I was asked a question recently about how I can believe the Word to be infallible. About how I can believe the bible is Truth, despite all the "translations" it has gone through. For the person that asked that question, here I present your answer.
History of the Sharing of the Old Testament of the Bible
As oral history was the original form of passing on the stories included in the bible, it is known that when one thing is said to one person, and then repeated, facts often get changed and/ or rearranged. In order for this not to happen, daily practices, or doctrines, were deemed appropriate and necessary, so as to pass on this information to subsequent generations. This is how ALL history was related, not just the teaching of the bible.
At the onset of writing, these oral stories and traditions began to be put to "paper." This can be found and corroborated by the fact that the bible is not the only source for stories regarding the story of Creation and the "Great Flood." Though they may differ in some of their details, they are essentially the same. Putting these stories to "paper" was also helped along by more and more cohesive languages being spoken. More and more people spoke the same languages, or lived in close enough proximity that they were able to learn the other languages as well.
As more and more stories were put into written form, even those that could not "read" were given instruction by the reading of them. (Generally in meeting in the synagogue, but also by familial teaching, and daily practice.) This is how the Old Testament retained it's form. Also, archaeological evidence has been found in some circumstances that corroborates and supports details also found in the Old Testament of the Bible. Up to and including lists of kings mentioned in the bible.
As stated in the All About Truth website:
There are more than 14,000 existing Old Testament manuscripts and fragments copied throughout the Middle East, Mediterranean and European regions that agree dramatically with each other. In addition, these texts agree with the Septuagint version of the Old Testament, which was translated from Hebrew to Greek some time during the 3rd century BC. The Dead Sea Scrolls, discovered in Israel in the 1940's and 50's, also provide phenomenal evidence for the reliability of the ancient transmission of the Jewish Scriptures (Old Testament) before the arrival of Jesus Christ. The Hebrew scribes who copied the Jewish Scriptures dedicated their lives to preserving the accuracy of the holy books. These scribes went to phenomenal lengths to insure manuscript reliability. They were highly trained and meticulously observed, counting every letter, word and paragraph against master scrolls. A single error would require the immediate destruction of the entire text.
History of the New Testament
The New Testament, too began as oral tradition. It began during Jesus' ministry on Earth, and was continued by his disciples, and those that heard His words. Later, both Paul and Luke (Paul's physician and companion), though not present during Jesus' ministry, also wrote down what they had heard and knew to be true, by divine revelation. The New Testament contains 27 "books". Four are the Gospels, in which we learn about Jesus' life and ministry, the miracles He performed and his death and resurrection. One is the History of the early church. Twenty One are Epistles or Letters to the members of the Church, giving explanation, encouragement and exhortation, where necessary. And the final book is a book of Prophecy. All of these were written within about 60 years of Jesus' death and resurrection, with the latest being dated at about the year 96 AD (The book of Revelation.) Soon enough after the facts for them to be first and second hand accounts of events as they actually transpired.
Also from All About Truth website:
The manuscript evidence for the New Testament is also dramatic, with over 5,300 known copies and fragments in the original Greek, nearly 800 of which were copied before 1000 AD. Some manuscript texts date to the early second and third centuries, with the time between the original autographs and our earliest existing copies being a remarkably short 60 years. Interestingly, this manuscript evidence far surpasses the manuscript reliability of other ancient writings that we trust as authentic every day.
The "Translation"
Translations such as the King James Version are derived from existing copies of ancient manuscripts such as the Hebrew Masoretic Text (Old Testament) and the Greek Textus Receptus (New Testament), and are not translations of texts translated from other interpretations. The primary differences between today's Bible translations are merely related to how translators interpret a word or sentence from the original language of the text source (Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek).
It was not until the early 14Th century that the Bible was translated into English. Though there are some versions of the Bible in Latin that have words "written between the lines" as translation, these are not full translations. The most famous is the Lindisfarne Gospels located, even now, in the British Museum.
In the Middle English Period (ca. 1100-1550), John Wycliffe, John Purvey, and Nicholas of Hereford collaborated to produce the first complete Bible in English. There were two editions of the Wycliffe Bible. They were both translations of the Latin text. The first edition was a literal translation from Latin into English. There was a second edition completed in 1396. It circulated more widely. The focus was on the meaning of sentences, not mere words. I find it interesting that because the translation was on the meaning and not merely the words, these men suffered persecution unto death for heresy. Because they were so careful that the translation should be understandable to those that would read it. If anyone has studied a foreign language, they know that very seldom is a sentence said in say, Spanish the same way it is said in English. The same holds true for Latin or any other ancient language.
The onset of the Renaissance Period and a measurable recovery in classical learning and also, the fall of Constantinople, bringing many Greek scholars also aided in the English translations we know and read today. These circumstances aided men like William Tyndale (1484-1536) and Myles Coverdale. William Tyndale was a Greek scholar educated at Oxford with a desire to provide a readable Bible to the average person. He based his English New Testament on a Greek text established by Erasmus in 1516. He printed it in Europe in 1526 and revised it in 1534. Myles Coverdale produced the first complete English Bible of the sixteenth century in 1535. Subsequently in 1611, King James gave his blessing to a new translation, Authorized Version or King James Bible.
So clearly, the bible is not merely a translation of a translation, of a translation, and is reliable historically, and if you believe as I do, divinely as well. I hope this has answered your questions regarding the validity of His Holy Word. Blessings to you.
--Lord, today I thank You for Your Holy Instruction Manual. I thank You that You wanted so much for us to have this manual for life, so much so that You ensured it's infallibility. Even to the extent of using fallible people to write Your Word with divine help. I thank you for those with even a "tiny mustard seed" of faith, that they would doubt enough to want to know the Truth that You have provided to us. I thank You that a tiny mustard seed of faith in You is better than a mountain sized faith in things that are not of You. I pray all these things in Jesus' Holy Name, Amen.
