Matthew 28:19-20 “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

There are some commands in the Scripture that immediately capture our attention and immediately beg a further question. This “Great Commission” passage is one such text.

The question is simply this, “If the gospel is to be taken into the entire world, how can people who speak other languages understand it?” The obvious answer is that the Word of God must be translated into the words of every language on earth.

After the conquest of the known world by Alexander the Great, Greek became the language of education and business and then of everyone under the influence of Greece. This is why the Hebrew Old Testament was translated into Koine (common) Greek around 200 BC and why the writes of the New Testament wrote in that then pervasive language.

Over the years, the Bible was translated into Latin and then just prior to the Reformation it was translated into English, German, French, and other European languages. This is no coincidence; putting the Word of God into the language of ordinary people was one of the necessary causes that brought about the Reformation as people could finally read what God had said for themselves!

The same reality exists today. One of the greatest and noblest works on earth is translating the Word of God into the languages of the peoples who do not yet have it!

Our focus for this coming Lord’s day will be on the process of translating the scriptures from Hebrew, Greek, and Latin into English and how we can have confidence that our English Bibles accurately reflect the words of the Original Manuscripts in the original languages.

Of course, not every translation is a good one. Many are flawed and some are intentional perversions designed to support a previously held point of view rather than being designed to be faithful to the text.

In fact, the men who wrote the New Testament recognized this. For example, Mark occasionally translates Greek words into Aramaic for the benefit of his readers. A clear example of this is Mark 3:14-19

¹⁴ “And he appointed twelve (whom he also named apostles) so that they might be with him and he might send them out to preach. ¹⁵ and have authority to cast out demons. ¹⁶ He appointed the twelve: Simon (to whom he gave the name Peter); ¹⁷ James the son of Zebedee and John the brother of James (to whom he gave the name Boanerges, that is, Sons of Thunder); ¹⁸ Andrew, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and Matthew, and Thomas, and James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus, and Simon the Cananaean, ¹⁹ and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.”

In verse 17, Mark defines the word “Boanerges” by explaining what the word would mean to an Aramaic reader.

We are both commissioned and commanded to take the Word of God to all the world, so we must get the Word of God into the languages of the world – and we must do so accurately.

In our modern world, the process of translating the Bible has come to be done in four different ways. These differing ways have differing goals; so, which process one uses is dependent on what they want to accomplish.

There is a great problem here… To some people, the process of translating the Bible becomes an emotional rather than a theological or technical issue. People get wrapped up in their “favorite” translation – even to the point of determining that their favorite is the “only” legitimate translation. May God grant that we avoid that error.

The right goal for a translation is to accurately transfer the words of the original document into the receptor (new) language. I want you to understand at least the basics of these four different methods and what they produce:

First: The Process of “Complete” or “Word-for-Word” Equivalence.

By this process, the very words of the original languages are (as much as is possible) translated into the receptor language.

Every effort is made to literally match word-for-word from the original languages to the receptor language.

The goal of a “Complete” or “Word-for-Word” Equivalence Translation is to simply re-create the original documents in the receptor language.!

There are five Major English Translations widely available today that have been translated by this process: King James; New King James; American Standard; New American Standard; and the English Standard Version.

This is, by far, the best way to produce an accurate translation of a document!

Second: The Process of “Dynamic” or “Thought for Thought” Equivalence.

This is a process whereby the “thoughts” conveyed in the original language are translated into the receptor language.

While this process can occasionally be useful with more difficult phrases, the translations produced by this method are far less accurate to the Original Documents than the “Complete” or “Word-for-Word” Translations.

Popular “Dynamic Equivalence” Translations available today would include the NIV of 1984, and the Holman Christian Standard Bible.

Third: The Process of “Paraphrase”

Whereas the previous two processes of translation are the work of a large group of Biblical and Linguistic Scholars working together, a Paraphrase is usually the work of a single scholar who wants to translate the original words in a way that – in his personal opinion – best reflects the way it would be stated in his or her contemporary culture.

Such a rendering is simply “one person’s opinion” and as such is a very poor way to translate the Bible!!

The three most popular English language paraphrases in use today are “The Living Bible” “The New Living Bible” by Ken Taylor, and “The Message” by Eugene Peterson.

Eugene Peterson is a godly man and the late Ken Taylor was as well; but, the process of paraphrasing itself cannot produce a reliable translation.

Fourth: The Process of “Perversion”

The last category I want you to think about today is an intentional perversion. That is where a person, or a group of people, set out to change the wording of their so-called “Bible” to fit their teachings.

Practically all of the Cults do this and the “New World Translation” of the Jehovah Witnesses is one of the best known of these perversions.

I would also caution you that the latest versions of the NIV: the TNIV and the NIV2011 deliberately change the gender of several words to push their egalitarian agenda. This is a perfect illustration of what it means to pervert the Scriptures!

So, here is the main thing with which I want you to understand about the process of translation:

God has decreed that HIS Word be taken to and shared with all of the peoples of the World.

In order to accomplish the “Great Commission” HIS Word must be translated into the languages of the people groups of the World.

There is a process available whereby HIS Word can be accurately translated into the languages of the people groups of the world and that process is called, “Complete” or “Word-for-Word” Equivalence.

By the Grace of God, we have those FIVE TRANSLATIONS available today in English that have been translated by this process and provide us with an absolutely reliable rendering of the Original Manuscripts in our language!

Those FIVE TRANSLATIONS are: The King James; The New King James; The American Standard; The New American Standard; and, The English Standard Versions.

Let me encourage you to get one or more of these Translations and Read Them “Through and Through” and “Over and Over!”

I hope to see you Sunday morning with a smile on your face, a Bible in your hand, and your family and friends by your side!