Why are there different versions of the Bible?

There are ONLY TWO versions of the Bible, but there are many TRANSLATIONS of the Bible, which all say the same thing but in a different languages, and there are many TRANSLITERATIONS of the Bible, all of which say the same thing but using different words. ALL Bibles, except one, say EXACTLY THE SAME THING so far as the ideas and doctrines of Christianity go.

There is NO "word for word" translation of the Bible from either Hebrew or Greek, simply because there is no direct translation between these languages and any other language today. this is because both Greek and Hebrew used different SYNTAX and different IDIOMS to express their ideas.

The PRIAMRY translations of the Bible is that based on the original Greek, Hebrew, Aramaic (similar to Hebrew) languages. These are the most popular ones, and include the King James, the New King James, and NIV, and a few others.

There are many TRANSLITERATIONS of the Bible, which will typically use a modern language as their source (like the King James or NIV) and then translate idea-for-idea into a more common "street" language. The message is one of those. Transliterations are hard to study, because they depend on the current contractions and speech idioms, and so some ideas become unclear as the language changes

The SECONDAR "version" of the Bible is The New World Translation. This translation is written by and supported by ONLY the Jehovah's Witness Church, and it is NOT accepted by any other churches. this is because the New World Translation was intentionally MIS-interpreted in order to "prove" the Jehovah's Witness heresy that Jesus IS NOT God.

This idea is very similar to, and probably derivative of, the ideas of Arius of Alexandra around 300 A.D. Arianism, as this is called [not to be confused with Aryanism, which is the promotion of the Aryan race of super-people by Nazi Germany] says that Jesus, God, and the Holy Spirit are NOT the same thing, and thus promotes a doctrine totally against the truth taught by the Bible.

At the Council of Nicea in 325 AD, Arius of Alexandria was censured and physically exiled from the Christian Community.

It is recorded in history that Arius' ideas were so radical, so subversive, that Bishop Nicolas slapped him hard across the face. Yes, THAT Bishop Nicholas, the same who later became St. Nicolas -- the original Santa Claus.

1) There are different versions of the Bible. That suggests that they can not all be right.

Actually, that is not correct. Theoretically - logically - they *could* all "be right". The reason is this: in the fields of literature and publishing, the word "version" is synonymous with "translation", and that is almost always how the word "version" is used when applied to Bibles (there are a *very* few exceptions).

So: a different version of the Bible is, in fact, a different **translation** of the Bible, not an *alteration* of the Bible.

Now: ideally (things are not ideal, of course, but ideally) all translations of the Bible would be 100% accurate and 100% precise, and so no matter how many translations of the Bible there were, they would all convey *exactly the same meaning*. Consider this example from two modern Bible translations:

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=gen+2...

Clearly these are two different Bible versions. However: isn't the meaning in both passages essentially identical? You can see from that comparison how just because there is more than one Bible version does NOT allow someone to **reasonably** conclude that one of them is right and one of them is wrong.

Different Bible versions use different words to convey - ideally and theoretically - the *very same meaning*.

Because knowledge of the Biblical languages is not perfect, there are - in fact - differences in meaning conveyed between some Bible versions in some passages. However, **for the most part** the ideal is realized and **for the most part** different Bible versions convey the same exact meaning, but using different words to do so.

There is only one version in the original language. (Or at least a number of manuscripts.)

Language changes, so a translation in the time of King James does not use the language we use in English today.

There are different styles of translation too. Some will deliberately try to translate each word accurately in place, but this can lead to it not reading so naturally in English. Other translations will try to make it read/sound better in modern English.

The key point is to understand the intention of the *author*, and reflect that in the language being translated to.

Because people do not speak the way they did in 1600 England, words and phrases used then do not mean to us what they did Then

The Bible is Translated into the language used by People today.many English versions of the Bible exist for the modern reader. While many quality translations exist, more formal translations provide a more direct understanding of the original languages of the Bible and can be enhanced through the variety of options available for today's reader. Of greatest importance is to both study and apply the teachings of the Bible in order to bring glory to its divine author, the Lord Almighty.

No two languages have a perfect one-to-one correspondence for every word. Word meanings and connotations vary, idioms vary, and slang varies. The different versions of the Bible do not differ that much. It's not like one version says that Jesus is a brutal hit man while another version says he's a loving pacifist.

Actually, EVERY version of the bible contains that precise contradiction.

To answer your question, the different versions of the Bible exist because different groups of translators thought they could do a better job than previous translators at making the Bible more literal, more idiomatic, more interesting, easier to understand, etc etc etc.

Good question and you are entirely correct, not all are true. The answer to your question is that Satan cannot destroy the Bible, but he can influence men to attempt their interpretation of the bible using not the original manuscripts but other attempts of translation--good or bad. To the lesser informed, many will be fooled for they do not know the truth--Satan always distorts the truth.

Which version is true---in my opinion it is the King James Version of 1611---why? He commissioned over 40 language scholars--each translated just a portion from the most relievable documents available. As each scholar completed his assigned portion---his work was reviewed by several other scholars---thus you have a check and balance condition to safe guard its authoritative and correct interpretation.

For English translations since the 1600s there are two sources of change one is the discovery of reliable copies of manuscripts that clear up problems in determining the wording of the original texts which no longer exist. The other is improvements in scholarship including archeology and research about the surrounding cultures.

A less meaningful, but important is the change in meaning of English words. The words chosen by translators hundreds of years ago no longer have the meaning they were chosen for. An uneducated, naive, reading produces an incorrect meaning.

You just answered your own question. They are different TRANSLATIONS, not different Bibles. Understand that translating into different languages produces words that can be translated several words that are all correct. That is why someone wanting to know what Bible writers meant, use several translations.

But understand understand understand, these are not different Bibles. They all say the same thing in different words.

Most bibles were produced for political purposes.

The KJV was ordered by King James, because he did not feel that the existing bible(The Bishop's Bible,) supported the king's divine rights as well as it should.

When King Henry VIII, tossed the catholics out of England, he had the "Great Bible" produced. It was basically the Tyndale Bible with some parts the Henry didn't like redacted.

As they say, It's good to be king!

True in what way. They are all interpretations and the original was written by men. If you want to know the original, you have to learn ancient Hebrew and Greek for the New Testament. But Bible itself was selected and put together by men, it was not written as single book. It's kind of haphazard.