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It comes
as a big surprise to many people that there are more than 50 different
versions of the Bible in English alone. This makes them think
"No doubt, there are so many denominations where each teaches different
things". This perception however is not right. It's true that there
are many denominations, but there are not many versions of Bible.
There is only one Bible.
Lets us first understand what exactly we mean when we say "version".
To put it in proper terms "version" means "translation".
Originally, The Old Testament was written in Hebrew and The New Testament
in Greek. If every man could read both these languages, there was
absolutely no need of the English version. Since we all cant read
Greek, we have to depend on men who are good in English as well as
in Greek.
The scholars read the original Greek Bible and come up with their
English counterpart and this process is called "translation".
As we can see that a foreign diplomat gives his speech with the help
of a translator. Similarly, usage of words to describe a particular
verse from The Bible may vary from translator to translator but the
message remains the same. Translation is a trustworthy science of
communicating between different languages.
Remember that it was God Himself who created all the language barriers
in Genesis 11 at the Tower of Babel. God is satisfied that His inspired
word can be maintained although translated into over 200 languages.
The Greek New Testament translation was a is a very meticulous science.
The New American Standard Bible, for example, was translated over
10 years, by over 45 scholars and was first published in 1962 AD.
Similar painstaking work was applied to the production of the New
International (1978 AD), and King James (1611AD) and the New King
James (1982AD). These translations and others like them are
outputs of many years hard work from scholars from many denominations.
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