Hi,<\/p>\n
I was wondering, should we be so confident to trust the translation of the Bible, seeing that language changes and the Greek spoken back then is most likely not the current Greek. Also with English and any other language, Language changes through time, words and meanings sometimes change and get obscured. How can we be sure that the language was interpreted correctly to our language?<\/p>\n\t
The source languages of the Bible are Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek. While these languages still exist today, the translations of the Bible are not based on the modern versions of the language. The biblical languages have been studied for centuries and there are hundreds of dictionaries for the languages at that time period. I have multi-volume dictionaries that not only cite the biblical usage of the words but also research other writings of the same time period to document the meaning of words during that time period.<\/p>\n
There are a few words, especially in the Hebrew language, that scholars are not fully certain of the definition, but these are mostly words dealing with plants and animals. Exactly which animal is being referred to is not always certain.<\/p>\n
The knowledge of the meaning of words in a certain time period is no different than our knowledge of English during the days of Shakespeare. English has changed a good bit since the 1600s, but it doesn’t mean we don’t know what Shakespeare meant when he wrote his plays.<\/p>\n
Yes, modern English shifts. That is why there are newer translations around. We know what words mean today in our language. We know what words meant during the days the Bible was written. It then becomes a matter of finding the best modern word or phrase that captures the ancient words or phrases.<\/p>\n
See\u00a0It’s Greek to Me<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Greek, How Should a Knowledge of It be Viewed?<\/a> for more details.<\/p>\n\t Thank you.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Question: Hi, I was wondering, should we be so confident to trust the translation of the Bible, seeing that language changes and the Greek spoken back then is most likely not the current Greek. Also with English and any other language, Language changes through time, words and meanings sometimes change and get obscured. How can…<\/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,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[20],"tags":[219,311],"class_list":["post-37328","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-bible","tag-translations"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":49007,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-the-bible-left-to-each-individuals-interpretation\/","url_meta":{"origin":37328,"position":0},"title":"Is the Bible left to each individual’s interpretation?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 29, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: A few questions I have: Is the Bible left to each individual's own interpretation? How can we trust translations? Isn't that just someone else's interpretation(s)? How can I prove the Bible is correct if someone doesn't even believe it in the first place? Thank you. Answer: \"But know this\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"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":37328,"position":1},"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 "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":19744,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-are-translations-in-greek-instead-of-hebrew-the-language-jesus-spoke-in\/","url_meta":{"origin":37328,"position":2},"title":"Why are translations in Greek instead of Hebrew, the language Jesus spoke in?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 1, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Why are all of your translations in Greek instead of Hebrew, which would be the language Jesus spoke in? Answer: The following is specific toward Matthew, which is usually the one book people like to claim was originally written in Hebrew:\u00a0Was Matthew originally written in Hebrew or Aramaic? The\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","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":37328,"position":3},"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 "Answer"","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":37328,"position":4},"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 "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":22075,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/doesnt-more-than-one-translation-says-the-word-was-a-god\/","url_meta":{"origin":37328,"position":5},"title":"Doesn’t more than one translation says “‘the Word was a god?”","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 22, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Regarding your statement on in \"Jesus is God\": \"To get what Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses wish to claim, that Jesus was just a god in the sense that some men are \u201cgods\u201d in that they are God\u2019s representatives you would need \u201cand the Word was God\u201d (\u03ba\u03b1\u1f76 \u03b8\u03b5\u03cc\u03c2 ?\u03bd \u1f41 \u03bb\u03cc\u03b3\u03bf\u03c2)\u00a0in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","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\/37328","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=37328"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37328\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Response:<\/h2>\n