Why so many bibles?

Purposely, and thankfully, I limited the cites of I Corinthians 13: 11 - 13 to those above. Presently, I know of 156, unique, English language bible versions, with more coming every day. Today, there seems to be a translation to accommodate each group of worshiping dispositions. For the Christian, so many versions of the Bible can be confusing - especially when at church service and the minister reads from his or her pulpit bible, and then asks the congregation to follow along with their distinctly different pew and personal bible versions. Quite confusing, indeed.

The new Christian most likely will rely on the version used by the person who led them to Christ. The interested Christian very well will investigate the versions which are popular by word-of-mouth or with a visit to a book store. If the person is a 'loner convert', that is they came to Christ without the help of another person, very likely they will gravitate towards a bible that looks and reads comfortably to them - aesthetic appeal factors in here.

The life-long devout Christian, who is serious about studying the Bible for scholarship, very likely will settle on the New Revised Standard Version or the New American Bible. Perhaps, also, the New International Version. Those considering, or are curious, about Christianity will be intrigued with the King James (because of its historic acceptance), or the Amplified Bible or The Living Bible - which are paraphrased and added- commentary/explanation bibles. Simple reading, modern phrasing.

The truly serious and devout Christian, and Christian disciple, who seeks scholarship and a deeper understanding - perhaps a clearer, truer understanding of the Scriptures - that person will strive to learn New Testament Greek and, as a bonus, Latin. For this person, the insuppressible urge to get back as close as possible to the 'source' is not to be denied. Greek is as good as it gets for most of us, unless we have a grasp of, and access to, the Aramaic parchments. Further back, and supposedly direct, impromptu notes from Christ's disciples themselves, is the yet-to-be-found manuscript known as the 'Q' document (so named by German Scripture scholars -  quelle, or source.) Scholars are positive 'Q' existed, but have yet to discover a copy of the writing that laid the foundation for the Gospels of Mark, Matthew and Luke.

There are those who feel that the ‘Q’ document is, in reality, Mark’s original transcription. A source for this opinion is from Early Church Father, Papias, bishop of Hierapolis who learned from one John the Elder, aka John the Theologian, wrote in his Expositions of the Sayings of the Lord: "And the elder used to say this: ‘Mark, having become Peter’s interpreter, wrote down accurately everything he remembered, though not in order, of the things either said or done by Christ. For he neither heard the Lord nor followed him, but afterward, as I said, followed Peter, who adapted his teachings as needed but had no intention of giving an ordered account of the Lord’s sayings. Consequently Mark did nothing wrong in writing down some things as he remembered them, for he had made it his one concern not to omit anything that he heard or to make any
false statement in them.’"

Why so many versions of the Bible?

One answer for the earlier Bible versions is that as new manuscript parchments were discovered throughout Europe, the Middle East and Egypt, Scriptural scholars, translators and scribes would weigh the merits of their previous translations. This would account for some of the inconsistencies of translation. Modern scholars have, pretty much, access to the known parchments and up to the present, most manuscripts have been discovered and made available to academically-qualified translators and Scriptural authorities. Consensus has it that the New Revised Standard Version is the best English language translation available today.

In the first decades of the nascent Christian church there was no 'Bible' as it is known today. The early Christians in Galatia, Greece, and other Roman territories, including Egypt, utilized the Greek Septuagint interpretation of the Hebrew Scriptures as their main literature source when referring to the Old Testament. As the story goes, some time in the 3rd or 2nd Century BC, the Hebrew Torah was interpreted by 70 Jewish scholars at the request of Egypt's only Greek king, Ptolemy II Philadelphus. The 'Septuagint' was included in the Great Library at Alexandria. Ptolemy II was one of three generals who divided the empire of Alexander the Great after his death into three geographic Middle East areas, and then assumed rulership over those areas.

Early letters and pastoral writings began to surface in the early Christian church, those most notably from Paul, Peter, James and John and these too were written in the lingua franca of the Middle East, Koine Greek (Greek Vulgate); the result of Alexander's conquest of the known world.  Consensus of biblical scholars has it that Mark's gospel was the first written of the four, approximately 40 - 60 AD. It is also consensus that the Gospels of Matthew and Luke ( 70 - 100 AD) were drawn from and aided by Mark's writing. The aforementioned Papias, a disciple of John the Elder, aka John the Theologian (writer of the Fourth Gospel) said, "So Matthew composed the oracles in the Hebrew language and each person
interpreted them as best he could."

 Mark, Matthew, Luke are called the 'Synoptic' gospels; a word based on the Greek 'syn' meaning together, or as we would say, similar. It should be noted that Mark's first published gospel did not include the Resurrection of Jesus, but that Matthew and Luke's versions did expound on the event. Mark, based on Peter's recollection, clearly eluded to the fact that something mysteriously miraculous had occurred, but he left readers to conjecture on their own what had taken place; which I find it strange that Mark would not have originally included the Resurrection. Then the thought occurred that perhaps some Early Church Fathers' work was at hand in this and, perhaps, it was they who thought Christ's Resurrection too hard to believe. Whatever the case, wisdom from the Holy Spirit prevailed and the Resurrection was later included in the text when the Early Church Fathers canonized the New Testament writings. The Apostle John's gospel, a writing that centered on God's love for his creatures, is dissimilar to the Synoptic gospels in its presentation and overall theme in portraying the Christ. John's gospel emphasized the deity of Jesus, the Word, and reached back to the absolute beginning of creation and his part in it. It was John who provided the evidence that the Old Testament is not only about God’s covenant with Israel, but more important, is about the Word of God from beginning to end. The Bible is the legacy of Christ the Word.

The major challenge for the Early Church Fathers was in deciding which writings to include into a single codex; that is a bound volume for reading and study. The challenge was presented when there surfaced numerous Christian writings from authors and sources that presented questionable views regarding the nature of Jesus Christ - some even splitting hairs over the physical and spiritual nature of Christ. To say there was turmoil deciding on the texts for inclusion would be an understatement, and many of the texts were dismissed. Be that said, to all who study the history of the Bible as we've come to know and love it realize that it definitely was God's will that this most important of books should come to light.

For interested students and Christian disciples, an excellent bound presentation of the formal 66 books of the Bible, along with those books optionally accepted by various churches, the Apocrypha, may be had in modern presentation by reading The New Oxford Annotated Bible - New Revised Standard Version with the Apocrypha.

In the event of newly discovered ancient Christian manuscripts, or source writings, the new material(s) is reexamined by modern-day biblical scholars. The task is undertaken by a group of learned people working independently, and then in committee, where they come to agreement on the English (or other languages) renditions. If there's a vexing word, or passage, that challenges previously accepted  interpretation, the committee will vote on a narrowed down choice of meanings. The meaning garnering the majority of votes is what stands... until that time when another source comes upon the scene to challenge it. [For an academic presentation of the original documentary evidence of New Testament scripture sources, you are invited to go here to view what has been so far discovered.]

I Corinthians 13: 11 - 13, focuses on an issue that sorely troubles the Christian who is either new to the Bible or is an on-going reader of moderation. The issue is: Why can't the Scriptural authorities unanimously agree on the translation and meaning of the original text? Why isn't there just one Bible? Those are fair questions, I think.

By citing I Corinthians 13: 11-13 I want to draw the reader’s attention to the words ‘love’ and ‘charity’. Charity, the word, is not to be found in the Greek New Testament. The first Biblical cite where the swapping of the profound Jesus-disciple love, or agape with charity is indicative of shifts of interpretation and public pronouncement beginning with the popular 1611 King James Bible. Before the 1611 King James version, the translation had already appeared in Roman text as evidenced by John Calvin’s translation from Church Latin into French and then into English. Calvin’s commentary on I & II Corinthians first appeared in 1546. I am led, therefore, to suspect that it was Roman church influence that mandated the change from agape love to ‘charity’, and Calvin having access to the Latin, went with it. I wish he had used the Greek. Being one of the chief editors for the 1560 Geneva Bible - which did use the word ‘love’ - Calvin had access, also, to the Greek manuscript, but for some reason chose the Latin to include with his Commentaries.

The 1611 King James Version was translated from a consortium of texts: The Textus Receptus (Received Text) - reproduced Greek texts, the Masoretic Hebrew, the Greek Septuagint (Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament)  and the Latin Vulgate - a 5th Century interpretation by Jerome, a Doctor of the Roman Catholic Church.

In today's Christian community, it's the modern bible interpretations that have gained widespread acceptance within the Evangelical and Pentecostal demographic. The 1611 King James Version, along with newer editions of it, is the favorite within the political and spiritually conservative Christian movements, i.e., Fundamentalists.

The Living Bible and the Amplified Bible are written in a way that appeals to those people who have a limited education and are hampered by lesser comprehension skills. In a sense, these two versions have dumbed down the Bible, and are responsible for encouraging other popular versions coming into print. The problem for the Christian is that with many of the newer 'pop culture' bibles, they are removing themselves further and further from the scholarly translations of the Greek. Both The Living Bible and the Amplified Bible were written by men who, it seems, one day awoke with the overwhelming desire to re-write the King James Bible into modern day vernacular and lingo that is more appealing to the material world.

The choice of a bible for the Christian is entirely their decision. The choice of Scripture for the Christian disciple should be a work that is well-grounded in scholarship; one that has stood the test of time of both church and public acceptance and scrutiny. The main Protestant denominations have gravitated towards the King James Bible, The New Revised Standard and the New International Version. I encourage the Christian disciple to concentrate their studies in all three versions. And, if you are up to it, why not see how the other fellow gets along and read the Jerusalem Bible and the New American Bible of the Roman Catholic Church? Throughout our Christian lives we tend to have opinions and criticisms. Be you Protestant, or be you Roman Catholic, no criticism should be allowed to surface until you've read and studied the other fellow's bible.

And, while you're at it, Mr. and Ms. Christian disciple, pick up a copy of the Qur'an (Koran) and go through it. You will have a much better understanding of the religious belief system that motivates over 1 billion Muslims. That way, when it comes time for you to comment on Islam, you'll actually know what you are talking about.

If you desire to learn New Testament Greek, there are plenty of tutorials and teaching texts available. Your Greek version of the New Testament of first choice is the Nestle-Aland Greek-English New Testament and, second, The New International Version - Interlinear Greek-English New Testament.  An excellent collection of bibles for sale at the lowest prices can be found at www.christianbook.com.

Press on, Christian disciple, master the subject and be recognized as one who loves God not only with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength, but also with all your mind. Take encouragement from Early Church Father, Origen's First Principles 1 - 4: "Suppose someone gradually became acquainted with an art or science, such as geometry or medicine, until he reached perfection. Having trained himself in its principles and practice for a long time, he attained complete mastery over the subject. Such a person could never go to sleep without such mastery only to wake up
ignorant of his subject.

"So then, as long as that mathematician or physician continues to study his art and to practice its principles, the knowledge of his profession remains with him. But if he stops practicing it and neglects his diligent habits, a few things will gradually escape him. By and by he will forget more and more until everything is forgotten and completely erased from memory. Of course, it is possible that when he first began to fall away and to give in to negligence, he could be aroused and return quickly to his senses.

"He could recover recent losses and regain the knowledge that had only been slightly erased from his mind. Now let us apply this example to those who have devoted themselves to the knowledge and wisdom of God and whose learning and diligence incomparably surpass all other training. For those who are perfect will see the glory of the Lord face to face as He reveals His mysteries to them."

Disciples: Continually read and learn the deep meanings contained within the Scriptures. Practice makes perfect.
Stay alert, stay spiritually awake and intellectually sharp!