One Bible, Many Versions: Are All Translations Created Equal?

by Dave Brunn

The Old and New Testaments in their original forms were no doubt very natural and easy to read. Was the readability and naturalness of those original texts inspired by God? Of course it was. There is no aspect of the original that is not inspired. Since naturalness and readability were divinely inspired, it seems appropriate for translators to try to reflect those features in their translations too. The evidence in our English versions shows that there are many places where the translators of every English version set aside the goal of reflecting the inspired words in order to reflect the inspired naturalness and readability of the original. That seems to indicate that the inspired words are not necessarily more inspired than the inspired naturalness of the original.