Why Use a Different Bible Translation?



Brother Bob Pellien: I’m Brother Bob Pellien. Thank you for joining us on this podcast episode of That’s in the Bible!



Let’s go straight to our first question for today, which comes to us via email from Odessa in San Diego, California. Her question is: “Why does the Church Of Christ use different versions of the Bible to answer questions?”



Why are there different versions of the Bible



Brother Bob: Odessa, thank you very much for your question. The Church Of Christ uses not any one particular Bible, for example our own translation and say, “We’ll just use this version.” We will use any and many different translations and it’s important to know they’re translations because the original writings that God inspired His chosen writers were written in Hebrew, the Old Testament is in Hebrew and the New Testament primarily in Greek with some sprinkles of Aramaic. And those translators over the years, there have been many who have translated from those original languages. And as long as the translator did not deviate from what was originally written in Hebrew, what was originally written in Greek and the manuscripts that we have from those original Hebrew and Greek writings, well then, that is truly Bible.



Bible translation comparison



Brother Bob: If ever there are translations that are slightly different from one another, did God give any instruction to use so one can be sure what their receiving is accurate and pure? He gave this instruction recorded by Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians, chapter 2. Now let’s listen together to what’s recorded here in verse 13 of that chapter:



These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual.



[I Corinthians 2:13 New King James Version]



Brother Bob: The rule of God, Odessa, is that spiritual things must be compared with spiritual things. What then is recorded here are spiritual truths and to know it for sure that what is recorded there is accurate, the instruction is to compare these spiritual things with spiritual things. Because what if one does not accept these spiritual truths? 1 Corinthians 2:12 gives this insight:



Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.



[I Corinthians 2:12 New King James Version]



Brother Bob: What’s one thing we must not do when comparing the spiritual truths with spiritual truths? We must not accept the things of this world—man’s wisdom, man’s opinions, man’s ideas. We have to follow the instruction that God has given, because how would the world receive these spiritual truths from God? Verse 14:



But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.



[I Corinthians 2:14 New King James Version]



Brother Bob: That’s why many would consider the spiritual truths in the Holy Scriptures as just foolishness, but even the Church of Christ we will use that law of God comparing spiritual things with spiritual things.