Lost In Translations

## Source Searching

One point of these devotionals is to undergird your faith in Jesus with more knowledge of the Book that your faith is built on. In that, there is need of understanding why there are discrepancies between translations, because this is something that denominationally minded Christians like to fight about. But is it something that should shake your faith? Should our assurance in the text itself waiver? One English translation often derives from another, while the original Greek and Hebrew are really only “consulted”. Luke 23:17 shows up in 9 out of 15 English translations I viewed; those being KJV (1611), NKJV (1982), ASV, NASB, RSV, HNV, WEB, YLT, and the DBY. The RSV, NASB, HNV, and the WEB all came from the ASV. The ASV (1901) is the completion of the RV project (1880’s). The RV and the NKJV both came from the KJV (not to mention the KKV's derived translation). The YLT (1860’s) and the DBY (1870’s) are both independent productions attempted by Robert Young and John Nelson Darby. So in a sense we only have 3 independent English translations that include verse 17 within Luke 23. Some that don’t contain the verse are the RV (1880’s), ESV (2001), Holman CSB (2003), NLT, NIV, and the NET. The ESV derived from the RSV which derives from the ASV.. The NLT paraphrases from the Living Bible which derives from the ASV also. The NIV (1978), CSB (2003), and the NET (2005) are all completely new translations of the Greek and Hebrew; not revisions or updates of older English versions. Now notice we only have 3 independent

English translations that exclude verse 17 from Luke 23. It’s 3 against 3! Besides all these English translation links is the difference in the choices of Greek to translate from. This whole devotional would be twice as long again to go into all of those too. But most of this boils down to the translation it was based on and the choice of Greek text it was based on. Still, we can take notice of details like it’s inclusion within the KJV text is presented within parentheses, which should trigger at least a question to the reader’s eye. After looking at the “family tree” of English translations and noting the many Greek variations, another source is still to be considered... Luke’s?

## The Real Issue

The real issue here is “Can we believe this book or not?” Did Pilate have a custom of releasing a prisoner at Passover? Luke’s Gospel’s source is Mark. Matthew also derived mostly from Mark. Mark and Matthew both tell us Pilate did this, and no one debates its inclusion there. Besides this, we have other records that show the Roman government releasing prisoners under various public circumstances; yet never a murderous insurgent. This may have been what Pilate thought was a “no-brainer” to get the people to choose Jesus. It just backfired on him.

## Self-Check

Are you more concerned about your church denomination than you are about being God’s One Church to the world? Are you more concerned about which translation of the Bible to read than you are about reading it? You may have become lost in translations. Ask the Lord to show you the Truth in the midst of all of it, and just do the simple stuff that you do understand the meaning of. This should be enough to worry about for a couple of years.

## Guilty and Innocent