Christian Publishing House Blog
Apologetic Defense of the faith, the Bible, and Christianity
Are you curious about why the Roman Catholic Church has additional books in their Bible that are considered spurious or noncanonical? Delve into the history and controversies surrounding these texts and discover the reasons for their inclusion or exclusion from the canon.
The correct translation of any text is important because it helps ensure that the reader understands the intended meaning of the text. In the case of John 1:1, this verse is particularly important because it presents a key belief of Christianity: that Jesus is the divine Word of God. Therefore, it is important that the translation of this verse accurately conveys this belief. Additionally, John 1:1 is often used in discussions and debates about the nature of Jesus and the relationship between Jesus and God. Therefore, it is important that the translation of this verse be accurate and precise in order to avoid misunderstandings or misrepresentations of this belief.
The King James Bible (KJV) and the King James Bible (KJB), and the Authorized Version, is an English translation of the Christian Bible for the Church of England, commissioned in 1604 and published in 1611 by the sponsorship of King James VI and I. The 80 books of the King James Version include 39 books of the Old Testament, an intertestamental section containing 14 books of what Protestants consider the Apocrypha, and 27 books of the New Testament. Noted for its “majesty of style,” the King James Version has been described as one of the most important books in English culture and a driving force in the shaping of the English-speaking world.
These New Testament verses not included in modern English translations are verses of the New Testament that exist in older English translations (primarily the King James Version) but do not appear or have been relegated to footnotes in later versions, such as the Updated American Standard Version (UASV). Scholars have generally regarded these verses as later additions to the original text.
The 1611 KJV translators said in the 1611 Preface that they revised the 16th century English Bible trying to make advancements on the English Bible and that when new manuscripts were discovered, and a better understanding of the Hebrew and Greek happened, they expected that there would be an improved English Bible.
From the first verse of the Bible, we gain two significant certainties. First, the “heavens and the earth” is a reference in the Bible to the material universe, which had a beginning. Second, the “heavens and the earth” were created by God.
In the earliest days of the Christian church, after an apostolic letter was sent to a congregation or an individual, or after a gospel was written to meet the needs of a particular reading public, copies would be made in order to extend its influence and to enable others to profit from it as well. It was inevitable that such handwritten copies would contain a greater or lesser number of differences in wording from the original.
Some Bible scholars have created two problems: (1) churchgoers think English is lazy and cannot convey the original language acceptably into the receptor language. (2) It also gives fuel to Bible critics.
The Hebrew text was like the Greek NT; it had accumulated copyist errors, a few intentional, a good number accidental, between the Malachi days of 440 BCE and Rabbi Judah ha-Nasi (135 to 217 CE). The same thing happened to the Greek New Testament from about 400 CE to 1550 CE, a period of copyist errors.
There have been various debates concerning the proper family of biblical manuscripts and translation techniques that should be used to translate the Bible into other languages. There have been debates over the King James Version and modern Bible translations. There have been debates over literal translation philosophy and interpretative translation philosophy. There have been debates over the masculine gender used in the Bible, saying that it is patriarchal. Who is correct and which Bible translation is the best?