Quote:
Originally Posted by chetwesley
Here is what I don't understand about believing that the whole bible is the word of God: The bible has been translated, and then translated from translations, and then words altered for more contemporary meaning.
When you translate something (either to another language or to a more updated form of the same language), you loose subtle bits of the meaning, even in some cases changing the meaning of whole sentences, this can be especially so in texts which use analogy and poetic language.
Even the very simple term "God" was considered a name that humans were not worthy of saying, inconceivable by the mind of humans, in the original Hebrew. This creates a very different view of God than the way the word is used and thought of now. The common word for God in the Hebrew old testament is YVHV (which translates roughly to "I will be" or "I am thet I am"). Hebrew is a very complex language with a lot of correlations between letters and numbers, and other aspects not found in English. It is a more mystical and religion-centric language than English by nature, and contains subtleties that can't be translated into other languages with all the richness that is there in Hebrew. Even in that simple example, you can see the more mystical meaning inherent in one single word.
Making the assumption the the whole bible is actually the word of God, how can we be certain that the Bible as it is presented now represents the way that God originally intended it?
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Regarding translations; you make a good argument for learning Greek and Hebrew! Seriously, there are enough commentaries and study helps, that anyone who wants to understand the original meaning can easily do just that. Actually, translations done by committees are actually to be preferred over those done by an individual as the committee keeps the translation rather more "honest".
But, at least in English, I cannot think of a truly bad or unfaithful translation. Some read better than others, some use more familar English than others, but all of the communicate.
Is it somehow surprising that understanding the Bible requires effort? People spend lifetimes studying just English Lit; why should you expect that understanding God's Word is simpler.
The Westminster Confession of Faith, which is the historic formulation for Presbyterians, says that while some Scripture requires a lot of study, the parts of Scripture, necessary for salvation are easy to comprehend.
Again, its a matter of choice; not a lack of knowledge that keeps one from believing.