Watch Videos: (total watch time approximately 50 minutes)

1. What is the Bible? (The Bible Project, 5:48)

2. Choosing a Bible Translation, (The Bible Project, 0:58)

3. History of Bible Translation, (The Bible Project, 1:01)

4. The Fascinating Story behind RED LETTER BIBLES, (Tim Wildsmith, 7:04)

5. English Bible Translation Family Tree, (UsefulCharts, 19:14)

6. WHICH BIBLE TRANSLATION SHOULD I READ? (The Beat by Allen Parr, 4:58)

7. Why Are There So Many Versions of the Bible? (Matt Whitman/Ten Minute Bible Hour, 12:43)

The Bible | Video Talking Points

  • One of the most influential books in history and has inspired people to do many things.

  • The Bible is not just a single book, but actually a library of books.

  • The Bible originated from the written history of the people of ancient Israel.

  • The Bible explores complicated questions like the meaning of death, life and the human struggle.

  • Apostles, followers of Jesus, composed writings called “the good news”, also known as the gospel, and wrote letters to different churches throughout the ancient world.

  • There are many English translations of the Bible; no one English translation does everything, because they are designed for different purposes. Using many translations will give a well-rounded understanding.

  • Every translation is balancing two goals: faithfulness to the original text/wording of the original language, and readability in normal/modern English.

  • Put those two goals on a spectrum and you get: (Faithfulness) Word-for-Word and (Readability) Thought-for-thought, translations.

  • Word-for-word translations try to imitate the original language but require the reader to do more interpretation. Thought-for-thought translations do more interpretive work for the reader by paraphrasing what the text means. Most English translations are somewhere in the middle. – Keep in mind that no English translation can fully perfectly represent what is in the original language, because no two languages are identical. So, pay attention when translations differ, and try to read as many translations as you can.

  • The Hebrew Bible is the collection of scrolls written and assembled over a 1,000-year period by the Israelites written in Hebrew. The first significant translation was written Greek, and called the Septuagint, and this translation was widely used among follows or Jesus. Jesus claimed that the story of the Hebrew Bible was fulfilled through Him. And his followers wrote about this claim in what is now known as the “New Testament” and was written in Greek. These two collections, “The Old Testament” and “The New Testament” became the Bible.

  • Three major translations: Latin Vulgate, Wycliffe Bible, King James Bible.

  • The Bible is the most translated work in human history.

  • The idea for a red-letter Bible was first thought of in 1899, and the New Testament was printed with red letters/text for the words of Jesus. Later in 1901, the entire Bible was printed with red text for the words of Jesus.

  • The average person could not afford a copy of the Bible, until the Geneva Bible (1560) which was the first translation of the Bible to use the chapter and verse numbering system that appears in most modern-day Bibles.

  • The Geneva Bible was so popular that the Scottish parliament passed a law in 1579 requiring every household with adequate means to buy a copy.

  • The Geneva Bible remained the most popular Bible for personal use even after the publication of the King James Version in 1611, and in 1616 King James outlawed the Geneva Bible. However, illegal copies circulated widely.

  • Serious Bible study should not rely on one single translation. It is always best to compare several translations or use an interlinear Bible.

  • There is no perfect English translation, because the original Bible was written in Hebrew, Aramac and Greek.

  • The translators had to translate the original words, into an English word or phrase that would reflect the original meaning. Why is this a problem? There are 5 million Greek words, whereas there are only 1 million English words, making it difficult to find an exact English word or phrase to show the meaning of the original Biblical text.

  • Word-for-word translations: KJV, NKJV, Amplified Bible, NASB, ESV; Thought-for-thought: HCSB (now CSB), NIV, NRSV, NLT; Paraphrase: GNT/GNB (Good News Translation/Bible), The Message, The Passion Translation

  • Why are there so many different types of cars? The reason why there are lots of different types of cars is because there are lots of different needs of people, and preferences. The same is true for Bible translations – why are there so many translations? The world is diverse, people have different reading levels, people have different needs (Scholarly research vs every-day-understanding). Therefore, this results in multiple translations.

  • Bible Translators translate the original Biblical text trying to address the following question: “What is the best way to relay the original Biblical text into English for modern readers to read and understand?”

  • Another issue is that the English language and culture is always changing and evolving. Example, think of the word “exciting” - a modern equivalent of the word “exciting” evolved over time: “solid”, “groovy”, “rad”, “cool”, “awesome”, “wicked”, “dope”, “crunk/krunk”, “all-that-and-a-bag-of-chips”, “poppin’”, “off-the-chain”, “sic/sick”, “lit”, “fire”, “Bussin’”, “Dank”, “Slaps”… etc.

Questions (Identify/Discuss Among the Group):

  • Do you understand what is meant by word-for-word and thought-for-thought? Do you have any questions about that subject?

  • Did you know that the Bible was the most translated literary work in history?

  • Do you own different Bible translations? What are they?

  • Do you have a favorite Bible translation? Do you have more than one favorite translation? (Explain – What is your favorite translation/what are your favorite translations?)

  • Do you have a go-to Bible translation/translations? Why that translation/why those translations?

  • Do you prefer or like Red-Letter Bibles? Explain why or why not.

  • Do you use the Bible app? Have you ever looked at all the translations available on the app?- (or have you used Biblegateway.com? and looked at all the translations available on the website?)

  • Was there anything that stood out to you in any of the videos?

  • Was there any information presented in the videos that you didn’t already know? Or anything that you were not aware of? – Explain.

  • Biggest takeaway?

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