{"id":16777,"date":"2008-11-06T20:36:00","date_gmt":"2008-11-07T02:36:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/?p=16777"},"modified":"2019-12-13T20:44:51","modified_gmt":"2019-12-14T02:44:51","slug":"why-are-there-so-many-translations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-are-there-so-many-translations\/","title":{"rendered":"Why are there so many translations?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\t<h2>Question:<\/h2>\n<p>Why are there the KJV, NKJV, ASB, and NASB versions of God&#8217;s Word? Other than the language changing, I don&#8217;t get the idea for the different translations.<\/p>\n\t<h2>Answer:<\/h2>\n<p>The primary reason given for doing a new translation is to update the language to match modern terminology. While language shifts, it doesn&#8217;t shift so dramatically as to justify the multitude of translations which have come to the market in the last few decades.<\/p>\n<p>There have been improvements to the base text from which translations are made, but most of these changes are minor and again don&#8217;t explain the recent flood of translations.<\/p>\n<p>Another reason is that the cost of doing a new translation is that the cost of creating a new translation is getting dramatically less. Computers make it easy to ensure a consistent translation and the Internet makes collaboration trivial. The typical translation committee doesn&#8217;t even start from scratch. Instead, they take an older translation and then work through the text to update it and correct it. As a result people who feel that some of the older translations where less than perfect will try their hand at a newer translation.<\/p>\n<p>But one of the big drivers of the translations is the publishing houses. The older texts are in the public domain and so they are constantly looking for unique products they can offer. One method they use is their study helps, which can be copyrighted. But even better from their point of view is to offer a whole new translation. Zondervan had a huge success with its New International Version and the other publishers are hoping to repeat it with their own translations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Question: Why are there the KJV, NKJV, ASB, and NASB versions of God&#8217;s Word? Other than the language changing, I don&#8217;t get the idea for the different translations. Answer: The primary reason given for doing a new translation is to update the language to match modern terminology. While language shifts, it doesn&#8217;t shift so dramatically&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[20],"tags":[311],"class_list":["post-16777","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-translations"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1303,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/which-bible-translations-are-the-best\/","url_meta":{"origin":16777,"position":0},"title":"Which Bible translations are the best?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 6, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Which Bible translations have the highest accuracy? Answer: At one time, Bible translations were an arduous task that took years, if not decades, to complete. Now translations are appearing in rapid succession, and it is becoming difficult to keep up with the many that are available. I'll restrict my\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":68247,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/are-translations-authorized\/","url_meta":{"origin":16777,"position":1},"title":"Are Translations Authorized?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 4, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"by Doy Moyer Perhaps this seems like an odd question, but it is good to think about this. Since most people are not going to learn Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek, the only way they are going to hear God's word at all will be through translations. But how do we\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Article&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":49264,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/does-the-language-in-which-the-bible-is-read-change-the-way-we-interpret-certain-passages\/","url_meta":{"origin":16777,"position":2},"title":"Does the language in which the Bible is read change the way we interpret certain passages?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 8, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have a question about the Bible that I'd like to ask. Does the language in which the Bible is read change the way we interpret certain passages? Answer: Translating a text from one language to another ideally expresses the same ideas in both languages. However, there are always\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":19269,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/which-one-translation-would-you-recommend\/","url_meta":{"origin":16777,"position":3},"title":"Which one translation would you recommend?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 24, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have been searching for articles online regarding which English version of the Bible would be best (most accurate) for me to purchase and use to study.\u00a0 I happened across your web page: Which Bible translations are the best?\u00a0But I don't think one version was actually picked out above\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8065,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-do-you-think-about-the-new-living-translation\/","url_meta":{"origin":16777,"position":4},"title":"What do you think about the New Living Translation and the Complete Jewish Bible?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 5, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I am of need of some help with Bible translations. What I would like is a list of good translation Bibles and a list of bad Bible translations. I don't like the NIV and I always felt in the spirit that it indeed was not trustworthy. However, I have\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":13201,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-do-you-say-the-new-world-translation-is-not-a-reliable-translation\/","url_meta":{"origin":16777,"position":5},"title":"Why do you say the New World Translation is not a reliable translation?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 3, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: On your web site, it reads that The New World Translation (NWT) \"...is not a reliable translation\". Prof. Jason BeDuhn in his book\u00a0Truth in Translation Accuracy and Bias in English Translations of the New Testament (this is not the only book) would strongly disagree with your conclusion that the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16777","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16777"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16777\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16777"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16777"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16777"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}