Why Bible Study Part IV
While studying Spanish, I quickly discovered that whereas in today’s English we say “Sorry” when we mean
“I apologize,”
or “Excuse me,”
or “Oops, my bad,”
or “I feel bad for you,”
there wasn’t one Spanish word that covered all the same bases. I had to hunt down all the right ways to say those things to communicate exactly what I meant.
In addition to being written in a much different time and place, the Bible was originally in a different language. The Old Testament (before Jesus’ time) was written in ancient Hebrew and Aramaic. The New Testament was written in Greek. These languages are very different from each other and from English. Anytime you translate something in a language there’s the chance you might miss something. That’s why so many versions of the Bible exist. Different translators try to help the readers of their generation understand specifically what the original languages were saying.
One Hebrew word frequently used is “hesed.” Look at how many different ways it is translated by different people:
Your lovingkindness is before my eyes. (NKJV)
Your steadfast love is before my eyes. (ESV)
I see your mercy in front of me. (GW)
I have always been mindful of your unfailing love. (NIV)
Psalm 26:3
“Hesed” basically means committed, covenant love. God uses it when he talks about the covenant promises he made to his people. It’s a word full of meaning. Translating it “lovingkindness” shows the love side of it, but nothing of the commitment. “Steadfast love” shows the commitment but not much of the mercy.
Any of these translations convey some of what the author was trying to say, but comparing versions helps see different elements of the original language. And if you have the time and resources to dig deeper into the language you can discover even fuller meaning.
I admit I’m a word geek. Word studies were my favorite part of Bible College. But as a mom in general I don’t have a lot of time to dig out stacks of translation tools and dozens of commentaries to spend hours on every word I’d like to really define. So comparing translations is a shortcut to finding out more of the original meaning. If you’re wanting to go deeper, one of the next steps is learning to use a concordance and a book like Vine’s Expository Dictionary of Old & New Testament Words.
Again, God is alive and he says his word is “living and active,” too. So he speaks today through the same words he spoke thousands of years ago. But going the extra mile in our study is quality time spent pursuing a deeper understanding of God.