen’s writings were extant,
the whole New Testament could be reproduced from the writings of that one man.
106 French Way
Athens, AL 35611
Used by Permission 07-25-2007
by the Jehovah’s Witnesses, that are altered to support false teaching, and there are perhaps some
translations that reflect theological bias, but with any standard translation, we may be assured that we
have a reliable text of the scriptures. The question we seek to answer in this article is: how can we prove
the reliability of our translations?
2) From What Are Our Translations Made? The reliability of translations depends upon the copies
from which the translation was made and upon the competence of the translators. We need therefore to
look at the sources from which our translations come.
3) Tracing the Lineage of Our Translations. Let us take the American Standard Version as our
beginning point to go back and substantiate the accuracy of our copies of the scriptures. It was translated
in 1901. Actually, the New Testament was done in 1881 and newly revised in 1900, while the Old
Testament was done from 1881-1885 and newly edited in 1901. We still have copies of this version, so no
corruptions could have crept into the Bible in the last 100 plus years.
For most of the last five centuries the version that has been the most famous is the King James Version,
published in 1611. Later translations, such as the American Standard Version, the New American Standard
Version, the New International Version, the English Standard Version, and others have all made use of the
King James Version. In the case of most of these, the reason for a new translation was to update the
archaic language of the King James Version, and, even more importantly, to incorporate information gained
from the wealth of manuscripts found since 1611 into the translation. This Bible is, of course, still
widespread. So we can determine that no corruptions have crept in since the KJV.
The King James Version was based to a great extent on the translation of William Tyndale which had been
printed in 1525. The church condemned Tyndale for his translation, and fiercely sought to destroy all
copies of it. Out of 18,000 copies made between 1525 and 1528, fragments of two copies remain.
A good bit earlier than Tyndale’s translation was the one by John Wycliffe, which goes back even before
the time of printing (ca. 1450). It was copied out by hand, and made its appearance in 1382. Wycliffe’s
Bible was a translation from the Latin Vulgate into English, but it was a translation of the whole Bible.
There are now less than thirty manuscripts containing Wycliffe’s Bible of 1382. But, you see, we have
that Bible with which we can compare the Bibles we have over 600 years later, and no corruptions have
crept into the Bible during the more than six centuries since John Wycliffe’s translation.
One of the truly significant translations of the Bible was the Latin Vulgate. At the request of the Bishop of
Rome, Jerome began his work of translation, at the age of 60 and spent the next fourteen years doing this
colossal work, A. D. 390-404. It became the Bible of all western Christendom, and for a thousand years
was without a rival. Again, we have copies of this Bible. The oldest copy of it dates back to the seventh or
eighth century, over 200 years after its publication. Comparisons between it and the Bibles we now have
show that there has been no corruption of the text.
Thus we have an unbroken chain of overlapping translations, and we have very old copies of these
translations so that we can still compare our translations with them. With the Latin Vulgate we are only
300 years after the apostolic age.
Some of the oldest and best manuscripts we have date back to the year 350 A. D. or thereabouts. No
changes have been made in the text since then, we know, because we have actual copies of Bibles that old,
notably the Vaticanus and the Sinaiticus. These are copies of the whole Bible, Old and New Testaments.
But these are not the oldest of our Greek manuscripts. The oldest Greek manuscripts are written on
papyrus and are called papyri. The two most valuable collections of these are the Chester Beatty Papyri
and the Bodmer collection. Of the Chester Beatty collection Price comments, “We have here, therefore,
the oldest extensive text in existence, the Gospels and Acts being dated to within a century and a half of
the autographs” (Ancestry of the English Bible, p. 163).
The M. Martin Bodmer collection contains one of the oldest considerable portions of the Greek New
Testament, a papyrus codex of the Gospel of John, dating from around 200 A. D. Another of this
collection contains the gospels of Luke and John. It is dated between 175 and 225 A. D.
Also of significance is a small fragment in the John Rylands Library at Manchester, England. It preserves
a few verses from the gospel of John (18:31-33, 37-38). C. H. Roberts, Fellow of St. John’s College,
Oxford, dated the fragment on the basis of the style of writing in the first half of the second century.
The apostle John died sometime after 100 A.D., and we can take it for granted that there were no serious
corruptions in the text of the New Testament while the apostles were still living.
We have a wealth of manuscript information reaching back to within a hundred years of the apostles. The
only period of time when corruptions could have occurred is between the year 100 A.D. and the 200's.
None were made before 100, and we are able to determine that none were made after the 200's.
What about this period of over a hundred years between the end of the first century and the dates of these
various papyri? How do we know there were no changes made during this period? This is the chasm we
must bridge, and we can do it. According to Sir Frederick Kenyon, the earliest Syriac translation was
around 150 A. D. (p. 26). Thus 50 years after the death of the last apostle, the New Testament was
translated into the Syriac tongue (Eastern Aramaic). Also the evidence is not quite conclusive, but it is
pretty certain that there was also a Latin translation of a good portion of the New Testament (perhaps
around A. D. 150 - Kenyon, p. 26). Before the end of the second century quotations were frequently being
made from a Latin translation. Jerome actually lifted whole certain of the books of the Old Latin Version
into his Latin Vulgate.
Also, during every single year between the year 100 A.D. and the year 325 A.D., there were scores and
hundreds of faithful Christian men preaching, teaching, writing. There were New Testament quotations
almost without number that they had to copy. There were not copies enough of the scriptures to make it
possible for every reader or hearer to have a copy. So the man who taught would quote copiously and
extensively from the scriptures. Instead of just giving a citation to a passage, as we do, they would
carefully and painstakingly write out the whole quotation in full. From the writings of one man, Origen,
nearly three-fourths of the New Testament can be found. Probably, if all of Origen’s writings were extant,
the whole New Testament could be reproduced from the writings of that one man.
106 French Way
Athens, AL 35611
Used by Permission 07-25-2007
| Home Bible Study Daily Audio Bible More Audio Bibles Chinese Audio Bibles True Translations Faith Vs Baptism Contact Us Faith (My Story) |
