Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Welcome to week 7 of our class on Bibliology: The Study of the Bible.

Let’s pray and then we’ll begin.

Pray

Let’s review what we learned from last week:

Review:

Last week we discussed the doctrine of preservation.

Last week… we discussed the doctrine of _______preservation____________.

Do the original manuscripts of the Bible still exist today?

________no____.

Do the original manuscripts of the Bible still exist today?

No.

About how many Greek manuscripts of the New Testament exist (2,700 / 3,700 / 4,700 / 5,700 / 6,700 / or 7,000)?

Options - 2,700 / 3,700 / 4,700 / 5,700 / 6,700 / 7,000

Hopefully the last few weeks have been somewhat enjoyable for you.

We’ve covered some pretty deep topics in 6 weeks: revelation, inspiration, inerrancy, canonicity, and preservation.

But as great as these topics are, we still haven’t talked about the English Bible yet – all of our previous topics really only dealt with the Bible in its original languages: Hebrew, Greek and Aramaic.

But now that we have all of these 5,000+ Greek manuscripts of the New Testament, and several others of the Old Testament, how did we get them into English?

That’s right – by translation.

Answer - 5,500

According to last week’s lesson, what was the most significant archaeological find of the 20th century?

Why?

The Dead Sea Scrolls.

Because they contained copies of Old Testament books that were dated 1,000 years before the oldest known copies at the time (The Masoretic Text), proving that the Bible had not been corrupted or dramatically changed over time.

Hopefully the last few weeks have been somewhat enjoyable for you.

We’ve covered some pretty deep topics in 6 weeks: revelation, inspiration, inerrancy, canonicity, and preservation.

But as great as these topics are, we still haven’t talked about the English Bible yet – all of our previous topics really only dealt with the Bible in its original languages: Hebrew, Greek and Aramaic.

But now that we have all of these 5,000+ Greek manuscripts of the New Testament, and several others of the Old Testament, how did we get them into English?

That’s right – by translation.

So here’s our definition for today:

Translation: the act or process of transferring the Bible from one language to another.

Ok, so the Bible is translated into English.

Easy enough.

End of lesson?

Nope…unfortunately, it’s more complicated than that.

If you have noticed, there is not one but SEVERAL different English translations that are available to Christians today.

Here are a few:

Ok, so the Bible is translated into English.

Easy enough.

End of lesson?

Nope…unfortunately, it’s more complicated than that.

If you have noticed, there is not one but SEVERAL different English translations that are available to Christians today.

Here are a few:

Ok, so the Bible is translated into English.

Easy enough.

End of lesson?

Nope…unfortunately, it’s more complicated than that.

If you have noticed, there is not one but SEVERAL different English translations that are available to Christians today.

Here are a few:

Now before we get into the serious lesson, I just want to show some of the more

Ok, so the Bible is translated into English.

Easy enough.

End of lesson?

Nope…unfortunately, it’s more complicated than that.

If you have noticed, there is not one but SEVERAL different English translations that are available to Christians today.

Here are a few:

Some Popular Translations:

Some Popular Translations:

ASV - American Standard Version

NASB - New American Standard Bible

KJV, AV - King James (Authorized Version)

NKJV - New King James Version

RSV - Revised Standard Version

NRSV - New Revised Standard Version

ESV - English Standard Version

NIV - New International Version

TNIV - Today’s New International Version

NEB - New English Bible

TLB - The Living Bible

NLT - New Living Translation

CEV - Contemporary English Version

Message - The Message by Eugene Peterson

NET – The NET Bible / New English Translation

If that seems like a long list to you, believe me, I haven’t listed half of the translations that exist in English- these are only the most popular.

One website said that there are over 50 complete English translations and many more partial translations.

So when we look at this list, the question is, “Why are there so many?”

The answer is simple: There is no one perfect way to translate a document from one language to another.

Languages are very different from each other, and no matter how well you try, you can never get an exact, perfect translation from one language to another- something will be lost.

For example, in Spanish, if we were to translate the phrase, “Pagar el pato”, what it means is “to foot the bill, or to pay the bill”, “but literally, it means, “to pay the duck”.

Or, if we take the German phrase, “Das is mir Wurst”, what it means in English is “I don’t care.”

However, literally, it means, “That’s sausage to me.”

So as you can see, we are faced with a dilemma.

If this were, hypothetically a part of the Bible, do you translate literally, “That’s sausage to me”, or do you translate it as “I don’t care”.

That’s the type of question Bible translators wrestle with all of the time.

How do we overcome this obstacle?

Which translation is best?

Let’s find out…

If that seems like a long list to you, believe me, I haven’t listed half of the translations that exist in English- these are only the most popular.

One website said that there are over 50 complete English translations and many more partial translations.

So clearly, there are many ways to translate the Bible from the original languages into English.

In fact, aside from some of the standard translations I’ve mentioned above, there are also some slightly random translations that you may not have heard about.

Handout on Random Translations

So those are some of the random translations that exist.

But even if we look back at our list of standard English translations (ESV, NIV, NASB, KJV, and more), we might very well ask, “

Why are there so many translations of the Bible?”

The simple answer is:

There is no one perfect way to translate a document from one language to another.

This is true, not only for English, but for all languages.

The reason for this is because languages are very different from each other, and no matter how well you try, you can never get an exact, perfect translation from one language to another- something will be lost.

For example, in Spanish, if we were to translate the phrase, “Pagar el pato”, what it means is “to foot the bill, or to pay the bill”.