Translations and T.W.B.T.S.
#UnderstandingTheBible
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.
Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God… - John 3:16-18
Prayer…
OKAY… - let’s do this…
We have a lot of awesome ground to cover today.
NOW - we are in this series on understanding the bible.
AND – it has been a really good time so far – if I do say so myself.
• In week one we talked about how the bible is unique, accurate, supernatural and transformational.
• In week two we talked about how the bible has one overriding theme purpose and storyline… ‘the coming of Christ.’
• In week three we talked about the canon of the bible ABOUT - why we can be totally confident that our bibles contain the books that God intended. In other words, there are no books that are missing and there are not any books in there that should not be in there.
• Last week we talk about the transmission of the text, ABOUT…
o How we have so many manuscripts – almost 6,000 in Greek and 15,000-20,000 translations in Latin and other languages… that’s 20-25,000 hand written manuscripts (that is a lot – in contrast to the average classical Greek writings that have only about 15 copies)
o And we talked about how the time gap between (when the original was written) and (the first copy that we have) is so much smaller with the NT…
UNDERSTAND - in a few decades we have fragments (P52) – and in ~ 100 years complete NT books and in ~ 225 years the entire NT… where Classical Greek waits at least 500 years for it’s first fragment and writings like Homers Iliad wait 1900 years for it’s first full copy.
o And we talked about how - because we have so many manuscripts that this leads to a lot of variants (differences between the various manuscripts)…
HOWEVER - over 99% of those variants are things like word order, and spelling differences… AND LISTEN - of the less than 1% of variants not a single one comes even close to touching any of the core doctrines of our faith.
The bible has been copied so much and so early that we cannot hide the original text.
B/L – what we have seen in the last 2 weeks of this study is that… WE CAN - be extremely confident in our bible… CONFIDENT THAT - we have the right books in here…
AND CONFIDENT THAT - we have what Matthew, Paul, Luke….etc wrote. And that is good news, right?
AND AGAIN - all of these messages are online and if you would like my notes just let me know.
Also don’t forget the resource sheet that I put together.
OKAY
THIS MORNING… we are going to talk about 2 things…
Translations and T.W.B.T.S.
We will start with a brief discussion on Translations… and then wrap up our time on T.W.B.T.S…
This week we will complete part one of our study on Understanding The Bible… which was all about achieving my first goal for this series…
Goal #1 – To take a look at the overwhelming evidence that demonstrates (contrary to the onslaughts of modern culture) that The Bible is not just another book or mere ink on paper, but that it really is from God, the Maker of heaven and earth.
AND LISTEN – we will begin part 2 where I will be teaching some principles that will you interpret and understand the bible better, in a few weeks when I get back from a mission trip Laurie and I are leading for CIY to Northern Ireland…
And as always I have some great guest speakers lined up for you when I am gone.
Translations…
OKAY – here’s the deal…
SINCE - I am pretty sure that none of us are fluent in Hebrew and Greek, we read from English translations….
Quick side note, it was not until…
• The early 13th century that chapter divisions were added (Stephen Langton).
• The late 14th century (1382) that we had our first English Bible (John Wycliffe) translated from the Latin (You see, Wycliffe felt that the bible should be in the language of the common man – Now the church was not happy). In fact, years after his death he was declared to be a heretic and his body was dug up and burned.
It was not until…
• The early 16th century that we had our first English Bible translated from the original Greek and Hebrew (by William Tyndale) – who was arrested for having an unauthorized Scripture… tied to a stake, strangled to death and then burned.
• And in the mid 16th century that the verse numbers were added (Robert Stephanus) to the text. (Yeah I know, it is crazy… but for the first 1600 there were no John 3:16 at Football games.
AGAIN – Wycliffe and Tyndale were the first English translations, and now we have hundreds…
Why so many new translations?
(several reasons)
1. $$$
(the bible is a best seller)
2. English changes over time (a lot of have seen that happen in our own lifetime)
Talk about how the following words have changed in meaning…
tool
bad
dope
catfish
cloud
text
tag
tablet
Some words in the KJV mean something totally different.
KJV
Closet = inner room
Conversation = way of life
Carriages = luggage
Leasing = lying
Divers = various
Mean = obscure
Bowels = heart
AND – there are some words in the KJV that we just don’t use and would have no idea what they mean… like
Bewrayeth – Bruit – Emerods – Espied – Holpen – Listeth
Purloining – Suretiship – taches…
Bottom Line – what I am trying to say is that to the early church the NT sounded just like everyday language, and language changes.
A 3rd reason for new translation
3. New Greek Manuscripts
Are discovered.
OKAY – so there are a lot of different translations…
Which one is the best?
UNDERSTAND – there is no best…
Most are good.
Some are not as good.
And some are kind of bad.
NOW – each translation falls somewhere on the scale between 2 different translating philosophies
The 2 Translating Philosophies
• Formal Equivalent – ‘more’ word for word
It aims to be a literal translation (though there is no such thing as 100% word for word).
Pros: it attempts to stay close to what the original Hebrew or Greek says; they try to avoid interpreting what the original writer meant and leave that to the reader
Cons: sometimes they can be hard to understand and make little sense to a modern reader; sentence structure can be hard to follow; often relies on the assumption that the reader will understand technical language, ancient idioms.
• Dynamic Equivalent – ‘more’ thought for thought
It aims to make the text as readable for a modern audience as possible.
Pros: is often easy to read and understand; it communicates what the passage means in an easy style; avoids technical language
Cons: the translator decides what the passage means; sometimes the sentences are very different from what was originally said (or what you find in other translations).
But here is the bottom line, there are no purely formal or purely dynamic equivalence translations, most are a mix of the two but with an emphasis in one direction or another.
OKAY – let me try to show you how this is played out…
IMAGINE – that you are trying to translate the following sentence into a different language…
Bob and Jane went into the house and began to argue. “You’re driving me crazy,” Jane said, “stop beating a dead horse.”
NOW - the first sentence is pretty straightforward, right?
I MEAN - it’s a simple description of activities that can be understood easily when translated word-for-word into most languages. Most translators will translate this in the same way.
But can you see how the second sentence is a lot tougher…
If you go word for word you may cause it to say something it is not really saying…
• Like it has something to do with a mental illness
• And like where did the horse come from and why is someone beating it.
AGAIN - That is why all translations fall somewhere in between… the formal and the dynamic equivalent.
Check out the diagram of translation comparison and you can see which ones lean more towards word for word and thought for thought.
There is a great website blueletterbible that you can search a passage and see an interlinear that shows the Greek…
OKAY – so that’s the deal on ‘Translations’
• There are no best
• Pick the one the leans towards the philosophy you prefer
• Usually one that is thought for thought is good when reading the bible is new
• Pick a translation made up of a team from many different denominations – this is good for checks and balances.
• Of the word for word the ESV, NASB, HCSB or good ones and for the more thought for thought the NIV and NLT are good.
• Some translations like the NRSV and TNIV have in my opinion gone too far with gender-neutral language
OKAY - so this pretty much wraps up our discussion on how we got the bible…
Now let’s Talk about T.W.B.T.S. which stands for…
The Why Behind The Story
QUESTION – what is the main storyline of the bible?
The coming Christ.
AND WHAT – is the why behind the story?
LIKE – why did He come?
UNDERSTAND - Jesus came…
• to set us free
• to shed His blood
• to forgive our sins
• to remove the barrier that separated us from God.
• to unleash the Gospel of God’s love, mercy and grace
UNDERSTAND B/S – the why behind the story is what.
• Motivated men to copy those thousands of manuscripts so carefully and accurately by hand throughout the centuries…
• Caused men like William Tyndale to translate the bible into the common language even though he knew it would more than likely result in his death, but the why behind the story was worth it…
AND MGCC – the why behind the story is what I want to unpack in our time remaining…
This story of forgiveness and freedom and salvation and mercy and grace that is found only in Christ Jesus our Lord…
NOW – in Ephesians chapter 2…
Paul – does a great job of describing the why behind the story…
AND - he starts off with a pretty rough and disturbing
BEFORE JESUS PICTURE...
As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.
All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. And we were by nature children under God’s wrath, like the rest of mankind. – Ephesians 2:1-3
OKAY…
BEFORE JESUS - we were…
Dead - not sick, not having a bad hair day… we were dead
AND – according to God’s Word in Romans 6:3, The wages of sin is death.
BEFORE CHRIST - we were…
Children under God’s wrath
Which is not a good thing… you see as children under God’s wrath we were facing because of our sin… a Christ-less eternity in a place we don’t like to think or talk about,
BUT THAT - is more real and more lasting than this building we are in now.
A place of eternal and forever torment, utter darkness, gnashing of teeth unending pain….
No before Christ is not a pretty picture…
Now, I doubt that those were very pleasant verses for the scribes to copy and for translators to translate…
Thankfully for us, for me, for you, for everyone in this room and in our world… the story does not end there.
But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.
And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast.
For we are God’s masterpiece, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
- Ephesians 2:4-10
NOW – I don’t know about you but I love the after Jesus picture…
• Alive with Christ
• Covered by His incomparable grace
• No longer an object of God’s wrath but His Masterpiece.
YES B/S – this is The Why Behind The Story
Salvation – forgiveness – freedom - making dead people come alive – the unleashing of God’s grace.
AND LISTEN – here’s the bottom line for those who receive the gift of SALVATION things only get better from here (heaven)…
BUT – for those who don’t – this life is as good as it gets… think about that for a minute.
WHICH – brings us to THE QUESTION of the ages…
• How do we get in on the why behind the story
• How do we get in on forgiveness, grace and salvation
• How do we get in on the deal that God made with Himself on the cross?
• How do we make sure our life is that after Jesus picture
AND – where do we go to find the answer?
LISTEN - there is only one place to get the answer…
AND - it’s not from… a person, a pastor, a denomination, a family member or friend, from me – it’s from the Word of God.
This word that…
• God has protected and preserved.
• People have copied throughout the centuries
• Is the authority for all things, including how you and I get in on TWBTS!
• We have seen the last few weeks is – reliable, trustworthy, true and from God.
OKAY – so what does God say in His Word about His Salvation…
FIRST….
The Bible teaches that we are saved by grace.
Understand – salvation and eternal life in Jesus is a gift that cannot be earned or deserved…
It’s not something you achieve or strive for.
It is by God’s unmerited (unearned, undeserved) favor.
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. – Eph 2:8,9
SECOND…
The Bible teaches that this gift (Grace) can only be received through faith…
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith
AND LISTEN – throughout the pages of the New Testament we find the details of the FAITH that saves.
Saving Faith Believes (John 3:16)
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
- John 3:16
IT – believes what God’s Word says about:
• His love, His plan, His mercy, His grace, His person
• Our sin and it’s consequences.
• Jesus: Who He is & What He did (paid all of our debt).
OKAY – so saving faith believes… which is extremely good and important.
BUT UNDERSTAND – believing the right stuff is essential – it is only the starting point…
After all, God says in His Word in James 2…
You say you have faith, for you believe that there is one God. Good for you! Even the demons believe this, and they tremble in terror. – James 2:19
Saving Faith Repents
Repent, then, and turn to God so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord.
- Acts 3:19
WHAT – is repentance?
UNDERSTAND – repentance means so much more than simply being sorry for our sins…
REPENTANCE – is making a u turn, it’s hanging a 180.
REPENTANCE - is laying down your agenda for life and embracing God’s.
“God I’ve been wrong about so much and you are right about everything. I want to live for you. I want to take off my old ways (thoughts, attitudes, actions, agendas) and put on your new and better ways of living.”
REPENTANCE – is a commitment and a desire to no longer live for ourselves and instead live for God. REPENTANCE – is not simply being sorry, REPENTANCE is change.
Saving Faith Confesses
Everyone therefore who shall confess Me before men, I will also confess him before my father who is in heaven. - Mt 10:32
UNDERSTAND…
FAITH – unashamedly, at all times and in all places.
No matter who we are with – no matter what it costs, says (confesses) that…
“Jesus is Lord
Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life”
(Repeat)
Pretty easy to do that in here right?
Can you think of any places where it might not be so easy?
HEY – you know that context of Matthew 10:32
Everyone therefore who shall confess Me before men, I will also confess him before my father who is in heaven. - Mt 10:32
(Jesus is telling His guys that in the future that you will be beaten, arrested – because you love and follow me)
Confessing is going and staying public with our faith…
Saving Faith Is Baptized
NOW UNDERSTAND - the word baptism is used over 80 times in the New Testament and every one of those times it is the Greek word ‘baptizo’ means to dip, plunge or immerse…
That’s why @ Maple Grove when we baptize – we baptize by immersion – because that is what we see people doing in the New Testament… and that is what the word means.
UNDERSTAND – for some reason, and I so wish that they did not, those who first translated the Greek into English choose to transliterate not translate the word baptizo.
Transliteration is to take a Greek word and use the same basic letters to create a new English word…
LISTEN – baptism is a huge deal, even though (pardon the pun) it has gotten watered down a lot over the years.
A Few Key Things To Keep In Mind
• Baptism is not a tradition of the church it’s a command and promise of God
• Baptism is not about joining a church it’s about being united with Christ.
• You don’t have to worthy to be baptized (just like you do not get cleaned up to take a bath)
• No verse can mean less than what it says, but it can mean more in light of other Scripture… (Like John 3:16 cannot mean less than what it says… but we know from other Scriptures that we must repent, confess and be baptized)
• Baptism is not a parental decision – it’s a personal decision (In the NT every time a person was baptized they first believed.
• NOW – maybe some of you were like me and your mom and dad when you were still a baby, because they loved you and because it was what they had been taught took you to church and you were sprinkled.
That happened to me some time back in 1960.
It was not my decision.
Years later when I was 19 after studying the bible I made my own personal decision to follow Christ, do what the bible says and was baptized (immersed) into His name.
Now after I did this I spend a couple years trying my mom and dad understand that they needed to be immersed.
It was especially hard for my mom, because her dad (my granddad) had died 10 years earlier and had never been immersed (he was taught that being sprinkled as a baby was what you did)… so if she accepted her need to be immersed what did it mean for my granddad.
This is where a deli illustration is helpful…
Imagine your grandparents pass away and they leave their deli to you in their will.
You do some remodeling and you have the scales calibrated and when you do you find out that it is 2 oz off.
So when your grandparents sold someone 16oz of meat it was actually only 14 oz.
Question – where they being dishonest?
No, they didn’t know.
But if you do not have it fix are you being dishonest – yes.
POINT – don’t make your baptism about anyone else except you, God and His Word.
Okay, let’s walk through the Word of God
‘our authority’ on all things including our salvation
and what baptism is all about
All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey everything I commanded you. And surely I am with you to the very end of the age.
– Matthew 28:19,20
“In the name of” - a term used in the Greek market place for the transfer of ownership from one party to another.
ACTS 2 – a big deal, birth of the church, first time the Gospel was ever preached following Jesus death, burial and resurrection.
Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.” When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?”
Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call.”
HEY – did you notice that he did not tell them to believe?
WHY? They obviously already did.
If some of our friends came up from Orlando to C’ville I would tell them…
• I-4 East
• I-95 North
• I-64 West
• Hwy 250 (exit 124)
Question – if for some reason they lost the directions and were on I64 West and the pulled off and asked some how to get to Charlottesville… would that person even mention I-4 or I-95?
No
Because they already did that.
We see the same thing in the NT…
The people in Acts 2 already believed.
People are not given different answers we just meet some people who were at different places.
With many other words he warned them; and he pleaded with them, “Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.” Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day.
Turn or scroll over to Acts 8:12…
Phillip is in Samaria preaching Christ and performing miracles to prove that what He was true and was from God.
But when they believed Philip as he preached the good news of the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women. Simon himself believed and was baptized. And he followed Philip everywhere, astonished by the great signs and miracles he saw. – Acts 8:12,13
AND THEN – a few verses down in Acts 8…
We find a guy riding in returning home from worshipping God in Jerusalem. He is reading Scripture from the prophet Isaiah and he doesn’t understand it (it’s Isaiah 53)
SO GOD – supernaturally send Phillip to him…
The eunuch asked Philip, “Tell me, please, who is the prophet talking about, himself or someone else?” Then Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus.
And though Luke did not record what Phillip said when he preached the good news, we know that his sharing included the need for being baptized into Christ, because of what happened next.
As they traveled along the road, they came to some water and the eunuch said, “Look, here is water. Why shouldn’t I be baptized?”
And he gave orders to stop the chariot. Then both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water and Philip baptized him. When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord suddenly took Philip away, and the eunuch did not see him again, but went on his way rejoicing. – Acts 8:34-39
I see a pattern developing here…
Then in Acts 9…
Then Ananias went to the house and entered it. Placing his hands on Saul, he said, “Brother Saul, the Lord—Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you were coming here—has sent me so that you may see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” Immediately, something like scales fell from Saul’s eyes, and he could see again. He got up and was baptized, and after taking some food, he regained his strength. – Acts 9:17-19
IN ACTS 16 – Paul goes out to a river in Philippi… where people had gathered for prayer… And he preached about Jesus.
One of those listening was a woman named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth from the city of Thyatira, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul’s message. When she and the members of her household were baptized, she invited us to her home… – Acts 16:14,15
Then in Acts 16… after the earthquake and the prison doors fly open and the jailer is about to take his life.
The jailer called for lights, rushed in and fell trembling before Paul and Silas. He then brought them out and asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”
They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus,
(get on I-4 east)
and you will be saved—you and your household.”
Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all the others in his house.
Because they knew nothing of God, Christ or the Gospel.
At that hour of the night the jailer took them and washed their wounds; then immediately he and all his family were baptized.
– Acts 16:29-33
Then Paul left the synagogue and went next door to the house of Titius Justus, a worshiper of God. Crispus, the synagogue ruler, and his entire household believed in the Lord; and many of the Corinthians who heard him believed and were baptized.
– Acts 18:7-8
While Apollos was at Corinth, Paul took the road through the interior and arrived at Ephesus. There he found some disciples 2 and asked them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” They answered, “No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.”
3 So Paul asked, “Then what baptism did you receive?”
“John’s baptism,” they replied.
4 Paul said, “John’s baptism was a baptism of repentance. He told the people to believe in the one coming after him, that is, in Jesus.” 5 On hearing this, they were baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus. – Acts 19:1-5
And now what are you waiting for? Get up, be baptized and wash your sins away, calling on his name.’ – Acts 22:16
Note…
• He did not tell Paul to believe, repent or confess… because he already did.
• This verse cannot mean less than what it says – that baptism is connected with the washing away of our sins, but it can mean more in light of other Scripture.
BROTHERS AND SISTERS – in the book of Acts we see lost people coming to Christ and we see that baptism was a significant part of that process…
AND LISTEN – the teaching about the importance of baptism does not end in the book of Acts…
HERE – are just a few passages…
All of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.
– Romans 6:3,4
For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ… – Gal 3:27
And this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also—not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a good conscience toward God. It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ… - 1 Peter 3:21
And now what are you waiting for? Get up, be baptized and wash your sins away, calling on his name.’ – Acts 22:16
It’s Baptism Sunday
