Behind the Bible Business

Something that should be obvious to those that read closely is that we have many versions of God's message to us today. Many are formal in their writing. Many are simple and some are broken down to the layman's language. It's one message that is presented to us in many versions.

There are two questions we want to address and will break down each.

1. Why are there so many versions of the Bible?
2. Why do we continue to have new versions released and who is benefiting?

We will answer these questions in three ways. First by listing why new translations have been created that we know of. Second by listing reasons that are unknown to the public and finally what all of this means to us as believers. We are not going to say that every translation is false or that we shouldn't translate the Bible. We just believe that there are more issues than what we can blame on God.

As stated above we do believe that there are honest reasons for creating new translations. There are a couple reasons we know of that are used to create new translations.

Language changes. The English language has changed since 1600. It's not even close to what Americans speak today. Although there is beauty to the older English some words have lost meaning. Bewrayeth, gainsay, husbandman (farmer), thither, hitherto. When we change these words to what we know today we can better understand the message that God gave to man.

We also have found more copies of the scriptures that are older than what we have used in the past. With discoveries such as the Dead Sea Scrolls and Codex Sinaiticus.¹ Translators want to use these to get closer to what the original authors may have written. This is also a valid reason for translating.

We now will discuss why we believe there are dishonest reasons for translations being made. There are many companies and versions that we do not believe fall under this category but some do.

When translating the Bible the translators have theology that they believe in. Whether it be Catholic, Protestant, Evangelical or Liberal. All of which believe the Bible is God's word. There has been found evidence that translators have altered certain verses to fit their theological beliefs. Changing the severity of hell or homosexuality. Some changing words that relate to the Trinity and others that have left out the supernatural aspect to miracles.

Another reason for different translations is how they are translated. Some use Formal Equivalence (word for word translation) they try to match every word in Greek/Hebrew to English. Dynamic Equivalence (thought for thought) they focus on what the author is trying to communicate and may not use the same word in English.² Some are not translations but paraphrases they just tell the story in everyday language. One example would be The Message. All of these versions are based on the same thing but how far away from that they are varies.

As we stated before we don't think that every translation is false or made with bad intentions. But we do believe that some companies are in it for the money.

All of these new translations are copyrighted. Which means whoever publishes them owns that translation. They can sell it, give permission for others to use it and keep others from using it. Biblica owns the NIV and Zondervan sells it. Crossway owns the ESV.³ There are many good Christians that work for these companies. But it's still a business.

These companies create many different Bibles for their customers. Student Bible, women's Bible, leaders Bible, recovery Bible etc. These are all the same Bible with different covers and notes. Who was God speaking to when he first gave man his word?

There are also some things we can point out about certain translations. We will not go into depth on this because it can play into our argument but we feel it's important to know. 1 John 5:7 in the KJV says “and the Father, and the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.” This verse tells us that there is a Trinity. There is no other verse that states this in the Bible. There is evidence that shows this wasn't written by the apostle. It wasn't found in the oldest copies of the Greek. For over 1000 years no Greek manuscript had this verse in it. It was added from the Latin translation.⁴ When Erasmus was putting his Greek New Testament together he didn't include this verse because he couldn't find it in any Greek manuscripts. Once word got out about this he was able to find a Greek manuscript that had this verse in it. Which many believe was fabricated for him. He then added this verse to his third edition which led to it being included in the Textus Receptus. Which is what the King James used when they translated the Bible in 1611.⁵

The King James Version of the Bible is public domain. Which means anyone can publish it. No one can stop you from printing the KJV. As mentioned above the new translations are copyrighted which gives that company control of the Bible for a period of time.⁶ Copyright makes money. They sell it, allow others to quote it and make off of study Bibles, devotionals and now apps.

There are verses in the Bible that say we should not add to God's word and we should not subtract from it.⁷ This is an old practice that many ignore. Just as God is unchanging so is his word. It is pure and truthful. Translations are done by man and can have some type of bias. Whether it's religious or monetary.

This does not mean that all translations have done wrong by what God wanted. Some translations were made to help people understand the Bible. Others to include new information that was discovered. But some were created to sell to the public. Which brings us to our final point.

If you want to better understand God's word use translations that are accurate. Use multiple translations and know what they may be biased towards. Always use the word of God and the Holy Spirit. Not only will it help you but it should be necessary.

Bibles are not a brand name.

God's word should not be put on a shelf like any other product.