The main Bible translation
used in this website is a modified version of the King James Bible.
The reason the King James is used is because it is no longer
copyrighted. It can be used without violating copyright laws.
Furthermore many Greek and Hebrew language helps are keyed to the
King James. Where verses from copyrighted Bibles are used according
to fair use laws, they are noted accordingly.
The are two levels of modifications to
the King James that are used. The first is a simple change to the
antiquated thee's, thou's and whosoever's, ect. ect. The grammar\
sentence structure on this level is not addressed and may might be
found to be obnoxious to some. However the aim is not to make a new
translation of the Bible, but with as little labor as possible,
remove the archaic language barrier that some find difficult to
overcome. As of December 2013 this site will be making use of
the American King James Bible for this first level of modification.
Thanks to the great work of its author, Michael Peter (Stone)
Engelrite who put it in the public domain. He has done exactly
what has been done on this website so far, but to the whole King
James Bible. His graciously putting it into the public domain will
save hundreds of hours of labor on this website in the future making
those simple modifications. For the most part when the AKJV is being
used it will be noted.
The second level of modification is to verses deemed critical to what that particular article is
teaching. In these modifications the Greek and Hebrew of the
"Received or Majority Text" and other readily available texts on the
internet are carefully referred too.
In this site when deemed necessary
for safety and accuracies sake Greek and Hebrew lexicons and dictionaries are
carefully compared to the various translations with the goal of
creating a literal translation of that verse understandable to the
modern reader. When the word "understandable" is used, it is not
meant to convey the idea of interpreting the verse using
translation. Rather, it means using a literal translation of
the words without trying to interpret the text. In reading Greek and
Hebrew lexicons of the Majority Text for decades along with their
literal translations of the individual words. Texts that ignore
sentence structure and interpretations of meanings. In all those
years my memory fails me to find any wording in any translation that
fits the context of the chapters and the context of the Bible
overall better than a literal word for word translation without
applying any meanings or interpretations to the translation. This is
not to say that all the translations do not have lots of verses in
them that are right on the money literally, even though they apply
proper grammar and modern wording to the foreign texts. It is to say
though that some degree of bias is contained in all popular
translations of the Bible which is manifested in a number of ways.
The main way this bias is
manifested is that the translators attempt to interpret the meaning
of verses for the readers in their translation. This method of
translation is a grave error on the part of Bible translators. All
popular Bibles are translated this way to some extent or another.
(The King James Bible does not totally escape this scrutiny.) It confuses
me to think that men cannot trust God to give his people the correct
meaning of a verse without their "help." However this being the
case, it behooves (archaic language) those who want to be careful
with theirs and others salvation to avail themselves of easy to use
language helps.
This website
does not note when a careful examination of the original text
is made and corrective measures taken. Obviously, this does not mean
that corrections to translational inaccuracies are error free. Also
the author cannot vogue for the translational accuracy of every
verse used in this website. The bulk of the chapters and verses not
deemed critical to the subject have not been closely examined.
Furthermore "critical" to the subject at hand is subjective.
This is not attempting to convey a lack of confidence to examine and correct translational errors. It is trying to
convey that we must all work out our own salvation with fear and
trembling, (Philippians 2:12.) Ultimately, something as important as
the translation of Gods Word into your own language is not something
to be left completely in the hands of others if it can be helped.
When something is not setting right in the spirit of a believer
about what might possibly be a translational issue. If possible the translation
should be verified to ones own satisfaction. This has
become easier and easier to do with the advent of the internet.
The website
will usually note when the author
purposely paraphrases a text, which is an interpretation rather than
a translation. It also notes as stated above when other translations
are used which in effect could amount to an occasional unnoted
paraphrase. Usually but not always though an alternate translation
is used when the wording generally lines up well with the original
language.
Feel free to
email if you find what you think is a translational error in
something that is critical to the subject being written about. One
can never be to careful about such things. That is the very reason
for the examination of translational issues in the first place. When
one believes they have an understanding about a subject in the Word
of God. They should always check the original language to insure
they are not being led astray by something that has been
mistranslated. Anyone who is a long term student of the Word of God
has been burned this way at some time or another. Conversely one
must also be as careful to not "translate" something in a way that
fits what they believe rather than what the text actually says. The
use of "scholars" to do this is particularly troubling. One can find
a "scholar" to prove practically any viewpoint they would like to
bolster their argument. Sometime in the future Wordservice.org will
have a series of articles on "Dangerous Translational Errors in the
Bible." These articles will address some of the well known and some
of the almost totally unknown translational errors that have
contributed to the confusion that permeates the Christian world.
There is also
something quite new and very interesting as far as the Hebrew text
is concerned. The Dead Sea Scrolls that have only been being
released to the public and public research in the last few decades
seem to contain a treasure trove of data regarding the Hebrew texts,
the Paleo Hebrew texts and the Greek LXX as opposed to the Masoretic
Hebrew text our Bibles such as the King James rely on exclusively.
None of this info has been incorporated into translational or other
issues in this website but it will probably and greatly alter our
understanding of the Hebrew in the centuries to come. I would
strongly suggest anyone who considers themselves a serious student
of the Bible in the sense of teaching it to others carefully read
these two articles by following the hyperlinks supplied. Though
these two articles extremely interesting and most enlightening that
does not mean Wordservice.org endorses everything that author
presents. (Especially on other subjects of his website.)
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