GYC Conference 2024: Wherever He Goes

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

Generation. Youth. Christ. (GYC)

Can We Trust the Biblical Canon?

Tom Shepherd

01 Are the Biblical Manuscripts Reliable?

02 How Many Variants Are There in the Biblical Manuscripts?

03 How Do You Figure Out Which Variant Is What the Apostles Wrote?

04 How Did Books Get into the Bible?

05 Which Bible Translation is Best

I'm sorry, I was on the other, the 1 from the morning, I was like, why isn't she opening this?

And then I said, oh, there's must be, it's 2.59.

Slide show from beginning and share screen.

Everybody said we have our group already?

This is session number 5, Which Bible Translation is Best, with Tom Shepard from Andrews University at GYC 2024.

If you haven't been here before, I had mentioned that I wanted to be with you, but my wife's health is fragile, and so we got this worked out where I could be with you by Zoom.

And at the end we have time for questions, and evidently there's no meeting after this, so we can go on longer if you want for more questions.

I guess they're recording these, so you can probably get those if you wanted to see those.

Father in heaven, we thank you so much for your Word and its wonderful power in our life.

We thank you for GYC and for all of our young people dedicating their lives to you, Father.

You'll bless our session today as we talk about this important question of Bible translations in Jesus' name.

Okay, so we're talking about which Bible translation is best.

Actually, I was asked this by a lady named Sunny this morning, and I said, well, you want to be back here for this session so that we can talk more extensively about Bible translations.

Oh, it says my internet connection is unstable.

So earlier in these sessions we talked about the text of the New Testament.

It's the most reliable document from the ancient world, and we have thousands and thousands of manuscripts.

In our third session we talked about how scholars go about choosing which variant, because there are lots of different variations in these manuscripts, which one's variant is the right 1 for the original text.

And then last session we talked about the issue of the canon, and particularly how the New Testament canon was formed.

So now we're talking about Bible translations.

Okay, so let's see, am I sharing my screen?

Okay, so we're going to say here, and which translation is best?

The best translation is the 1 you will keep reading.

Now, it's no good if you just have it on the shelf.

It's like, oh, I have many Bible translations, but you don't read them.

So the best 1 is the 1 that you will keep on reading.

That's the short answer, but we'll give a much longer answer.

So let's look at various translations and think about their usage for spiritual growth.

We will start with a bit of history about the famous King James Version, but we won't end there.

We'll keep going after that and talk and doing some comparative translations as well.

Okay, to start with the King James Version, We're actually going to start a little earlier than the King James Version.

King James Version was translated in 1611, more than 500 years ago.

It has had tremendous impact on the English language and on our culture.

So it was an amazing feat of making this translation.

The reason it's called the Geneva Bible, it's an English Bible, of course Geneva isn't Switzerland, it's called the Geneva Bible because it was produced in Geneva, where the reformers fled during the five-year reign of Mary, who was a Catholic.

Anti-Catholic notes in the Bible prevented universal acceptance of this Bible.

It was the Bible the pilgrims used and was the most popular for nearly 100 years.

So the Geneva Bible had a long history as well.

There's some picture of the Geneva Bible.

The Bishop's Bible was published in 1568, so notice just a little bit later.

King James was unhappy with it because of passages that appeared to be against the monarchy.

This was the second Bible to be authorized, the Bishop's Bible, but it didn't have as long a life as the others did.

The King James Version of 1611 was commissioned by the king, by King James.

And it was based on the Greek texts that have been published by Erasmus, and we'll talk some about that.

The King James Bible did not replace the Gedema Bible for nearly a hundred years.

We're going to find out more about that, too.

Now, Erasmus' Greek text, which eventually became known as the Textus Receptus, or the Received Text, It was first published in 1516.

Erasmus based most of his Greek text for this for this Bible on 8 mainly Byzantine text type minuscules from the 11th to the 15th centuries.

So these were very late manuscripts and being mainly of the Byzantine text type.

Now if you were with us in our last presentation, actually the third 1, which would have been the first 1 this morning.

You saw that there were, that scholars place manuscripts in 5 categories, categories 12345, with Categories 1 being the most important for establishing the original text, and category 5, in some people's minds, not useful for establishing the original text at all.

That's changing some among scholars today, But these texts were all Byzantine, mainly Byzantine text type.

And so they were a later text and not as strong as what we would use today for creating Bible translations.

So Erasmus did not have a Greek text for the last 6 verses of Revelation.

So he had these 8 minuscules ranging from the 11th to 15th century, and none of them had the last 6 verses of Revelation.

So he translated back into Greek from the Latin Vulgate and introduced some Greek text readings found in no other Greek manuscript.

So, you know, he was kind of rushing to get this published.

Now, you see, this was the, not really the very first, but the first popular publication.

You remember that the printing press had been invented in 1440, and you had some of these, Of course, the Gutenberg Bible was the first thing that they published.

The printing press was really a revolution of communication, and so played a very important role in some of these things taking place.

And Erasmus' Greek text is now published, and so more people can have the Greek text.

Unfortunately, it wasn't as high a quality as what we have later.

Later editors of Textus Receptus did have access to other better Greek manuscripts.

Textus Receptus was the basis for the New Testament translation of the King James Version.

And it's a title page for its original publication.

There were 2 publishers of the King James Bible.

Series

Can We Trust the Biblical Canon?

05 Which Bible Translation is Best

Transcript

Parent Series

Parent Conference

Sponsor

Recorded

Cosmic Conflict

2. Good God, Evil World?-Theodicy

1h 8m

Can We Trust the Biblical Canon?

03 How Do You Figure Out Which Variant Is What the Apostles Wrote?

52m

On the Shoulders of Giants

The Message in Media

45m

Devotions For Decisions

5. By Every Word

1h 3m

Bible Manuscripts and Translations

03 What Variants Do Our Manuscripts Have? Part 02

1h 2m

Amazing Disciples

27. Caveman Theology

49m

Practical

The Bible According to Little Red Riding Hood

1h 4m

Apologetics: Navigating Through a World of Madness

Rethinking God: How to Do Apologetics Today!

54m

GYC 2011 Seminar: Spirit, Sanctuary and Seal

The Spirit-Saturated Life, Part 2

52m

Bible Manuscripts and Translations

05 How Did Books Get into the Bible?

1h 2m

GYC 2011 Seminar: The Gift

The Gift: Taste Them Again for the First Time, Part 1

1h 16m

How to Make Your Bible Explode.. With Jesus

05 How to Make Your Bible Explode...With Jesus

56m

Sound Doctrine