Biblical Canon

American Translations

In response to the English Revised Version, Americans published the American Standard Version (ASV) in 1901, which also removed the Apocrypha.

In 1909, the Scofield Reference Bible was published, which first introduced the futurist view of Revelation. Note that this view is inconsitent with what Jesus teaches in the gospel. See my article on Revelation for more.

In 1971, the ASV was revised to the New American Standard Version Bible (NASV, NASB, or NAS). However, Americans realized that this version did not flow well because English usage had changed, so they produced the New International Version (NIV) in 1973.

In 1982, the New King James Version was published. This version was meant to appeal to those that still used the King James, but never got that popular because of its inaccuracy.

Again English began to change, so in 2002, the English Standard Version (ESV) was published.

Many of you know that English is a complicated language. A language is determined by usage, and kids everyday seem to invent new English words. This is why it is very hard to have a perfect English translation. People want a translation that both flows and is accurate. However, I would prefer a translation that is more accurate over one that flows with everyday conversation. This is why I use Young’s Literal Translation as I discussed above.

Conclusion

As I mentioned in the introduction, the Bible was written by 40 different authors, over a period of 1600 years, in 3 separate continents. How can a book that was written by 40 different authors be this consistent? God Himself had to tell the authors what words to write. The Bible is God inspired from beginning to end. Also, the amount of manuscript evidence of the Bible’s existence surpasses that of any other ancient writing. Today, there are many mistakes in the Bible due to a series of mistranslations over the last 1,500 years. However, with the help of the internet, many of these mistakes can be corrected. The fact that olam and aion mean a period of time instead of eternity is staring to spread throughout Christian forums. We simply just need more people to stand up for what is true.

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