Weakness in Translation - How Bad Is It?

[A_Son_of_God]

There are some who view translation as being a weakness; that a point can get lost in translation, and therefore we can never really know the true meaning of something. Is this fair to say?

Of course it can be. It is fair to say when there is one sentence, or one paragraph, or an ill-defined explanation of things. But this is often stated about God's Word - The Bible. So, does having a different translation actually weaken the meaning of what is written?

Yes.

Let's consider it under the term of a so-called "contradiction".

Contradiction
Although the answer is yes, there are other points to consider here. Other factors. See, most people don't realise that The Bible is NOT a book, as such. It is a library of books. It is a series of 66 books and letters inspired by God, and written by his secretaries. Because it is a collection of books, it is often easy to determine a meaning, even if there appears to be some contradiction, by considering such things as context.

For instance, a common misunderstanding is that Elijah was taken up to heaven in a windstorm (2Kings 2:1-18). Why is this a problem? Because Jesus states that nobody has been to heaven, except for himself (John 3:10-15).

So which is it???

The issue is in the simplicity of calling things a contradiction. Also, specifying what "heaven" is. If you look carefully at 2Kings, you'll see that it nowhere says he was taken away from the earth. Yes, men asked to go looking for him, and they didn't find him. But Elisha never said he was taken to the heavens in the sense that he was no longer on earth. In fact, if you want to study it deeply, you'll find that Elijah is found writing a letter later on, from another location. So, Jesus was right when he said that nobody had been to heaven in the sense of being a spirit creature and being a true human...except himself.

Badly Translated Passages
There is another area that shows how a bad translation can hide a true meaning. I'll highlight one here.
Philippians 2:5-6 in the King James Version reads:

"Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:"

So, if we read that scripture in our modern English, we'd see a problem. Here it states that Jesus thought it not robbery to be equal to God. But the problem happens before then, as it says, "Let this mind be in you..." first. So, are we to conclude that we should be fine with considering we can be equal to God?

This is the results of a bad translation. But the thing it, we can always find what was meant by considering the context first. Look at this:
All we need to do is read the next verses - 7-12.

Verse seven says, "But", firstly. It shows that instead, Jesus took a slaves form. One of no account or value.

Then it shows that he became obedient. Obedient to who? Surely, he wasn't having issues with being obedient to himself, was he? No, but his Father.

Then it shows God giving Jesus a name above every other name. So if Jesus was God, or EQUAL to God, did God now make Jesus' name higher than that of God or not? Regardless of how one wants to look at this situation, you can see there is no equality of Jesus with God. Because IF...
IF...Jesus was already God, he would now be viewed as HIGHER than God. Yet, that is out of harmony with the Scriptures.

And as much as "every knee should bow" in heaven and on earth, it states that "...Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."

The reason for the mistranslation is because the expression "thought it not" is not used in modern English any longer. So this can show how a bad translation can attempt to hide a clear meaning, but the point here is that the surrounding scriptures, as well as other ones in the Bible can be used to match what the Bible calls, "the pattern of healthful words". Just as a forensic scientist can analyse things, words can be analysed too, and their meanings determined from context and supporting verses.

Conclusion
I hope this article can help some of you to see that the weakness of translation does not remove the clarity of the Bible's message, if a little research is done. The rewards are great - one alone being knowing true from false as to what is written, but more so the hope of a great future for you and me. The Bible was written for translation, as the hope is offered to "every...language" (Revelation 5:9, 14:6)

 

[Smew]

There are some who view translation as being a weakness; that a point can get lost in translation, and therefore we can never really know the true meaning of something. Is this fair to say?

Yes. One big problem with the gospels is that the oral traditions about Jesus were written in Hebrew and Greek, neither of these being the Eastern Aramaic which Norther Jews spoke. So we're dealing with not one but at least two language changes.
Example:- See how Christianity changed people's names. Here is and example:-
John . {1:42} And he brought him to Jesus. And when Jesus beheld him, he said, Thou art Simon the son of Jona: thou shalt be called Cephas, which is by interpretation, A stone.
But in Christianity Simon BarJona became 'Peter'.

For instance, a common misunderstanding is that Elijah was taken up to heaven in a windstorm (2Kings 2:1-18). Why is this a problem? Because Jesus states that nobody has been to heaven, except for himself (John 3:10-15).2 Kings {2:1} And it came to pass, when the LORD would take up Elijah into heaven by a whirlwind, that Elijah went with Elisha from Gilgal.

The above is your error rather than any translator's............ See how Elijah was REALLY taken up in to heaven:-

2 Kings {2:11} And it came to pass, as they still went on, and talked, that, behold, [there appeared] a chariot of fire, and horses of fire, and parted them both asunder; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven. {2:12} And Elisha saw [it,] and he cried, My father, my father, the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof.

And so, I ask good readers: 'How did Elijah get taken in to Heaven? Answer ..a chariot of fire in a whirlwind.

Badly Translated Passages
There is another area that shows how a bad translation can hide a true meaning. I'll highlight one here.
Philippians 2:5-6 in the King James Version reads:

You can only show how different translators have shown the above.

Then it shows God giving Jesus a name above every other name. So if Jesus was God, or EQUAL to God, did God now make Jesus' name higher than that of God or not?

This is very interesting.
For example, in the very first verse of G-Mark we can see:-
Mark {1:1} The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God;

Some translations warn us that the last four words (the Son of God; ) were not present in most of the most ancient copies of G-Mark that we have. And so (later on) a keen Christian decided to pop those in.

Jesus was a Northern Jewish man, and he referred to himself as 'This son of man', which is rather like an Englishman referring to himself as 'This man' (This man is going to ther pub...etc etc....