I do the same. I always pray before I read it. And I compare different translations. The only version I found that was different from the others was the New World Translation.
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Christian: Should the Bible be read literally?
- Thread starter Green Gaia
- Start date
Pegg
Jehovah our God is One
do you know why?
Kathryn
It was on fire when I laid down on it.
Christine, when I read the New Testament that I have that is 8 translations side by side, I am always struck by the consistency - especially when bible slammers and fundamentalists always make such a huge stink about how "inconsistent" or in error different translations are.
And though I agree that praying before reading the bible is great - I also believe that much of the bible is pretty easy to simply read and understand. There are, however, layers of meaning within most passages, that can be revealed to us over time, enriching the experience.
What I'm saying is, it doesn't take prayer or hocus pocus magic in order to be able to simply pick up the bible, start reading, and get some wisdom and understanding from it. Non believers should simply START THERE rather than nitpicking and cherry picking random verses and passages in their attempts to distort the true message.
And though I agree that praying before reading the bible is great - I also believe that much of the bible is pretty easy to simply read and understand. There are, however, layers of meaning within most passages, that can be revealed to us over time, enriching the experience.
What I'm saying is, it doesn't take prayer or hocus pocus magic in order to be able to simply pick up the bible, start reading, and get some wisdom and understanding from it. Non believers should simply START THERE rather than nitpicking and cherry picking random verses and passages in their attempts to distort the true message.
I know what the Jehovah's Witnesses (the ones I studied with for months) told me when I asked. They told me that every other version was wrong (among other things). Even you (as a Jehovah's Witness) have to see something unusual about that. How could every other version be wrong when they are all gotten from the oldest texts they have?
Kathryn- I didn't say I expected non-believers to pray before they read it, and you're right, they and everyone else should read it straight through instead of finding individual verses out of context.
futurezambian
New Member
While the basic ideas and even most of the words are the same, the differences are people's opinion. In many of the newer versions the old texts are translated and then added to according to what the translator believed.
jtartar
Well-Known Member
Green Gaia,
In most parts of the Bible, it is meant to be read literally. The parts that are not are a problem to many people. The fact is the Bible uses hyperbole and many other parts of grammar. May times the Bible has things that seem to be meant for the time it was written, but was actually meant for a different time. Sometime the people speaking have been dead for centuries, so if you do not have a good understanding of the entire Bible you may be mistaken about the understanding of a particular verse.
There is a whole branch of Theology, called Tropology, that deals with the problem of when to read as literal and when to understand that what is said is an illustration, allegory, or parable. It takes much study to understand these things.
Daniel, for instance, is almost totally a book of prophecy.
It is also know that history seems to repeat itself. The fact is; many prophecies have two or more fulfillments, some long range and some short.
When reading the Bible it is very good to remember that every scripture is related to all other scripture, that all scripture is true, so if one scripture seems to contradict another you have the wrong understanding of one or the other scripture. Most scripture does not explain a subject completely, other scripture, complement, modify, or qualify a subject.
There are different ways that scripture is inspired by God, Verbal, where every word is inspired by God, and Plenary, where the subject is planted in the writers mind and he uses his own words to explain. When Plenary Inspiration is used more that one person can be talking about sometheng, and they seem to be disagreeing with one another. Here is where Conflation comes to bear. Conflation means to consider several scriptures and come to ONE clear understanding of the subject.
If you do not consider ALL scripture pertaining to a subject you may get the wrong understanding.
The ability to discern, to have Insight, to have WISDOM and Understanding comes, ultimately from The Almighty God, whose Proper name is Jehovah, and is summed up in Proverbs, chapter 2 verses 1-11.
Always put your trust in what the Bible SAYS, and not what someone SAYS IT SAYS, Pro 3:5-7.
jtartar
Well-Known Member
I know what the Jehovah's Witnesses (the ones I studied with for months) told me when I asked. They told me that every other version was wrong (among other things). Even you (as a Jehovah's Witness) have to see something unusual about that. How could every other version be wrong when they are all gotten from the oldest texts they have?
Kathryn- I didn't say I expected non-believers to pray before they read it, and you're right, they and everyone else should read it straight through instead of finding individual verses out of context.
ChristineES,
There are hundreds of translations of the Holy Scriptures. Almost all the newer translations are more accurate than the older, because there are many more scriptures that have been unearthed, that can be used to find even a little discrepancy. Almost all Bibles are very accurate, they just use other words which mean almost the same thing. God's message is the same, the only discrepancy is usually in names and numbers, which come from translation.
The God that inspired the Holy Scriptures, Jehovah God, has promised to keep His word free from adulteration, Ps 12:6,7, 1Pet 1:25, 2:2, John 17:17.
The best way to understand the Holy Scriptures is to study the Bible Topically. This means, pick a subject and then look up ALL the scriptures that pertain to that subject. The reason for so much misunderatanding is; people read one or two scriptures and thing they understand the subject. A very telling scripture is 1Cor 8:2, which says that if a person thinks he knows something, he does not know it just as he ought to know it. We all need to go to God for our understanding, Gen 40:8, Prov 2:1-11. The whole second chapter of 1Cor. shows that we will understand more the more we become SPIRITUAL persons, we will even understand the deep things of God, 1Cor 2:10.
A
angellous_evangellous
Guest
... because it's not a translation ...
sojourner
Annoyingly Progressive Since 2006
[Giant popping sound as bubble is burst...]:faint:
kingsherald
Member
God means what He says, so yes, the Bible should be read literally and one should understand what the Bible is actually saying from the plain reading of the text, rather than importing one's own presuppositions and traditions into the text. One should let the text speak, and not force on the text what is not there. The actual meaning of the text is the spiritual understanding of it. To do otherwise is to deviate into the imaginations and fancies of one's own mind, and men in different locations and from different generations may then have no common understanding of the Scriptures.
But the apostle Peter tells us that "no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation," Why not Peter? "but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit." It is the Word of God, and the Holy Spirit is needed for the understanding of it, since He is the Author of it.
There is a flaming sword guarding the way to the tree of life.
Pegg
Jehovah our God is One
you are not far from the truth ....the NWT is not a translation of a translation of a translation
It is a literal translation from the original languages unlike most other translations which are made from existing english tranlations. Because of that it reads slightly differently and it does not use english expressions for hebrew and greek words....it uses hebrew and greek expressions so the reader can understand exactly what was being said, and meant, by the writers.
sojourner
Annoyingly Progressive Since 2006
A translation is not extrapolated from an existing English translation. That would be a paraphrase, such as The Living Bible, Good News Bible, or The Message. (Actually, I feel that, in many cases, The Message provides a better way to get major points across, as it places the text firmly in the vernacular, but that's just my opinion). Translations are always extrapolated from the earliest texts available. That's why the NRSV is more "accurate" than the KJV. It uses a wider, more ancient set of texts in the translation.
Part of the work of translation is a balancing act. Since there are many words and colloquialisms for which there is no English equivalent, and because syntax is vastly different (not to mention the problem of the lack of vowels in Hebrew and the lack of spaces and punctuation in the early Greek texts), translators have to decide whether to transliterate a word of phrase, or whether to approximate the word or phrase, so that the contextual meaning is preserved. To exclusively refrain from using English expressions for Hebrew and Greek words is to render many texts very, very difficult (if not impossible) for the average lay person to read.
I suspect that the JW version is not a true transliteration. I'm not familiar with it, so I can't say whether it's a translation or a paraphrase, however, it has not been included in any authoritative scholarly lists of valid translations, that I have seen.