Expert: Mr. McClellan - 9/28/2008

Question
is the NIV true in its translations

Answer
Hello Allwin,
I'm happy to answer your question.
None of the translations of the Bible have been "miraculously" confirmed to be absolutely accurate, including the NIV. That is, when they were finished, none of the translators performed a miracle, not a single one, that would prove that the translation was a perfect rendition of the meanings of the original languages that the Bible was originally written in. Translations of the Bible, no matter which one/s you pick, involve some of the personal opinions and biases held by the translators, and unless the accuracy of a translation is confirmed by a legitimate and varifiable miracle then there is no way for us to know with certainty if it is absolutely what the original writers of the Bible said or not, or that it conveys exactly what they wanted readers to understand. The best we can do is to base our judgement on what most of the translations say, trusting that the translators were doing their dead level best to get it right because of their fear of getting it wrong and what the consequences would be if they made a mistake. This was what drove the scribes, down through the history of copying the scriptures by hand, to go through a process that would help insure that no mistakes were made as they copied them from the originals, or from copies of copies confirmed accurate by comparing them with the originals. Once the originals were lost of destroyed, they only had copies to copy from. Now, because of the fear of making a mistake, the process involved in copying the scriptures by hand for centuries was very very arduous and exacting so that any mistakes would most certainly have been very minor and nothing that would have adversely affected what was said by the original authors. Having said all that, what we are faced with now is having to trust in the sincerety and integrity of the translators of the various versions to stick with translating and not get involved in interpreting in such a way as to twist the meaning to fit their own predilections, or prejudices. Of necessity some interpreting has to be done when translating from one language to another and it not always easy, or possible, to find a word in the other language that exactly matches the meaning of the one being translated. When that happens, it can only be approximated, so to speak, so that a person can get the general idea that was intended. I run into that situation quite often here in China. However, I find that in time an accurate understanding is ultimately the result as the meanings are indicated by the actions of people. I mean, there are words in English that there are no counterparts for in Chinese, for example, but as time goes by a correct concept is developed. This actually has to take place when new English words are invented too. We have to learn just what they mean and how to use them correctly.

One of the things that I have noticed over the years is that most people do not even know their own language well enough to know how to say what they really mean. It is no wonder then that they can't reliably understand what they read or hear. This is one reason for people getting into arguments. They can actually be talking about the same thing and understand it the same way but not able to accurately get their idea accross to the other person because both people are likely using some words to mean something a little different from the other one. Keep in mind that both of them, or either of them using words differently from the other, cannot be correct no matter how sincere they may be. Either one of them is wrong, or both of them are. Both cannot actually be right, or in agreement with the truth, and be in disagreement.

Now, having said all of the above, based on what the translations tell us the original writers of the Bible said, we can know "the" truth. That is, we can know the truth about what the translators say that the Bible says. Bear in mind that if what they said is not accurate enough for us to accurately understand the will of God, and to know that it is his will, then God cannot justifiably punish anyone. All of the translations tell us that Jesus said that we would be able to "know the truth...," not have to guess at it. And, if you and I know the truth, then we know and understand the same thing the same way. So, if you can be sure that you can't know the truth then you have nothing to worry about. If God is, and if he is perfectly just as all of the translations tell us he is, and if he has not been able to see to it that we can know the truth about what he requires of us, then he cannot justly punish us for doing things that we cannot possibly know to be wrong and the Bible is just a vain exercise by an impotent God in his attempts to communicate with us when he, if he is really all knowing, that he could not do it reliably enough for him to be able to justly hold us accountable. Right?

I sincerely hope this helps.
Mr McClellan