Bible Translation

[boppaid]

I am reading a book for school about the King James Bible and how it came about. The books I am reading indicate that during the Reformation, the Reformers looked back at the original Greek of the NT and Hebrew of OT and found that the Catholic transalations. Obviously, Catholics disagree. Do both the Catholics and Protestants claim to have translated from the original texts? If that is the case, why are they different? (An example in one of the books I am reading is “full of grace” and “favored one”)

Thanks in advance!

 

[Manfred]

I am reading a book for school about the King James Bible and how it came about. The books I am reading indicate that during the Reformation, the Reformers looked back at the original Greek of the NT and Hebrew of OT and found that the Catholic transalations. Obviously, Catholics disagree. Do both the Catholics and Protestants claim to have translated from the original texts? If that is the case, why are they different? (An example in one of the books I am reading is “full of grace” and “favored one”)

Thanks in advance!

boppaid,

Some of your original query must have gotten lost in transmission.

If you go through even a few of the other threads in this Sacred Scripture forum, you’ll see that there is no end to the debate over which bible translation is the best, which source manuscripts (whether Hebrew, Greek, or Latin) were the best preserved, which rendering of this or that verse is to be preferred, etc.

Quick summary - except by Protestant fundamentalists (almost all of whom are “King James only-ists”), the Hebrew and Greek manuscripts underlying the KJV are generally regarded as inferior to the Latin text underlying the Catholic Douay-Rheims. Advances in modern biblical scholarship have made accessible much better original-language sources, such that today both Protestants and Catholics use basically the same source material for their respective translations.

Why the differences in translations then? The “theological tradition” of the translator(s) can influence how a given passage is rendered.

 

[Jaypeeto4]

The King James Version bible, while beautiful and a joy to read, especially if you like Ye Olde English, is based upon what is called the “Textus Receptus” tradition.

Catholic bibles of the time were based on Jerome’s Latin Vulgate.
Now, Jerome was an early Christian who had immediate access to fine Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic manuscripts which are now lost to history. Thus, his Latin Vulgate is an invaluable and great resource.

Modern Catholic and Protestant translations tend to try to find the best-attested manuscript traditions and use them. Nestle-Aland
and Westcott and Hort and the Vaticanus manuscripts are examples.

The King James Bible is a good bible, though.
If you want to use it, try to find an edition that contains
the “Deuterocanonical” books which the Catholic bible has always contained.

God bless,
Jaypeeto4
+JMJ+