Chapter 18, the other catch. The second catch is that nearly all of us read Scripture through a translation, and to one degree or another, all translations are interpretations, and they aren't unbiased interpretations. Bible translators are almost inevitably the products of seminary or university training. Even those who are more open-minded and intellectually honest still don't start out with blank slates; they normally still have some sort of bias, whether it is liberal or evangelical, Catholic or Protestant.
Many of them read their own theology into Scripture, and it affects their translations. Often, a translator will have such strong preconceptions that he will even alter what the biblical text says in order to make it fit his preconceptions. First subheading: Scripture tampering. The classic example of such biased translating is the New World Translation published by Jehovah's Witnesses. In numerous places, this translation adds words to the biblical text to support witness theology.
To illustrate, the New World Translation renders Colossians 1:16, which speaks about Jesus, as follows: "By means of him, all other things were created in the heavens and upon the earth, the things visible and the things invisible; all other things have been created through him and for him." In order to support their theology that Jesus is part of creation, those translators found it necessary to add a word "other" to the text.
At least they were "honest," quote unquote, enough to place their added word in brackets. Unfortunately, Jehovah's Witnesses are not the only ones who have purposefully altered Scripture in order to support their views. Evangelicals are no less guilty than they are. For example, Martin Luther did not hesitate to add words to Scripture in order to bolster his theology.
The most famous example is his adding the word "alone" to Romans 3:28, making it say, quote, "Therefore, we conclude that a man is justified by faith alone, apart from the works of the law," end quote. When Luther's hand was called on this, his arrogant reply was, quote, "If your papist makes much useless fuss about the word alone, tell him at once, Dr. Martin Luther will have it so," and says, quote, "Papist and donkey are one and the same thing," end quote.
However, the most blatant example of evangelical tampering with Scripture is perhaps the Living Bible. It presently outsells all Bible translations except the New International Version, the King James Version, and the New King James Version. It purports to be a paraphrased translation that expresses, quote, "as exactly as possible what the writers of the Scriptures meant," end quote. Yet it alters so many things in the Bible text that it should be marketed as a commentary, not a Bible translation.
Let me illustrate. Paul wrote to the Romans, "Because by the works of the law no flesh will be justified in his sight; for through the law comes the knowledge of sin; but now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets," in Romans 3:20-21. Notice how the Living Bible grossly alters the text. Quote, "Now do you see it?
No one can ever be made right in God's sight by doing what the law commands; for the more we know of God's laws, the clearer it becomes that we aren't obeying them." His laws serve only to make us see that we are sinners. But now God has shown us a different way to heaven, not by, quote, "being good enough" and trying to keep His laws, but by a new way, though not new, really, for the Scriptures told about it long ago, end quote. That's expressing as exactly as possible what Paul meant to say.
While the translator has literally doubled the size of the text by all of his human additions, in no shape or form is that a translation or even a paraphrase of what Paul said. It's an interpretation, a commentary. Yet the Living Bible is used and endorsed by thousands of evangelical pastors. What a double standard we have. We castigate Jehovah's Witnesses for tampering with God's Word, and rightly so, yet we smile with approval when one of "our" people does the same thing to a far greater degree.
Presently, the best-selling Bible in America is the New International Version. No doubt it has become the most popular translation because its translators did such an outstanding job of rendering the Scriptures into flowing, readable English. Unfortunately, its translators couldn't resist tampering with God's Word either. One example is their rendition of Romans 2:28.
Quote, "A man is not a Jew if he is only one outwardly, nor is circumcision merely outward and physical." Neither the word "only" nor the word "merely" are in the Greek text. The addition of those words can change Paul's meaning quite a bit. The rendering of the New International Version implies that a person must first be a Jew outwardly before he can be one inwardly, but that is not what Paul said.
Even worse is the New International Version's marginal rendition given in its footnote to the passage we have been studying in 1 Corinthians. This marginal rendition reads, quote, "Every man who prays or prophesies with long hair dishonors his head; and every woman who prays or prophesies with no covering of hair on her head dishonors her head. She is just like one of the shorn women.
If a woman has no covering, let her be for now with short hair; but since it is a disgrace for a woman to have her hair shorn or shaved, she should grow it again. A man ought not to have long hair," 1 Corinthians 11:4-7. That's almost as bad as the Living Bible. That rendition is in no way an alternate translation of the Greek text. It's nothing more than a fanciful interpretation or a commentary.
The reason I am mentioning these examples is to illustrate that human biases sometimes alter the very words that appear on the pages of our Bibles. Even if we never read another piece of literature, we would still be receiving at least some human tradition through the pages of our Bibles. We can minimize those biases by using a literal translation, such as the New American Standard or the King James Version. Yet even those translations have a degree of interpretation in them.
In fact, even if you were fluent in Koine Greek and could read the Greek text yourself, you would still be adding a good bit of your own translational interpretations to the text of Scripture. There's no way around it. Let me explain. First of all, most words in Greek have more than one meaning, just as most English words do. So the translator has to make an interpretation in selecting which definition to apply to any given verse.
Secondly, in the most ancient texts we have in the New Testament, every letter of every word is capitalized. The effect is the same as if texts were written in all small or lowercase letters. When someone translates these texts into English, they must decide which words to capitalize. Whether or not a word is capitalized can significantly affect its meaning. For example, the Greek word "pneuma" for "spirit" appears 27 times in Paul's letters to the Romans.
For each occurrence, the translator must interpret whether Paul is speaking about the Holy Spirit or our spirit.