From a very good friend, on the subject of modern English renderings of G-d's (Christ's) Holy Word:
"We had a good discussion the other day on Bible translations. Some sites and some people are very dogmatic on KJV only. I post and teach KJV most of the time for my own reasons but I read NKJ or NIV. You have to remember I have a lot of Bible software on my computer to check proper translations. I found this article interesting.
DO THE MODERN TRANSLATIONS TAKE AWAY
FROM THE "DEITY" OF JESUS?
Be very careful when making the argument or listening to someone make the argument, "well, the NIV (or NKJV or NAS, etc.) LEFT OUT SOME WORDS in their translation that TAKE AWAY THE DEITY OF JESUS!
People making this argument are often referring to several places in the KJV New Testament rendered, "The Lord Jesus Christ said " Some of the newer translations simply say, "Jesus said." Upon first reading you might say, "hey, look, the new translation DID leave a word out. It DOES take away the words CHRIST and LORD. This is unacceptable, they HAVE taken away the DEITY of Jesus!" But wait, what is really happening here?
Whenever one sets out to make a modern, scholarly translation of the Scriptures, one must first decide what the STANDARD will be. The NIV translators for example did not use the KJV as their standard but rather chose to examine actual early Greek and Hebrew copies of the scriptures. They attempted to get as near to the originals as possible by examining THOUSANDS of copies and to also compare them with later translations of the Greek and Hebrew. They determined that they would be as true as possible to what was ACTUALLY found in the consensus of reliable, early documents.
The people with the KJV ONLY MOVEMENT that use words about the modern translations like; added, deleted, took away, changed, etc., are assuming that the KJV is THE STANDARD for any translation after it. This simply is not so, nor would it be wise when so much more translation evidence exists NOW than when the KJV was translated!
In the passages illustrated above, the words Christ and Lord were NOT FOUND in the early documents! The KJV translators ADDED these words when they made THEIR translations. Certainly the KJV translators were not "wrong" in referring to Jesus as CHRIST and LORD, but nether were the NIV translators "wrong" in translating EXACTLY what was in the early texts (obviously good enough for the HOLY SPIRIT in the original rendering of the scriptures!)The translators of both versions had a judgment call to make. Neither one of them were wrong. The NIV translators did not "leave out" ANYTHING! The KJV translators simply added words that were not in the original manuscripts.
It is interesting that when the KJV ONLY folks make this argument, they fail to mention, either because of convenience or lack of knowledge, that there are SEVERAL instances in the NIV and other modern translations that the deity of JESUS is strongly AFFIRMED (as it was in the original manuscripts!) but this affirmation is NOT FOUND IN THE KJV! A little fairness should be called for in this matter of "taking away the deity of JESUS." I think it is highly unfair and a bit silly to suggest that ANY serious, scholarly, Christian translation of scripture has made a purposeful attempt to take away the deity of Jesus!" By: Pastor Joe Reeves
"We had a good discussion the other day on Bible translations. Some sites and some people are very dogmatic on KJV only. I post and teach KJV most of the time for my own reasons but I read NKJ or NIV. You have to remember I have a lot of Bible software on my computer to check proper translations. I found this article interesting.
DO THE MODERN TRANSLATIONS TAKE AWAY
FROM THE "DEITY" OF JESUS?
Be very careful when making the argument or listening to someone make the argument, "well, the NIV (or NKJV or NAS, etc.) LEFT OUT SOME WORDS in their translation that TAKE AWAY THE DEITY OF JESUS!
People making this argument are often referring to several places in the KJV New Testament rendered, "The Lord Jesus Christ said " Some of the newer translations simply say, "Jesus said." Upon first reading you might say, "hey, look, the new translation DID leave a word out. It DOES take away the words CHRIST and LORD. This is unacceptable, they HAVE taken away the DEITY of Jesus!" But wait, what is really happening here?
Whenever one sets out to make a modern, scholarly translation of the Scriptures, one must first decide what the STANDARD will be. The NIV translators for example did not use the KJV as their standard but rather chose to examine actual early Greek and Hebrew copies of the scriptures. They attempted to get as near to the originals as possible by examining THOUSANDS of copies and to also compare them with later translations of the Greek and Hebrew. They determined that they would be as true as possible to what was ACTUALLY found in the consensus of reliable, early documents.
The people with the KJV ONLY MOVEMENT that use words about the modern translations like; added, deleted, took away, changed, etc., are assuming that the KJV is THE STANDARD for any translation after it. This simply is not so, nor would it be wise when so much more translation evidence exists NOW than when the KJV was translated!
In the passages illustrated above, the words Christ and Lord were NOT FOUND in the early documents! The KJV translators ADDED these words when they made THEIR translations. Certainly the KJV translators were not "wrong" in referring to Jesus as CHRIST and LORD, but nether were the NIV translators "wrong" in translating EXACTLY what was in the early texts (obviously good enough for the HOLY SPIRIT in the original rendering of the scriptures!)The translators of both versions had a judgment call to make. Neither one of them were wrong. The NIV translators did not "leave out" ANYTHING! The KJV translators simply added words that were not in the original manuscripts.
It is interesting that when the KJV ONLY folks make this argument, they fail to mention, either because of convenience or lack of knowledge, that there are SEVERAL instances in the NIV and other modern translations that the deity of JESUS is strongly AFFIRMED (as it was in the original manuscripts!) but this affirmation is NOT FOUND IN THE KJV! A little fairness should be called for in this matter of "taking away the deity of JESUS." I think it is highly unfair and a bit silly to suggest that ANY serious, scholarly, Christian translation of scripture has made a purposeful attempt to take away the deity of Jesus!" By: Pastor Joe Reeves
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