Ask · Scripture & How We Got It
Why do Bible translations differ?
The short answer
Bible translations differ because they are made from Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek originals into a changing English language, and translators must choose, phrase by phrase, between staying close to the original wording and making the sense clear in natural English. Differences in wording are usually translation choices, not changes to the underlying text.
The fuller answer
No translation is the original. The Old Testament was written mainly in Hebrew, with parts in Aramaic, and the New Testament in Greek. Every English Bible is a rendering of those languages, and languages never map word for word. A Greek sentence may need reordering, an idiom may need explaining rather than copying, and a single Greek word may cover a range that English splits into several options. Even the punctuation is a translator's decision, since the earliest manuscripts carry little of it, and a comma's place can shade how a sentence is heard in church.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
John 1:1 (BSB)
Compare John 1:1 across named translations and the pattern shows. The King James Version and the English Standard Version keep a formal shape close to the Greek order. The Berean Standard Bible aims for a balanced, readable accuracy. The New Living Translation recasts more freely for immediate clarity. Each can be faithful while sounding different, because faithfulness includes both the words and the sense they carried for the first readers. Committees also revisit translations periodically, because English itself shifts, and a rendering that was clear in one generation can mislead the next through no fault of its translators.
The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever.”
Isaiah 40:8 (BSB)
Keep translation distinct from transmission, the distinction the canon section of this site also makes. Transmission asks whether the Hebrew and Greek text we have matches what was written, and the manuscript evidence is strong. Translation asks how well a team turned that text into English. A confusing verse is often a translation question to check against other versions, not a sign that the Bible itself has been changed.
All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for instruction, for conviction, for correction, and for training in righteousness,
2 Timothy 3:16 (BSB)
For the ordinary reader, the lesson is calm rather than alarm. Keep two or three reputable translations, notice where they agree, which will be almost everywhere, and investigate the few places where they differ in wording, using notes and, where possible, a pastor or teacher who knows the languages. Differences of translation are the normal cost of carrying a priceless text across languages and centuries. They are evidence that translators are wrestling honestly with real words, not that the Bible is unstable or that its message has been lost in transit.
Sources
- Berean Standard Bible (BSB)
- Metzger and Ehrman, The Text of the New Testament (2005)
Review status: in-theological-review. Every Contend page passes a human theological review against the Statement of Faith before it is published as approved teaching. This section is in that queue.
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