How many different bible's are out there?

21st Century King James Version Text

American Standard Version Text

Amplified Bible Text

Contemporary English Version Text

Audio (NT)

Darby Translation Text

Douay-Rheims 1899 American Edition. Text (with Apocrypha)

English Standard Version Text

Audio

Holman Christian Standard Bible Text

King James Version Text

Audio

New American Standard Bible Text

Audio

New Century Version Text

New International Reader's Version Text

New International Version Text

Audio

New International Version - UK Text

New King James Version Text

New Life Version Text

New Living Translation Text

The Message Text

Today's New International Version Text

Text (NT)

Wycliffe New Testament Text (NT)

Young's Literal Translation

There are thousands of translation of the same bible.

It remained the same (Vatican Codex being the oldest known bible) until the early 1500's when Martin Luther decided to edit his German version. Then I think the 1700's when the Puritans decided to edit the English Standard Bible and rename it the King James Version.

Aside of that, nothing has been added or deleted. It's just Catholic version or Protestant Version (minus 7 books and a few edited paragraphs)

But there are various translation. NAB, NASB, Good News Translation, Douay Rheims Bible, Jerusalem Bible, New Jerusalem Bible, NLT, KJV, even the Pidgeon bible written in the manner Hawaiians speak. It's been translated into more languages than any other book in history.

With the discovery of some of the oldest known complete texts in the caves of Qumran, our bibles today are more accurate than they've ever been.

Edit: I just want to add that "The Message" is a very popular bible. But I find it to be a complete abomination. Very new age.

Your question is ambiguous. Do you mean to ask how many different versions of the Christian Scripture exist? For example, King James Version, New American Standard Bible, English Standard Version etc..?

There are many different versions. What makes them different is translation principle (formal equivalence or dynamic equivalence) and their intended contemporary audience (which will effect the vocabulary chosen). Some variance does arise from the manuscript (MS) families they draw upon. The KJV, for instance, is based off of a few MSS from the Byzantine family. The New King James Version relies upon a wider range of MS families and codexes.

Formal equivalence attempts to translate the Greek and Hebrew manuscripts (MS, singular, and MSS, plural) word for word. Dynamic equivalence attempts to translate the Greek and Hebrew MSS thought for though. No translation can be purely one or the other and so they are all to some degree a little of both.

If you see someone say how many variations are in the Christian Bible MSS it will usually be in the thousands. However, upon closer examination virtually all of these variations are variations of spelling or grammar and not variations of propositions.

Two works for further study would be "The New Testament Documents: Are They Reliable" by F.F. Bruce and "The Inspiration and Authority of Scripture" by B.B. Warfield. The former is very short and introductory while the latter is more detailed. There doesn't exist much debate over the Old Testament MSS because it is very uniform. Such variations that one may find, such as Lucifer in place of "Morning Star" actually arise from translations of the Old Testament MS, the Masoretic text, and not from variations in the OT MSS themselves (the example I cite arises from the Septuigaint (LXX) which is the Greek translation of the OT).

I'm curious about this "power and authority of God". How does one go about acquiring such a thing, or even proving one has it? Is there a form to fill in or a certificate to display? I'm guessing competence in understanding ancient language does not amount to automatic permission, so what IS the criterion? And does the infallibility divinely conferred extend to translations of other texts as well?

I would assume that there is no way to know how many revisions the bible has gone through. It is very likely that there is little that has stayed the same from beginning to end.

It is speculated that the OT originated as folk tales passed on from one generation to the next before it was written. Doesn't sound like a very reliable foundation for a religion to me, but then again, it is no less reliable than any other religion.

'direct revelation from God' NONE...

written by man, too many...

One Bible. Thousands of translations have been made.

lots :D