How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth (4th Edition)
Chapter 2—Teacher
A Basic Tool: A Good Translation
(Underline the answers to these questions in the text, numbering each answer)
Introduction: The chapter title is that the basic tool is a good translation; the basic tool
for what? The basic tool for reading and studying the Bible for those who don’t know the
original languages. As craftsmen say, use the right tool for job!
• Read Aloud: The first paragraph on page 36.
1. What trouble is there with using only one translation of the Bible? p. 36
2. Why is it best to study several translations that one knows in advance will tend to
differ? p. 37
THE SCIENCE OF TRANSLATION
• Read Aloud: Paragraph 1 under the heading “The Science of Translation,” p.38.
The Question of Text
3. What three basic concerns create the “problem” of Biblical texts/manuscripts? p. 38
4. What is textual criticism? p. 39
5. In making textual choices, what is “external evidence?” p. 39-40
• Extra Q: What does “emendation” mean (found on p. 39)? The dictionary says it is the
process of making a correction of a text.
6. In making textual choices, what is “internal evidence?” pp. 39-40
7. Why is textual criticism not an “exact” science? p. 42
8. Why are Fee and Stuart unhappy with the KJV for study purposes? p. 43
• Addendum: Distribute handout and cover the information in the textual criticism
addendum (below).
The Questions of Language
9. What is the difference between formal and functional equivalence? p. 44
• Read Aloud: Last paragraph that begins on page 44.
10. What is the author’s view about the best “theory of translation”? p. 45
11. What are the problems of a formal-equivalent literal translation? p. 46
12. What is the problem of a free translation? pp. 46-47
SOME PROBLEM AREAS
13. What is one example of each of the six problems that must be dealt with when
translators attempt to bridge the “historical distance”? pp. 47-54
ON CHOOSING A TRANSLATION
14. What concern is there with the New World Translation? p. 55
15. Which translation do Fee and Stuart prefer to best read the Bible for all its worth?
Why? p. 56
• Note: When I taught from the NASB, I discovered that many people found the NASB
incomprehensible. When I switched to the NIV, it was nearly always immediately
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understood. However, the NIV had morphed over into a commentary so much that
interpretive options present in the original Greek were invisible. I have found the ESV
to be a good compromise (p. 45).
Big Picture Review Questions1
• Having read this chapter, what would you say is the overall take away related to
reading the Bible for all its worth as regards translations? When studying the Bible, we
should read from several different versions of the Bible taken from both the literal
approach and the dynamic approach. This will highlight where the difficult problems of
interpretation lie.
• What were the three languages that the Bible was originally written in and what parts
of the Bible are in those languages?
• What is textual criticism? Why is it necessary?
• Why is the basic tool a good translation?
• What is the difference between a literal translation, a free translation, and dynamic
equivalence? Why is dynamic equivalence preferred?
• Why is it a good idea to use more than one translation?
Addendum on Textual Criticism
ESV Matthew 5:18 … until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass
from the Law until all is accomplished.
I. The Sources of Greek Manuscript Variants
1) Unintentional Changes
a. Visual Goofs: When a copyist hand copied an older manuscript, looking from one to
the other, a line of text was sometimes accidentally skipped.
Example: In John 17:15, a copyist accidentally skipped from line one to line three,
omitting line two. This was an easy error to make because lines one and two have
similar endings.
ouk eroto hina arés autous ek tou
kosmou allina pérésés autous ek tou
ponérou
b. Hearing Goofs: Often one person would read the Bible aloud for a group of copyists to
copy. Audio errors occurred when the copyist misunderstood what the reader said.
1
Taken from Theology.Edu
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Example: This accounts for the manuscript differences found in Revelation 1:3
(compare KJV to NAS). The Greek word for “washed” (KJV) is lousanti. The Greek
word for “released” (NAS) is lusanti.
KJV Revelation 1:5 Unto him that loved us, and washed us (lousanti) from our sins …
NAS Revelation 1:5 To Him who loves us, and released us (lusanti) from our sins …
c. Indecision Errors: When copyists found extra words in the margin of the text they
were copying, they typically incorporated these words into the main text so as not to
omit any part of sacred scripture. No malice was involved, no intentional corruption. The
copyist had no way of knowing:
Was the marginal note a correction that an earlier scribe made of his own error?
Was it a synonym for an obscure word in the text?
Was it an explanatory note intended to illumine the meaning of the text?
Example: John 5:3b-4 (the angel stirring the waters).
2) Intentional Changes: Occasionally a scribe detected what he believed to be a
previous scribe’s error, so he “corrected” it to what he thought it should be.
Unfortunately, the first copy was often correct and so the scribe who thought he was
correcting an error actually created an error. Since intentional changes generally made
the text more understandable, the textual critic usually defaults to the more difficult
reading.
II. Deciding Which Variation Is Correct
Review: The study of textual variants in an effort to recover the original text is called
Textual Criticism. Textual Criticism uses scientific skills to establish what the original
text actually said. Somewhere in the 5,000 manuscripts, 8,000 translations and 36,000
quotations the original text has been preserved.
a). Age: Generally speaking, the closer in time a variation is to the original, the less time
there was for copying errors to occur. Thus, older manuscripts are given more weight
than newer ones.
Example: The Ford Motor Company produced thousands of Model A cars in 1930.
Imagine that in 1930, four men each bought a new Model A. After driving for only one
year, one of the men parked his in a barn, where it remains to this day. Another man
drove his Model A for 10 years until 1941, then parked his in a barn, and it is still there
today. This was done by the third man in 1951, and the fifth in 1961 (after driving it for
40 years). Suppose we had access to all 4 parked cars. Which would most likely be the
most original, as the factory produced it, the one parked in 1931, 41, 51 or 61?
Logically, the one taken out of service closest to the date of manufacture would be the
most original, since less time had transpired for things to be changed (new engine, new
upholstery, new paint, etc.). The same is true for copies of the New Testament.
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Alternative View: A minority reject the old age argument. Instead, they feel the more
copies there are of a particular manuscript, the more reliable that manuscript family is,
even if it is much newer in time. It is reasoned that professional copyists mass produced
the manuscript they felt to be the most reliable, aware of and purposely neglecting
other, older, manuscripts.
b). Geographical Distribution: The wider the geographical distribution of a variation, the
less chance that it is a copyist’s error.
c). Length: The shortest variation is preferred. It has been proved that copyists tended to
add words rather than remove them.
d). Difficulty: Sometimes biblical authors wrote things in a way that could be interpreted
several different ways. Peter, for example, said that some of Paul’s writings were hard
to understand (2Pe 3:16). It has been observed that copyists were more likely to
“correct” a difficult reading than an easy one. Thus, the most difficult variation is
preferred, that is, the one that makes the least sense!
Significance of Variants
Number of Variants: There are over 5,000 Greek manuscripts. There 500,000
variations—more variations than there are actual words in the New Testament
(185,000). 2 These differences are tracked in the USB Critical Text of the New
Testament, laid out for all to see. It sounds like hopeless mess, but it is not.
1) Minor spelling differences account for approximately 75% of these 500,000 variants. 3
2) There is total agreement between the manuscripts 90% of the time. No critical doctrine
rests on the 10% variance. Thus, the vast majority of textual variants are not significant.
3) As to substantial variations, only 1/1000 of the New Testament is in debate (less than
one word in every 1,000 words). Old Testament variants amount to less than one word
in every 1,500 words.
Conclusion: If you took the worst, most corrupted manuscript we have, absolutely no
theology would be altered.
ESV Isaiah 40:8 The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand
forever.
Stephen E. Atkerson
Revised 08/23/2023
Handout: Class handout on next page.
2
“Textual Variants in the New Testament,” Wikipedia.org. Accessed December 15, 2018.
3
Josh & Sean McDowell, More Than a Carpenter (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale, 2009), 76.
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Sources of Greek Manuscript Variations
Class Handout
1. Unintentional Changes:
a. ____________Errors: Example: John 17:15
ouk eroto hina arés autous ek tou
kosmou allina pérésés autous ek tou
ponérou
b. __________Errors: Example: Revelation 1:3 (compare KJV to NAS).
KJV Revelation 1:5 Unto him that loved us, and washed us (lousanti) from our sins …
NAS Revelation 1:5 To Him who loves us, and released us (lusanti) from our sins …
c. Errors of ____________: When scribes found extra words in the margin of the text
they were copying, they often simply incorporated these words into the text so as not to
omit any part of sacred scripture. No malice was involved, no intentional corruption. The
copyist had no way of knowing:
2. _______________ Changes: Occasionally a scribe detected what he believed to be a
previous scribe’s error, so he “corrected” it to what he thought it should be.
Unfortunately, the first copy was often correct and so the scribe who thought he was
correcting an error actually created an error.
Deciding Which Variation Is Correct
a. _____________:
b. _____________:
c. _____________:
d. _____________:
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