What is the most accurate translation of the bible?

What is the most accurate translation of the bible?

 The ordinary person has no idea that their trusted King James version as well as almost all modern day translations are full of mistranslations that effect the bible in some serious ways. Most of us live a life of 70 or 80 years and in that time we take whatever we are taught from our parents and forefathers as matter of fact.

Yet these changes and mistranslations developed over thousands of years and were done little by little as if some strange force that permeated through time to make our modern time bible look untrustworthy. These mistakes some done on purpose others not, gradually little by little corrupted the holy text. 

Selling Bibles is a big business, but selling accurate bibles is not. In fact all of the main translations on the market today are well aware that their translation of the bible is flawed with more than 20,000 mistakes. This makes a substantial difference when it comes to interpreting the bible for those wanting a accurate translation.

The New Yorker December 18, 2006 published the investigative article The Good Book Business says this:

“The familiar observation that the Bible is the best-selling book of all time obscures a more startling fact: the Bible is the best-selling book of the year, every year. Every year, Nelson Bible executives analyze their product line for shortcomings, scrutinize the competition’s offerings, and talk with consumers, retailers, and pastors about their needs. “

In short, a translation is required to conform to the buyers expectations and not reflect accuracy.

These mistakes greatly alter the intended meaning of the authors and renders prophecies with completely different meanings. The documentary SOLOMON'S TEMPLE: IT'S PROPHESIED DESTRUCTION AND REBUILDING gives a great example of how these ministrations effect the readers understanding even at the basic level.

VIDEO INSERT - Mistranslations

The fact is if a reader had an accurate translation of the bible it would be by most accounts rejected as not fitting their predisposed expectations. This would be extremely bad for business. This leaves scholars like us caught in a cross road, do we continue to put out an accurate translations and suffer financial loss or do we give in to preconceived ideas for the sake of monetary gain?

Although interpretation and translation are two different things, they cant help but at times intertwine. After all everyone has their own personal beliefs and bias based on their own upbringings. Where the encyclopedias and the dictionaries stop is where the “rightfully dividing the word” begins. But the thought remains, if your foundation is based on flawed information and translations, its only natural to draw the conclusion that our own belief and interpretation would be flawed as well. 

So how did this occur? Well as you may well be aware the bible was written in Hebrew, and before it was ever translated into any other language it had to be copied from one manuscript to another in order to persevere the text from one generation to the next (otherwise the manuscripts would disintegrate over time). This is were the first signs of tampering began. Some copyists would just change one or two words, or remove one or two words. This eventually sprang into editing of the text to fit their religious views.….. Ecclesiastic tendencies is what the Encyclopedia Judaica calls it.....I call it fraud. So even before our 18th and 19th century scholars got the chance to interpret through the lens of their own traditional beliefs it was already corrupted (adding insult to insult). 

Whats the big deal to correct these mistakes? Even today correcting these mistakes means taking on the main stream religions and bible publishers and confronting them about some of their doctrines that may be in opposition to an actual accurate Hebrew bible. This is apparent in the Indie documentary “Solomon Temple is Prophesied Destruction and Rebuilding” as one of the professors demanded to have his voice altered and his face blacked out because of the contradiction of what is accurate verses what is doctrine.

Many of the large religious organizations and universities have founded many of their views on these mistranslations

Hebrew Bible passage for Rosh Hashana, with the pertinent section,Leviticus 23:23-26, in sharpest focus

that have been handed down for centuries. So to just suggest we go back to the original would mean for some of these organization re-writing their text books, and theological positions that they have held for hundreds of years (and that would mean a big loss of money and admitting they were wrong). See most of the evidence of these mistakes did not come to light until the 18^th and 19th century and by then many of these large theological views were already established for hundreds of years not only in print but more importantly in the hearts and minds of millions. The result? Today they know these mistakes are there, but they don't talk about them for the most part, they just get ignored.

Many of these mistakes are so ancient that they even date back to the time of the ancient prophets. In fact the biblical prophet Jeremiah said in Jer 8:8 that the “lying pen of the scribe has falsely written”.  Yes, and rightly so, the scribes had a large part to blame as they were the ones adding and taking away words for centuries to match their own personal views or to purposely deceive.

One of the largest mistakes was the removal of the name of the creator and replacing it with Lord.

Many people have heard of the names “Yahweh” and “Jehovah” but really have no idea about one or the other and how they came about. So for the sake of time let me give a quick history lesson. As we discussed earlier the bible was originally written in the language of Hebrew. It was written over thousands of years and in order to preserve the bible from one generation to the next it had to be copied from an old manuscript to a new manuscript. As we stated earlier this was done by what they called “Copyists” or “Scribes”. These scribes/copyists would over time make changes as new theological doctrines would arise in their time periods. These changes were done according to the interpretations of their time. Hence from generation to the next generation the bible was changed slowly and gradually. Some of it was done on purpose and some of it was done in ignorance... but the result was the same....a changed bible. 

One of these changes was the name Yahweh. Yahweh was the original name for God in the bible and over time many plans were hatched to hide this name from the population. In fact those that conspired against the name Yahweh almost succeeded to drop the name Yahweh from history altogether if it weren’t for a few brave scholars (but that is another story).

The story is set in ancient Israel, and the motivation or lie that was peddled was that the name “Yahweh” was to “holy” to pronounce. Ignoring previous generations that had commanded their descendants to use the name Yahweh, copyists of those days instead used the title “Adonai” to replace the name Yahweh. Adonai is today where we get the word “Lord” and some scholars even say that Adon and Adonai (not all scholars agree) are titles for the pagan deity Baal of the old testament. Sounds absolutely crazy to me, but if Yahweh is really the creator, and I was His adversary, then what better plan to steal His worship with just one strike of the pen and replace his name with the name of a demon god Baal and deceive millions! Yikes! Well some say that there is some biblical justification for this and that the prophet Jeremiah warned of this very thing in Jeremiah 23:26-27 …..You have caused my people to forget my name for Baal..... and if you do look up the word “Baal” in most bible dictionaries you will get the title “Lord” associated with it....Interesting, right?

Well weather or not you believe the title Lord and Adonai has its connections with Baal worship or not it is a fact that the name Yahweh was replaced with the title Lord and this very replacement is where the name “Jehovah” got its start. What took place is that when the copyist or scribe was copying a old manuscript to a new manuscript they would then implement their new religious belief and write the word “Adonai” over the name Yahweh. Well actually they would write the vowels for adonai over the name Yahweh. So what these copyist were essentially doing was giving the reader a reminder not to say the name Yahweh. The reader would look at the text, see the name “Yahweh” written with the vowels for “Adonai” above it and be reminded to say “Adonai” instead of Yahweh when reading outloud. This gradually caused the name Yahweh to fade away.

----video on Jehovah and adonai---

Now lets fast forward a few thousand years. German scholars found these old manuscripts and did not know what to make of the name of the creator. They saw the word “Yahweh” with the vowels for “Adonai” above the name Yahweh, so they rendered the word as “Yehovah”...combining the name Yahweh and Adonai into one new name! They did not realize this name Adonai was placed there as a completely separate name to remind the reader not to say the name Yahweh. Later when the letter “J” was added to the English letter the name made its final transition to “Jehovah”. 

So the removal of the name Yahweh from the bible accounts for roughly 6000 mistakes alone and having this Name removed can cause interpretation problems. For example “Calling upon the name of Yahweh” is now rendered “ Calling upon the name of God” or “calling upon the name of the Lord”. Simply saying “Reverence the name of Yahweh” is now translated “Reverence the name of the Lord”, leaving a question in the readers mind to what that name might be. This causes other problems as the name of Solomon's temple was “The House of Yahweh” but got rendered “House of the Lord”. Sometimes the names of pagan gods are rendered as GOD or Lord leaving in the mind of the reader it is referencing to Yahweh when in fact it was not. Another example is in Isaiah 34:16 where it says “Seek out the Book of the Lord”. Erroneously calling the bible “book of the Lord” correctly translated the correct name of the bible would be “The Book of Yahweh”

When it comes to prophecies then you really began to see how things can get screwed up. This is really a much larger subject with many interpretations added into the translation that it would be too difficult of a subject to cover in just this short blog. I would instead suggest you check out the documentary “Solomon's Temple Its Prophesied Destruction and Rebuilding” as it does a good job of outlining the mistranslations of the bible and how it effects prophetic meanings. I have included a link here.

Once again these are just a few of the ministrations that render the meaning and outcome differently.

So when it comes to mainstream translations when you ask which one is a accurate translation the answer is; None of them.

Some of the main translations are bold enough to include some of this information in their preface but most readers ignore this.

If we are to examine the preface of the NIV bible BEFORE 2011 then we we can see a gradual cover up;

Notice the crafty words “the translators adopted the device used in most English versions of rendering the name as “Lord”. That is a crafty way of saying we followed some long held traditions of mistranslating the bible especially when it comes to the most important translation, the name of YHWH.

After 2011 the preface changed to not disclose this fact and instead hide it completely.

Lets take another example that might not be as obvious;

King James version says:

Isa 2:3  And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. 

A very tricky indeed mistranslation and some scholars know it, but being that Israel is a tourist destination it left to look as if out of Jerusalem will go forth the word.

The Hebrew word translated “forth” is actually correctly translated “depart” or “departure”

Here is the Hebrew word listed in Strongs Concordance dictionary number 3318

yaw-tsaw'

A primitive root; to go (causatively bring) out, in a great variety of applications, literally and figuratively, direct and proximate: -    X after, appear, X assuredly, bear out, X begotten, break out, bring forth (out, up), carry out, come (abroad, out, thereat, without), + be condemned, depart (-ing, -ure), draw forth, in the end, escape, exact, fail, fall (out), fetch forth (out), get away (forth, hence, out), (able to, cause to, let) go abroad (forth, on, out), going out, grow, have forth (out), issue out, lay (lie) out, lead out, pluck out, proceed, pull out, put away, be risen, X scarce, send with commandment, shoot forth, spread, spring out, stand out, X still, X surely, take forth (out), at any time, X to [and fro], utter.

This one tiny translation error has enormous effects, Changing this word from “going forth” to “Departing” changes the meaning entirely. Instead of going forth out of Jerusalem, it is saying the opposite, it is saying the word of Yawheh is no longer in Jerusalem, it has departed out, it has been pulled out and the word Yahweh can no longer be found there.

Many times when making a translation you need to compare what other books of the bible say bout the same subject.

Notice these scriptures are speaking of the same thing:

Compare:

Mic 3:9  Hear this, I pray you, ye heads of the house of Jacob, and princes of the house of Israel, that abhor judgment, and pervert all equity. 

Mic 3:10  They build up Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with iniquity. 

Mic 3:11  The heads thereof judge for reward, and the priests thereof teach for hire, and the prophets thereof divine for money: yet will they lean upon the LORD, and say, Is not the LORD among us? none evil can come upon us. 

Mic 3:12  Therefore shall Zion for your sake be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house of the Lord (Solomon's Temple) as the high places of the forest.

Plowed as a field (not one stone left on another).

Here Jesus (Yahshua) references this same event in prophecy, Compare;

Mat 24:1  And Jesus went out, and departed from the temple: and his disciples came to him for to shew him the buildings of the temple. 

Mat 24:2  And Jesus said unto them, See ye

not all these things? verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down. 

Here Jesus references Mic 3:12

Compare:

Joh 4:20  Our fathers worshiped in this mountain; and ye say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship. 

Joh 4:21  Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father. 

Not by any means am I trying to get into any doctrine here, however this is a huge mistakes translators make; they do not reference any other scriptures in reference to the same event. In fact for understanding the bible as a translator this should be top priority letting scripture interpret scripture.

Here is the scripture (KJV)

Isa 28:13  But the word of the LORD was unto them precept upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little; that they might go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken. 

Its not clear in the King James Version, but the above scripture is saying it must be line upon line to understand the prophets writings, if you don't use one line upon another, comparing one verse to another you will stumble backwards when it comes to interpreting and translating the bible.

Again these are just a few examples of the mistranslations in the bible. There are thousands more to explore.

For a more accurate translation you can obtain the Book of Yahweh version below. Although no one has a perfect translation because no original manuscripts exist today after thousands of year, the Book of Yahweh translation does more accurately reflect the original based on the evidence we have today. We have received feedback from thousands that say this translation has really opened their mind and answered questions they have pondered their entire life. At the very least it deserves a place on your coffee table to compare with other translations.