Shifting Perspectives - Biblical Conversations about Topics that Matter - Episode 14

welcome to Shifting Perspectives

biblical conversations about topics that

matter let's get to

it hey everybody welcome back to another

episode and uh we want to piggyback off

of last week i know i know last week we

said that we were going to go to a

different subject but you know the more

Scott and I talked about uh the Bible

the more we just want to help everybody

understand the importance of this and

that that creates a lot of confusion

because if you go to search for a Bible

all the translations are out there and

man if you read them they you know we

talk about God's holy word and

scriptures and if you look at them

there's all these Bibles and some read

you know very difficult like I'm I'm an

old King James study so you know it's

got all the ths and th and therefors and

and all the other some of them read like

a novel you know so how can one version

of the Bible read so hard and the other

version other versions of the Bible read

so easy and they say things different

but they're similar but they're a little

different talk to us about that that

type of dynamic as I'm as I'm trying to

pick out a new Bible well and so um if

you're trying to pick out a Bible that

is uh you know that is going to work for

you the the first thing that I always

say especially if you're not a Bible

reader um is pick the Bible that you

will read now that may seem like a pat

answer and we're going to talk about

what the different Bibles and how

they're translated works but ultimately

at the end of the day if you buy one and

you won't read it because it's not

readable to you your journey doesn't

start it gets sat on the shelf um so

pick a Bible that is that is readable to

you and there's a a lot of translations

that um in terms of using modern English

that have have great readability to them

um and so with that in mind when when

we're creating a new Bible translation

now you you're you're a fan of the of

the old King James version and I get

that i grew up on that end so half the

time I'm quoting verses in the King

James version but I I teach from and

study from the New King James Version

which both of those along with several

others are what we call a literal

translation or we we we go towards a

word for word translation from the

original manuscripts uh to a modern

translation with the exact wording

translation as close as we can get you

know words that we use today don't

necessarily have the same meaning that

they were that the words that were used

in the original Greek meant and so so

there's some shift just in the fact that

um our dictionary has changed if you if

you take an old um you know an old

Webster's dictionary from the 1950s and

you open one today you'll see that word

word usages have they've just changed

over time and that's that's part of the

reason why we keep coming out with new

translations is because we're trying to

have translations that match the

language that's being used today because

words meanings kind of change a little

bit but so that grouping of what we call

word for word or literal translations of

the Bible the King James version the New

King James Version the New American

Standard 1995 version um there is a 2020

version I'm not a big fan of um but the

1995 version uh the English Standard

version is is a word for word and and

there's a I mean there's a whole list of

them you can actually um you know I

don't normally say Google is your friend

but but you can Google Google word for

word Bible translations and it'll give

you a list um and then the the second

category of Bible translations and this

is the one that usually

um becomes the most readable this the

one that that people will pick up the

most um because it feels more like a

Bible um is what we call the thought for

thought or meaning for meaning that

translation doesn't take each word and

try to make each word translated it

takes the thought and the meaning behind

a particular passage and will translate

it that way and in doing so convey the

meaning of the text without it

necessarily being the same words that

are used in the text um probably the

most famous one everybody's heard of the

the NIV the NIV is probably the most

well-known thought forthought

uh Bible translation um the the probably

the ne next most common one is what we

call the New Living Translation and that

can be a little bit confusing cuz you've

probably heard of living Bible right

right well living Bible is actually in a

different category and the New Living

Translation is not in that category it's

in this category of of thought

forthought um if I was to recommend one

of the two from from a readability

standpoint to just sit down and read I

would I would point you to the New

Living Translation rather than the uh

NIV um just in terms of personal

preference and some of the study that

I've done I don't I don't necessarily

like the way the NIV has taken some of

that meaning for meaning um and left

some of the literal

intentionality um but I'm kind of

scholarly that way i you know I'm I'm a

nerd well but that's but I think that's

that's where you're you're looking at is

you're saying as I'm on my spiritual

journey you know that's the reason I use

the old King James is you know it gets

back closer to that manuscript and it

gets back closer than that and as I'm

you know you know as I've grown over the

last 25 30 years of studying the Bible

you know the more I study the more I

love the King James because it gets back

to those threads but if if you this is

your first time reading the Bible

through you know I go back to whenever I

started reading you know which was 25 I

was 25 years old whenever I started

doing that well I didn't appreciate the

King James for what it was because I had

trouble getting past the thighs and the

ths and therefore um so you got to you

got to read it was it was work to read

it and now now I'm now I'm used to it's

like anything else i'm used to it it's

almost a second language to me now

so as you're talking about these you

know the thought forthought is you know

you got to realize you're going to give

up some of the accuracy of the word for

word as you go to the thought for

thought you have to realize you're not

reading the the exact vernacular and

that you may graduate to that later

which is a time and that's what we call

that spiritual journey that spiritual

growth yeah and and we did a whole bunch

on spiritual maturity and spiritual

growth and and that's why ultimately

would say pick the Bible that you're

going to read um because you that's the

start of the journey right it doesn't

have to be the one that you stick with

for the rest of your life um I have in

my personal library I I've got a number

of different Bible translations um and

part of when I'm studying so like as an

example whenever I'm pre preparing to

preach a message um and I have a

particular passage of scripture that I'm

going to going to preach from uh my

process to to doing that is is I start

with the Bible that I'm going to teach

from which is my New King James Version

um not this one this is my personal

devotional Bible but um uh and I will

read the text in in what I'm going to

teach it from then I will go and I will

look at the text in the original

languages so if I'm in the Old Testament

I'll be Hebrew um and if I'm in the New

Testament I I will look at the Greek and

then I will go and I will do a text

comparison of how did all the other

Bible translators over the course of the

years um and I have my favorites i mean

I mean my go-tos essentially is the the

New King James the King James the New

American Standard 1995 version and um

then for a modern translation I throw

the New Living Translation in there um

although I'm kind of beginning to like

this what this net translation ne is the

short for it it's the new English

translation as a new word for word that

is that is that is really pretty good in

a word you know word for word but um you

graduate

from where I fit right now to looking at

how some of the other translations are

and finding something maybe that's a

little bit more readable but it's also a

little bit more literal and so you can

go from you know a New Living

Translation that is more thought

forought and meaning for meaning and go

to a a New King James Version or a NET

version or you know a New American

Standard Bible that's more literal and

you'll have you'll have a foundational

understanding of the meaning that now

you can look at at the literality of the

text yeah and so that's kind of the

those those are the two main categories

is is literal word for word or thought

forthought meaning for meaning and then

there's a there's a third category and I

mentioned it with the Living Bible um

and that's the that's the version we

call a paraphrase uh a paraphrase is

essentially it's and it's not really a

translation it's more uh it's more

somebody who sits down and reads their

Bible and puts it in their own language

their own thought of what that is now

there's a really good one out there that

I like a lot and it was written by a

fellow by the name of Eugene Peterson

and it's called the Message Bible um as

a paraphrase um understanding that it's

not you know it's not even meaning for

meaning and it's not even thought

forthought but from a devotional

standpoint I like reading where was his

where was his thoughts at when he was

reading the scripture and so um that's

what a paraphrase is i I would strongly

encourage a person not to buy a

paraphrase and use that as their

entry-level Bible um while I find some

value in them in my own personal study I

wouldn't find value in

them for someone to take what was

someone else's opinion because that's

the one of the other things about our

translations that most people maybe

don't realize is you know that a person

didn't sit down and say "Okay well

here's my Greek and here's my

interpretation of it." Our Bible

translations have groups of people who

are Bible scholars and pastors and uh

original language experts i'm not an

original language expert by any measure

have you ever listened to your messages

on Sunday morning well yeah but that

didn't make me not like these guys i

mean these guys are are are way more

than you know and so um it's not just

one guy that's sitting down and doing

that and it's not even just five guys it

is it is a group of guys that are that

are on the translation committees that

are wrestling with the original text

what's the closest wording that we have

in our current modern language that fits

that original test and is that going to

take away from what that text is saying

by that by us using that word mhm um and

so they're they're very very accurate um

and even in uh in most instances even in

the the thought for thought and meaning

for meaning are very very accurate and

at the end of the day here's what I say

about all of those

things this

Bible the Bible is a supernatural book

yes if you pick up a

Bible God will use the Bible that you

have in your hand yes and he will move

you to the place that he has for you

when you yield yourself to it and that

probably is going to be at some point in

time you're going to be saying um hey

you know I think I'd like to move to a

different Bible and I'd like to get a

little bit more information and then

that brings a whole new conversation

that I think we're going to talk about

next time um and that's how do we study

the Bible how do we how do we get there

i've got my Bible i've got set down now

what do I do with it exactly and then

that opens a whole another can of worms

of what about the translation that's the

right translation but it's a you know

it's a John MacArthur Bible or it's a

David Jeremiah Bible or it's an Adrien

Rogers Bible or it's a you know because

we have these study Bibles now that are

full of some contextual information in

there and what do I do with with that

and and all the concepts of how do I

study the word of God so that I can

begin to grow and so that's what we'll

talk about next time and that's going to

be an interesting discussion i mean

that's one of the things that people

struggle with a lot is is they want to

study the Bible they've got a Bible they

want to study the Bible but man they

open it up and they just randomly okay

I'm going to let God lead me and they

open up to a scripture and they read it

and you know I know that I'm I'm talking

about my own experience of the first

times I opened up it was like man

sometimes I just didn't understand it

yeah and now we're going to talk about

how to get to the understanding of it

and that it's not uh you know a magical

experience it is a work it is an effort

it is an input that you have to do but

then God rewards that input with

knowledge and wisdom and a desire to

learn more absolutely absolutely so we

will see you next time as we talk about

how do we study the Bible we'll see you

next week have a good week