The follow article is by Eric Johnson, Mormonism Research Ministry, and was published in the 2022 “Nauvoo Times.”
The eighth LDS Article of Faith says the Bible can be trusted only “as far as it is translated correctly.” Translation means to take words from one language and put them into the words of another. We agree that a correct translation of the Bible—which was written in Hebrew and Koine Greek 2,000-4,000 years ago—is necessary for proper understanding.
Anytime words from one language are put into another—whether it is Spanish into English or French into Arabic—there is always the risk of losing something in the translation. It is doubtful that our many modern-day translations were produced by unprincipled people who wanted to keep God’s truth hidden. In actuality, quite the opposite is true. The motivation behind a new translation is, in most cases, to give a clearer understanding of what God wants to reveal to His people. Granted, some translations do a better job than others.
Although some Mormons believe that the King James Version of the Bible was a translation of another Bible translation, thus producing errors, this is absolutely not true because the KJV translators utilized the best manuscripts available to them in the 17th century. They did not depend on other translations. In fact, while translators will differ, the goal of Bible translators is to utilize the most accurate manuscripts and then attempt to put the words of the Bible into an understandable language for the audience it addresses.
Certainly two translators of any written piece will differ in the choice of words, verb tense, and style. But if two good Spanish translations independently translate this morning’s paper, you would have to say that the basic message would be the same despite their numerous differences. Truly there is no such thing as a perfect translation. LDS Church leaders must certainly be aware of this since their translators have often had to revise not only their English edition of The Book of Mormon but several foreign editions as well.
Perhaps the LDS leaders would say that the transmission, or the copying and handing down of the biblical manuscripts, is why they believe the Bible has errors. Yet Biblical scholars have carefully sorted through the tens of thousands of biblical manuscripts to determine the earliest and most reliable texts. In addition, not having the original manuscripts of the Bible should not be a problem to the Mormon who realizes that there are no original manuscripts for The Book of Mormon.
In conclusion, consider the comments of BYU professor Richard L. Anderson on the accuracy of the New Testament at the 14th Annual Symposium of the Archaeology of the Scriptures: “For a book to undergo progressive uncovering of its manuscript history and come out with so little debatable in its text is a great tribute to its essential authenticity. First, no new manuscript discovery has produced serious differences in the essential story. This survey has disclosed the leading textual controversies, and together they would be well within one percent of the text. Stated differently, all manuscripts agree on the essential correctness of 99 percent of all the verses in the New Testament.” Truly the Bible is a very special book.
3 comments:
Obviously, the 99% agreement claim is an ignorant and unscholarly oversimplification of what world-renowned scholars believe about the textual reliability of the New Testament. What they generally agree on is that there are hundreds of thousands of errors in our manuscripts, which is not so for the Book of Mormon. This site answers this blog author's claims very well:
Anonymous,
First, I didn't print your link because I don't allow false teachings in comments and your link went to NON-scholarly LDS propagandists.
The "errors" in manuscripts are so very minor and are usually seen as a scribal copying error which doesn't affect the text. YOU need to study the facts instead of letting the LDS leaders lie about the Bible.
The Book of Mormon was written from the imagination of Smith and he copied a lot of the KJV Bible. There are many contradictions in it also. Look at my articles about the BOM in October 2014. And then procede to my articles after that which are exposing Joseph Smith for the false prophet and false teacher that he was.
Cults attempt to rationalize and justify how the Bible is not infallible or inerrant. they typically rely on liberal scholarship as a means to justify their blatant condemnation of the inspired word of God.
At the same time, they typically speak (specifically, Mormons) out of both sides of their mouths in rationalizing and justifying the many contradictions and apparent errors within the Book of Mormon itself.
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