Reading Multiple Versions of the Bible: Genesis 1:1

Genesis 1:1. If reading the Bible is the foundation of your life, then really studying it and getting the best translation is important. But most people are not scholars. They know neither Greek, nor Aramaic, nor Hebrew, the languages that the Bible was written in, so how can regular folks know that they are getting the correct words? Someone has to translate for us, and when we read, we have to trust.

There is one way to protect yourself as a reader, and that is by using a Bible with parallel texts, with three or four different translations of the same material, set in columns on the page. This offers us a sense of how much slippage is possible in a translation, and it shows us what kinds of decisions the translator had to make.

If one is truly concerned to get to best meaning possible, short of learning the original languages, this is the best option.

Let us take a look at the first line of the Old Testament and see how this works.

King James: In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

Amplified: In the beginning God (prepared, formed, fashioned,) and created the heavens and the earth.

New Amer. Standard: In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

New International: In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

Looking at these four translations, at first view they seem very similar. The first six words are exactly alike in all four translations. If this were so in a more disputed part of the text, we could hazard an assumption that at least the translators agreed on those words or we could take it a step further and guess that they all got the translation right. We might be wrong about that, but sooner or later, we have to trust, and this might be a place to do that.

Notice that the Amplified version has extra words in there. They tell us in their introduction that they do that in parenthesis to give more senses of a word, in this case, "created." The word "and," they explain, is in italics to show that it was not in the Bible, but is placed here to show that one of those other words in parenthesis could fit in where "created" is.

Thus, one translator thought that "prepared" could be substituted for "created."

Think about those words. They do have some differences. For example, to "prepare" includes the sense of making it ready for something that will follow, whereas to "create" does not have that sense. I might create the earth to leave it be, but if I prepare it, I've got further plans for it.

Just one word like this can create a new theology.

Now, the translators in these cases, I am sure, are being honest. I do not think they are in a conspiracy to hide this or push that (though in other cases it could be possible). But they have to make choices, and if a reader wants to participate in those choices, this kind of parallel text scripture is very useful, even essential to reading the Bible.

The other difference that I see in the texts is that the King James version uses the word "heaven," while the three others use the plural, "heavens." Here again, the difference could be small or could be large, depending on the reader. It could be a mistake in the King James version, or the plural might sound better to the ear, or the original could be ambiguous.

Some person interpreting, though, could build a lot on plural heavens. Perhaps there are different levels in heaven, or different locations for it, or, maybe if heaven is a mental or spiritual state, there are many such states.

Last, I'll mention just one more benefit of reading the Bible in such a way. It makes readers slow down and think about key words that, if only one translation was available, they might skim right over. It forces one to pause, to think and to meditate upon the text.

If you take reading the Bible seriously, this is a method that you should try.