Bible1

The Bible

The Bible is Word of God.  All true Jews and Christians believe this.  The difference between Jews and Christians is that for Jews the Bible has only the Old Testament while for Christians the Bible includes both the Old Testament and the New Testament.  It should be easy to buy a copy of Bible.  There are also many online search sites for the Bible.  I found this site useful: http://www.biblegateway.com/

God is a living God.  Therefore, God speaks everyday in many different ways.  However, the Holy Bible as God’s word in written form is special.  Unless one knows well the Bible, in other words, what God had said throughout the ages, he will not be able to hear or discern God’s speaking.  I like Isaiah 55

⁹ "As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.
¹⁰ As the rain and the snow
come down from heaven,
and do not return to it
without watering the earth
and making it bud and flourish,
so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater,
¹¹ so is my word that goes out from my mouth:
It will not return to me empty,
but will accomplish what I desire
and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.

As we Christian acknowledge, last God’s word in written form was given about 2000 years ago.  Even after almost 2000 years, God’s Word in written form has not finished its purpose. 

Truth

I am amazed by the power of the Word of God.  I am a scientist.  We know great scientists in modern times are perhaps Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein.  What they discovered are scientific truths.  I think that Isaac Newton is perhaps the greatest scientist in modern times because he founded many branches of sciences and mathematics.  Yet some of his theories have been proven to be inaccurate by Albert Einstein after merely a few generations.  It is likely that some years later, scientists will discover inaccuracies of some of Albert Einstein’s theories.  On the other hand, The Word of God is still the Truth after so many years.  No human is capable of this feat; only God alone can. 

Languages

The Old Testament is in Hebrew or Aramaic while the New Testament is in Greek.  Even what language God uses to transmit His Word has meanings.  Recently, I read [1] and strongly recommend the book.  Greek in fact is the most accurate language in modern times.  And it is no accident that many great philosophical, scientific, mathematical, political (e.g., democracy) ideas originated from Greek.  Incidentally, (this might be a blow to many Chinese’s ego) one interesting point of this book, well founded I might add, is that one big obstacle to advances in science and mathematics in China in the past was that Chinese is not alphabetic. 

To see the role of languages, recall Genesis 11:1-9 (The tower of Babel).  9: “That is why it was called Babel-because there the LORD confused the language of the whole world. From there the LORD scattered them over the face of the whole earth.”  The meaning of this story is that man wanted to reach the heavens by their own strength and God did not like that and let the world to have many different languages. 

In some sense, the opposite happened in Acts, known as Pentecost.  Acts 2:1-41, especially “⁶When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard them speaking in his own language.”  The difference this time is that God initiated the move and through the Holy Spirit people of many spoken languages understand the message.  Also Matt. 28:18-20 gave the great commission and prepared the background. 

What translation? 

Most of us do not know Hebrew or Greek.  We have to read Bible in either English or Chinese.  If you can read English, use an English Bible.  I found that Chinese versions do not translate some books well.  For example, many verses of Ephesians are in the past finished tense.  It is difficult to express them in Chinese.  After reading [1], it becomes clear to me that Chinese as a language is not accurate as well as lacks expressive power (meaning cannot express things that some other languages can).  If Chinese is not accurate for studying scientific truths, how can it be suitable to study the ultimate Truth? 

If you know English reasonably well, an English Bible is preferred.  Although an English version is not as good as the original text in Hebrew, Aramaic, or Greek, it still keeps most important aspects of alphabetic languages.  There are several good English versions of the Bible.  The most popular one is perhaps the NIV version.  The book [2] is a good reference (though it could be somewhat out of date).  This book explains a brief history of the Bible and compared several main English translations of the Bible.  NIV among one of several good translations and is relatively easy to read.  I heard that American Standard Version is good. 

Sometimes we need to use a Chinese Bible, for example, discussion with other Chinese.  You may consider the Union version.  In addition to deficiencies of the language, the Union version is somewhat old.  Translation of some verses is inaccurate (e.g., compare Zech.11:12-13, Matt. 27:9-10). 

A very important reason that English Bible should be used instead of Chinese versions is that many critical phrases in the Bible have no equals in Chinese.  Often translations of such words into Chinese cause confusions.  For example, sin is a very important concept in the Bible.  But there is no equivalent word, even a remote concept, in Chinese.  Most Chinese versions translate it into a Chinese word equivalent to “crime”.  Sin and crime are two concepts in two different realms.  Sin refers to human separation from God while crime refers one’s wrong act against laws in a society.  It is difficult to convince a Chinese who is not a Christian that a man is sinful.  To him, it looks like that you want to convict him of some crime that he is not aware of.  Other similar words are: faith, religion, grace, righteous, church, etc. 

1. “The Alphabet Effect” by Robert K., Logan, St. Martin's Press; (September 1987)
2. “The Bible, an owner's manual” Robert R. Hann, : Paulist Press, c1983.