The objection is familiar: the Bible has passed through so many languages that it can’t be trusted. That worry deserves a real answer. Your English Bible is a translation, and you can read it with confidence once you understand how it was made. You can also use more than one translation on purpose, so that each version shows you something about the text.
This guide helps you build that habit. By the end you should be able to name what kind of translation you own and explain why two faithful versions can word the same verse differently. You should also be able to choose a Bible to fit what you are doing with it. You can work through it alone in about an hour, or with a group over one long session or two shorter ones. You will need your own Bible, access to at least two other English translations in print or online, and a pen.
The guide draws on a Jude 3 Project podcast conversation in which Lisa Fields talks with Dr. Paul Wegner, who teaches at Gateway Seminary and wrote a book tracing where the Bible came from.
Start with the Bible you already own
Before reading any explanation, look at what is in your hands. Open your Bible to the pages most people skip: the title page, the copyright page, and the preface or introduction. If you read on a phone, find the “about this translation” information for the version you use most.
Write down three things:
- The full name of the translation, not only its initials.
- Any sentence in the preface that describes its goal. Look for words like literal, accurate, readable, natural, clear or faithful.
- Anything it says about which Hebrew and Greek texts it was translated from, and who did the work.
Many readers discover that they have used a Bible for years without knowing what it was trying to do. That is not a failure. It is a starting point. Hold on to what you wrote, because you will come back to it at the end.
If you are leading a group, give everyone five quiet minutes for this before anyone talks. Then ask people to read aloud only the goal sentence they found. Hearing several prefaces side by side shows the main idea of this study before you explain it.
Translation inside the Bible itself
Translation and explanation are not modern intrusions into Scripture. The Bible shows God’s people working to understand the written word. When Ezra read the law to the people who had returned from exile, the text says:
“So they read in the book in the law of God distinctly, and gave the sense, and caused them to understand the reading.” (Nehemiah 8:8)
Read the verse slowly and notice the three actions. The readers read distinctly. They gave the sense. They caused them to understand. Scholars discuss whether this involved translating Hebrew into Aramaic, explaining the meaning, or both, and the verse does not settle that. What it plainly describes is concern that the hearers actually grasp what was read. It describes a practice and does not command one, but it shows what the leaders valued.
The same concern appears centuries later. Philip meets an Ethiopian official on the road who is reading from Isaiah:
“And Philip ran thither to him, and heard him read the prophet Esaias, and said, Understandest thou what thou readest? And he said, How can I, except some man should guide me? And he desired Philip that he would come up and sit with him.” (Acts 8:30-31)
Two small observations will help later. First, the KJV spells the prophet’s name Esaias, the Greek form of Isaiah. Even a name looks different depending on which language it passed through, and the person is the same. Second, Philip’s question is about understanding. Owning the text was not enough. The official needed someone to help him follow it.
Take a moment with this question before moving on: in both passages, what stands between the reader and understanding, and what removes it?
How your translation was actually made
Here is where Wegner’s explanation changes what you will do next. The most common misunderstanding is that English Bibles are copies of earlier English Bibles, each one drifting further from the source. Wegner says the opposite is true of the versions most people buy today: “most modern translations start with the same Greek and Hebrew text.”
He describes friends who walked into a Bible bookstore to buy a Bible. “They come out more confused than ever,” he says, because the shelf looks like a collection of competing books. His explanation is that the source is shared and the method differs. Of the common modern English translations he says, “all of them start with the same Greek and Hebrew text. It’s just that the principles they use to translate are quite a bit different.”
The difference in principles comes down to a trade-off. Wegner pictures it as a chart with readability on one side and literalness on the other: “every time you try to make it more readable, you’re gonna lose some of the literalness.” A translation that keeps close to the wording and even the sentence order of the original serves close study well. A translation that aims for natural English is easier to read in long stretches. Wegner places the New American Standard Bible toward the literal end. He places the New International Version and the New Living Translation toward the readable end, where, as he says of the New Living, “they wanna make sure it’s understandable.”
He adds two details that matter for how you trust the result. Translations are checked by committees, and he notes “there’s anywhere from 70 to a hundred people going through the translation.” He is also candid about weaker spots: he says the readability-focused versions sometimes do a really good job and sometimes do not succeed as well as he would like. Yet he insists that “every modern translation, it has a purpose.”
The King James Version, which this guide quotes, has a slightly different history. Wegner explains that it and the New King James were translated from a printed Greek text called the Textus Receptus, meaning the received text. He clears up the name: “it almost makes it sound from God, but that’s not really true.” It simply became the standard text. He has high regard for the original translators: “at the time in 1600, they did a superb job.” He adds, “I’m not knocking them at all.” The difference is that “God’s given us a lot of Greek and Hebrew text that we didn’t even know existed back in the 16 hundreds,” and most newer translations draw on that larger body of evidence.
With that in mind, look again at your preface notes. Where does your Bible seem to sit between literal and readable? Does it follow the Textus Receptus or modern editions of the Hebrew and Greek?
The comparison exercise
This is the center of the study. The aim is to see the readability and literalness trade-off with your own eyes, and to learn to tell a difference in expression from a difference in meaning.
- Choose your passages. Use Proverbs 26:4-5 first, then one short passage of your own choosing, no more than five verses. In the KJV, Proverbs 26:4-5 reads: “Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest thou also be like unto him. Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own conceit.”
- Line up three versions. Put the KJV beside one translation that leans literal and one that leans readable. Copy each version by hand. Writing the words out slows you down enough to notice them.
- Mark every difference. Circle each place where the wording changes, however small.
- Sort the differences. Label each circled spot with one of these: archaic word (such as “conceit,” which in older English means one’s opinion of oneself, not only vanity), word order, added words for clarity, different word choice, or footnoted reading, which means a note saying some manuscripts read differently.
- Ask the meaning question. For each difference, decide whether the meaning changed or only the expression. If you think the meaning changed, write one sentence saying exactly how.
Proverbs 26:4-5 is useful because the two sayings seem to contradict each other in every translation. That tells you something. The tension belongs to the original text, not to a translator’s mistake. These are wisdom sayings, principles for different situations, and good translations preserve the tension instead of smoothing it away. If your readable version made the two verses sound less opposed, notice whether it added words to do so.
In a group, assign each pair of people a different set of translations for the second passage, then compare findings. Most groups find that nearly every difference falls under expression rather than meaning. A few find a footnote worth discussing. Both results are worth reporting.
Testing what you found
A fair-minded reader should push back here. If versions differ, one of them must be closer to the original. Doesn’t that mean the more literal one is always right?
Wegner does not think the answer is that simple. After describing a translation that follows Hebrew and Greek sentence patterns closely, he adds: “Now we could talk about whether that’s necessarily gonna make it more accurate or not.” A word-for-word rendering can keep the form of the original and still leave an English reader with the wrong impression. A freer rendering can carry the sense clearly and still lose a detail a careful student wants. Accuracy is about meaning arriving intact, and both kinds of translation can succeed or miss.
The footnotes raise a harder question. Wegner grants that in a few places scholars may not be able to confirm whether one reading or another is original, sometimes over one or two words. Most such differences, he says, resemble whether “you said” or “they said,” and “the difference between that is not gonna affect the meaning of the text at all.” His larger judgment is this: “no element of theology is in question based upon the translations that we have. So they’re all accurate enough to give us an accurate picture of what we need to know about God.”
That is a scholar’s claim, and you can test it rather than simply accept it. Find one footnote in your Bible that mentions a different manuscript reading. Read the verse both ways. Ask whether any core Christian belief depends on which reading is right, or whether the same teaching appears clearly elsewhere in Scripture. Doing this once or twice will tell you more than any summary.
Lisa Fields, reflecting on the care the scribes took in copying Scripture, puts the attitude behind the whole process plainly: “it wasn’t a careless act. It was something they did with carefulness.” The translator committees and footnotes you just examined continue that same carefulness.
Choosing a Bible for what you are doing
When people ask Wegner which translation is best, he answers, “it depends what you want it for.” His advice at the end of the conversation is to “find out the goal for each of the translations,” then match it to your purpose “to make sure you’ve got the right Bible for what you’re doing.”
Turn that into a practical decision for the coming month. Write down your two main uses for the Bible right now. Examples include reading through a whole book, studying a short passage closely, reading aloud with children, memorizing, or answering a friend’s question. Beside each use, name the translation that fits it. Many readers end up with a pair: one version that leans readable for longer reading and one that leans literal for close study. If you keep the KJV, a modern version beside it can help you with archaic words without replacing it.
Then try it. For one week, read your longer passages in the readable version and do your close study in the literal one. Notice which habit helped you understand and which one only felt more serious.
Questions for discussion or reflection
- Before this study, how did you picture the relationship between your English Bible and the original languages? What, if anything, has changed in that picture?
- In the comparison exercise, which difference surprised you most? Was it a change in meaning or only in expression, and how did you decide?
- Wegner suggests a very literal translation is not automatically more accurate. Do you agree? What would count as evidence either way?
- Nehemiah 8:8 and Acts 8:30-31 both show people needing help to understand what they read. What kind of help do you most need with Scripture right now, and where could you realistically find it?
- After testing a footnoted reading yourself, how would you assess Wegner’s claim that no element of theology is in question? What further evidence would you want to see?
- If a friend told you the Bible can’t be trusted because it has been translated so many times, what would you say in three or four sentences? Which part of your answer could you actually show them on a page?
Anyone in a group may pass on any question. The third and fifth questions often produce honest disagreement. Let that stand, and ask people to name what evidence would move them rather than pushing toward one answer.
Back to where you started
Return to the notes you made from your preface at the beginning. Read the goal sentence again. Does it mean more to you now than it did an hour ago? Could you explain it to someone else?
Wegner offers one more thought worth carrying. Explaining why he believes the original manuscripts were not preserved, he suggests that God wanted people to understand this: “those manuscripts aren’t the important thing. It’s what they say about me that’s important.” Comparing translations is not about finding a perfect English page to revere. It is a way of listening more carefully to what the text says, so that the God it speaks of becomes clearer.