Comparing Two Other Concepts of Bible Accuracy
Updated: Feb 25, 2022
[T]o another the interpretation of tongues, 1st Corinthians 12:10.
A convenient stopping off point for fundamentalists seeking to get off the King James Bible bandwagon is the concept of translation itself.
Did God ever intend the Word of God to be in any other languages than Greek and Hebrew?
If he did intend such a thing, could he do it?
If a man by the Holy Ghost interpreted the word of God from Greek or Hebrew into English would it be perfect, or subject to the fallibilities of man?
Which was the word of God in Acts Chapter 2, what Peter preached in his language, or what the people heard in theirs?
When Daniel interpreted the words MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN to the king into his own language in Daniel chapter 5, was it less accurate than the writing on the wall?
When Jesus Christ said, Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away, Mark 13:31, Matthew 24:35, Luke 21:33; why didn't the apostles record it in Hebrew as Jesus spoke it? Why was it recorded in Greek? Is that less accurate being a translation?
1st Corinthians 14:8 For if the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle?
1st Corinthians 14:9 So likewise ye, except ye utter by the tongue words easy to be understood, how shall it be known what is spoken? for ye shall speak into the air.
1st Corinthians 14:10 There are, it may be, so many kinds of voices in the world, and none of them is without signification.
1st Corinthians 14:11 Therefore if I know not the meaning of the voice, I shall be unto him that speaketh a barbarian, and he that speaketh shall be a barbarian unto me.
The bible definition of a barbarian is someone who speaks a language that you cannot understand. Get this through your head; if God only spoke in Greek and Hebrew, and you cannot speak Greek and Hebrew, God is a barbarian to you. I'm not talking about your silly little fundamentalist buddy who took a few years of Greek and Hebrew and thinks that he can sit at the table with the big boys. They play act with each other and for their congregations but if they had to sit in a round table of Hebrew Rabbis speaking biblical Hebrew they would just drool and look stupid.
I have never yet met a person with three years of High School French or Spanish who could survive a night alone in one of those capitals without a dictionary. I do not believe that those same students transported to bible college got any smarter. By no means do I believe that some savant graduated from Bob Jones or Pensacola Christian College with the ability to read either the Greek or Hebrew Bible without being surrounded by study aids. If God only speaks to men infallibly in Greek and Hebrew, then the infallible words of God are a barbarian's words to us.
Or, you could believe your bible.
Mat 28:19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:
Mat 28:20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.
How could the apostles teach all nations those things that Jesus Christ commanded them if they could not speak to them in their own languages? The Holy Ghost has borne witness to the word of God throughout the ages. He doesn't sit in heaven chewing his fingernails wondering of people can understand. He empowered interpretation of tongues in the Old Testament. He empowered the interpretation of tongues in the New Testament, and by every criteria we have to judge the word of God, he empowered the interpretation of the Hebrew and Greek Bible into the King James Bible.
Do you serve a god who by his own defintion would be a barbarian to you, or do you serve a God who intended to give you the word of God in your own tongue and made provision through the Holy Ghost and his mastery of all human history to do so?