Spiritual Survival Guide
2: Read This If You’re Confused About Faith
Questions People Ask About the Bible
was written in ancient Greek. Most of it was written on scrolls, which were about 30-35 feet long and were rolled and unrolled to read. These scrolls were copied by hand by trained readers and writers and passed down through the generations. Because of them we have tens of thou- sands of copies of different parts of the Bible to compare against each other. So we can be sure that, although we no longer have any of the original manuscripts, these copies we have in English and Spanish are true to the originals. But between the King James Version, the New International Version, the Gideon’s Bible, all of those, which one is the best and most reliable? Because the original scrolls are in languages that no longer exist, most of the Bibles we see are translations. The reason you’re seeing all these different versions of the Bible is that there are radically different ways to go about translating something. Some translators use an approach that is primarily word-for-word, taking a word or a phrase from the ancient language and giving its English counterpart. Those kinds of translations are often more formal, stiff, and harder to read. They often don’t sound so good in English, but they can be good for research. Other translators use a meaning-for-meaning approach. They’re trying to come up with an English translation that recreates the same impact in us that the original Greek would have created for the people who first heard it. Those kinds of translations are usually a lot easier to read and under- stand in English, but they’re not as helpful for serious study. Given the strengths and weaknesses of each kind of translation, many people like to keep a couple of different English versions of the Bible: one for everyday reading, and one for more serious Bible study.
Everybody has to start somewhere. And the Bible is a great place to start. Maybe the best. But as you can tell by what other inmates have written, unfortunately it’s also a place where lots of us get tripped up. We find ourselves drawn to pick up the Bible, wondering if the living God can communicate with us through it. But then we hesitate to actu- ally start reading it. And so it sits on a shelf, waiting for us.
When we finally do start reading the Bible, we sometimes find ourselves thinking … It’s beautiful. But it’s also boring.
It’s simple. But it’s also confusing.
It’s God-filled, and yet so obviously human.
It’s life-changing. And frustrating.
It’s all of this at the same time!
And so in this section we’re going to try to make it a little easier to read and experience the Bible’s life-changing message. But first, we know you have nagging questions, places where you’re getting stuck. So, let’s go ahead and start there. Well, okay. First off, I see all these different Bibles lying around. Big Bibles, little Bibles. Why so many different Bibles? Which is the real one? Yeah, it’s pretty confusing, isn’t it? First off, they’re all real. They’re all worth reading. But in another sense, unless you speak Greek or a few other ancient languages, none of them is original. About three-fourths of the Bible was written in Hebrew. The last fourth
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