So Many to Choose From

There is much discussion among Christians as to which version of the Bible to use. Translation philosophies and ease of use dominate the debate. Rarely does one hear a word concerning the underlying texts they are translated from and the philosophies concerning those texts. Some will argue for the use of older manuscripts on the grounds that because they are older, they are close to the originals. They fail to explain certain problems with these texts. One of the core philosphies of the texts used for modern translations is that God did not preserve His Word. They believe that over time copyists introduced errors into the texts, and that we must now use man's wisdom to determine what God wanted to tell us. They hold that an older text is automatically superior to a newer text. Unfortunately, people who hold this view miss several key problems. God has promised many times in His Word to preserve it. Also there is the logical problem. It would make no sense at all for God to say, "Alright, here is my Word for all time; see if you can keep it." Rather, when men sat down with the desire to create an accurate copy of God's Word, God enabled them to make an accurate word for word copy. Another problem that is ignored is the number of surviving texts. There are very few of these surviving older manuscripts, compared to a family of several thousand slightly newer manuscripts that agree almost word for word. Often unmentioned in discussion concerning which Bible version to use is the reason these older manuscripts survived. Texts of the Bible were few, so people read and reread the manuscripts that they had. They read them until they crumbled. The only ones that they did not do this to were the ones that they discarded because they had errors in them. In fact, the few older manuscripts that people refer to have known errors. It all comes down to faith really. Do we want to use Bibles that are translated from texts based on man's fallible wisdom or do we want to use Bibles that are based on texts rooted in trust in God and His preserving power. If the source for the translation is flawed, then the end product will be flawed. I use only the King James Version because it is the only version translated entirely from the traditional texts rooted in faith in God.