10.  Why are translations of religious scriptures not perfect?

Summary:

•	Translations are never perfect because words, grammar, and cultural expressions do not always have exact matches in other languages.

•	Most Christians cannot read the Bible in its original languages (Hebrew, Aramaic, and ancient Greek), so they rely on translations that may contain errors or are missing some meaning.  Even the name Jesus is a translation of the Aramaic name Yeshua, which means “YHWH is Salvation.” 

•	Flawed translations do not mean God is misleading you.  They may actually push you to think more deeply about your faith. 

•	If you were taught an imperfect translation, God’s mercy and forgiveness mean that you won’t be punished for an honest mistake made in good faith.

•	The true purpose of religious scripture is to encourage your spiritual growth, and that growth can happen even through imperfect translations.  But you are personally responsible for your own actions—not the scripture, and not the translation.

Translations exist because different nations speak different languages. A word in one language may not have a perfect equivalent in another.  The second language may lack a word with the exact same meaning.  Some words have multiple meanings, and unless a translator understands the context, the result can be a flawed translation.  Languages also construct sentences differently—grammar, word order, and verb tense can vary greatly.  Expressions that make sense in one culture may not make sense in another, even when translated word for word.

The complexity of languages should encourage you to study religious scripture more carefully, including its history and cultural context.  Do not assume that whatever you read in translation is identical to the original or free of controversy.  It is not identical to the original because it is not the original.

Today, many religious Jews can read the Torah in its original language of Hebrew, and many religious Muslims can read the Holy Quran in its original language of Arabic.  The original languages of the Holy Bible are Hebrew, Aramaic, and an ancient form of Greek called koine Greek.  Aramaic is similar to Hebrew but different from Arabic.  Christianity has more believers than any other religion, but relatively few Christians can read Greek, fewer can read Hebrew, and even fewer can read Aramaic.  Most Christians cannot read the Bible except in translation.  This situation has existed for more than a thousand years and has caused many misunderstandings.

Most scholars who study the origins of Christianity’s New Testament believe that the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John were originally written in koine Greek, a common language of the Roman Empire. Jesus could read Hebrew, but he spoke and taught mostly in Aramaic, the everyday language of Jews in Judea at that time.  For example, in the Gospel of Mark, Jesus is asked to heal a young girl who is dying in her bed.  When he arrives, her family says she is already dead. Jesus reassures them that she is only asleep. The story continues, translated here from koine Greek into English:

The words Jesus spoke, Talitha koum, are Aramaic, not Greek and not Hebrew.

Both Hebrew and Aramaic are read from right to left, unlike Greek, which is read from left to right.  And Hebrew and Aramaic do not always translate smoothly into Greek.  You might be surprised by how much meaning gets lost in translation.  For instance, the man most people today call Jesus was not called Jesus during his lifetime.  The name Jesus is a translation—one of several layers of translation.  The name Jesus is a translation of the Latin name Iesus, which is a translation of the Greek name Ἰησοῦς (pronounced ee-SOOS), which is a translation of the Aramaic name יֵשׁוּעַ (pronounced YESH-oo-ah), which is a shortened version of the Hebrew name יְהוֹשֻׁעַ (spelled in English as Yehosua and pronounced yeh-HO-SHOO-ah), which is also the name of the hero Joshua from the Bible’s Book of Joshua.  The original meaning of the name Joshua—and likewise of יְהוֹשֻׁעַ (Yehosua) and likewise of Jesus—is “YHWH is Salvation.”  YHWH are the sacred initials of the name of God, which many Christians pronounce collectively as Yahweh or, in Greek, as Jehovah.  (Jewish rabbis pronounce YHWH differently or not at all, because they consider God’s name to be sacred.)  The name Jesus is used here because that is the name most people know him by—but did you notice how easily a translation can cause confusion?  If the man were referred to as Joshua, or as Joshua of Nazareth, most readers would not know he is the same man they call Jesus.  Yet, when translating the Hebrew name יְהוֹשֻׁעַ (Yehosua), the name Joshua is an accurate translation as much as Jesus is. 

Some believers may ask, “Why would God mislead us with a flawed translation of a religious scripture?” 

Maybe God is not misleading you.  Maybe you need to learn something that a flawed translation encourages you to think about.  Maybe you need to question the translation or reinterpret the original scripture.  Someday you may discover a different translation or a different interpretation, one that you consider to be more accurate and insightful.  But you will still remember your past experiences and what you learned from them.  Perhaps the earlier translation or interpretation was flawed, but you were not wasting your time when you believed it.  You learned as God wanted you to learn. 

“If I was taught a flawed translation, I could go to Hell when I die!”  This belief is common but also mistaken.  This fear assumes that God is stupid, cruel, or both.  It does not trust in God’s Divine wisdom understanding.  God knows you better than you know yourself.  If you made an honest mistake or were misled, then trust that God will recognize your sincerity and forgive you. 

However, if you are afraid to question a translation because you do not want to discover any flaws in it, then who are you really deceiving?  God?  Or yourself?

The responsibility for your actions does not belong to a religious scripture, and it does not belong to a translation.  The responsibility for your actions belongs to you.  You cannot escape that responsibility, but you can accept it as a gift from God, which it is. The point of religious scriptures and their translations is to encourage spiritual growth, not to control you.  Your spiritual growth is encouraged even when translations are flawed, even when ideas in the original scripture is confusing, contradictory, or misunderstood.  You must decide what is good, what is right, what is hurtful, and what is hypocritical.  Base your decisions not on fear, arrogance or punishments, but on love, reasoning, kindness, and forgiveness.