Why so many Bibles ?

[Queen Esther]

Why so many Bibles?
Why are there so many biblical versions or translations? Do you think the new versions are a help or an obstacle to understanding the Bible? Knowing their origins will help us evaluate them well.

Let's start seeing who wrote the Bible and when.

The Original Bible

Generally, the Bible is divided into two sections. The first consists of 39 books containing "the sacred formal declarations of God" (Romans 3:2). God inspired faithful men to write these books for a long period of time, about 1513 years since 1513 (before the common era) until shortly after 443 A.E.C. wrote primarily in Hebrew, so we call this section the Hebrew Scriptures, also known as "Old Testament".

The second section consists of 27 books that are also considered "the word of God" (1 Thessalonians 2:13). God inspired some faithful disciples of Jesus Christ to write these books for a much shorter period of time, About 41 years from around 41 E.C. (was common) until 98. They wrote mainly in Greek, so we call this section the Christian Greek Scriptures, also known as "New Testament".

These 66 inspired books form the full Bible, God's message for humanity. But why did you do more translations of the Bible? Let's see three of the main reasons.

So that people could read the Bible in their mother tongue.
To remove the errors of the copyists and retrieve the original text.
To update the language.
Let us look at how these factors were taken into account in two of the first translations.

The Greek Septuagint

About three hundred years before Jesus, some Jewish scholars began translating Hebrew scriptures into another language: the Greek. This translation became known as the Greek Septuagint. Why did they do it? To help the many Jews who at that time spoke Greek rather than Hebrew to stay close to their "Holy writings" (2 Timothy 3:15).

The Septuagint also helped millions of people who were not Jewish and spoke Greek to know the teachings of the Bible. In what way? Professor Wilbert Howard wrote: " since the middle of the first century, it became the Bible of the Christian church, and his missionaries were from synagogue in synagogue 'testing with the scriptures that Jesus was the Messiah' (Acts 17:3, 4 According to biblical scholar Frederick Bruce, that was one of the reasons why the Jews "lost interest in the septuagint".

As the disciples of Jesus received the books of Christian Greek Scriptures, they were added to the translation of the Hebrew Scriptures, and thus obtained the full bible that we have today.

Latin vulgate

About three hundred years after the Bible was completed, the religious scholar jerónimo completed a Latin translation, which in time was called the latin vulgate. Why was another latin translation needed if there were already several? Jerónimo wanted to correct "bad translations, misprints and unexplained additions or omissions", says the international standard Bible Encyclopedia.

Jerome corrected many of those mistakes. However, later, the church took the worst of decisions: it determined that the latin vulgate was the only authoritative translation of the Bible, and it was for centuries. Instead of helping ordinary people to understand the Bible, the vulgate did the opposite, because over time most people stopped understanding Latin.

New translations

Meanwhile, other translations of the Bible appeared, such as the famous peshitta Syriac, around the fifth century of our age. But it was not until the th century that new attempts were made so that ordinary people could read the scriptures in their mother tongue.

In England, at the end of the th century, John Wyclef began the process to release the bible from dead languages and produce an English translation that ordinary people could understand. Shortly afterwards, the printing methods of Johannes Gutenberg allowed biblical scholars to print and distribute new versions of the Bible in many of the languages spoken in Europe.

When there were many English translations, critics questioned the need for more than one version in the same language. However, in the th century, the English clergyman John Lewis wrote: " languages age and become incomprehensible, so it is necessary to revise old translations to get them to speak in the language used by people, and the current generation can Understand ".

Currently, the biblistas are in a better position than ever to review old translations. They have a greater understanding of the languages in which the Bible was written and have valuable ancient biblical manuscripts found in recent times. Thanks to that, they have been able to determine more precisely the original text.

So it is very useful to have new versions of the Bible, although with some you have to be cautious. *Now, when what motivates reviewers to make a new version of the Bible is a sincere love for God, we can benefit greatly from his work*