I want to try to answer the question I posed earlier, "Why not just find one perfect translation and use that?" The easy answer is: there is no such thing as a perfect translation.
Translation is somewhat of a limitation in this sense, because something is always lost in a translation. The reason this is true is because translation always involves interpretation. Whenever something is translated into another language, it is not as if there is a mathematical equation (this word “equals” this), but it takes some creativity on the part of a translator. Therefore, there is no such thing as a perfect translation, as the King James Version translators have duly noted. A few points should be emphasized:
Translation is somewhat of a limitation in this sense, because something is always lost in a translation. The reason this is true is because translation always involves interpretation. Whenever something is translated into another language, it is not as if there is a mathematical equation (this word “equals” this), but it takes some creativity on the part of a translator. Therefore, there is no such thing as a perfect translation, as the King James Version translators have duly noted. A few points should be emphasized:
- Translation is not as simple as "right and wrong." My example of a translation "machine" is inherantly flawed. There is no “point-to-point” correspondence between languages. It is more of a correspondence between an area and an area. For instance, the word “love” in English can mean many different things. We “love” ice cream, we “love” our church, we “love” our country, and we “love” our family members. It would be ridiculous to suggest that the word love always means only one thing.
- Words have meaning only in a given context. There is no such thing as an intrinsic meaning that is bound up in a group of letters. What does the word mine “really mean”? It all depends on context! It could be a verb, a noun, or even a pronoun, but it depends on its context in a sentence or paragraph. Beware of someone who tells you what a word “actually means” or “really means.”
For example, some have said that agapao is God’s love and phileo is man’s love. However, in Matthew 24:12, Jesus warns about the apostasy during the Tribulation and says that men’s love (agape) will wax cold. On the other hand, in John 5:20, Jesus said that the Father loves (phileo) the Son. Therefore, we must be careful making absolute statements since these distinctions break down. - We cannot count on etymology, or the roots of a word, to give a word a certain meaning. For instance, a “butterfly” has nothing to do with “butter” and a “pineapple” has nothing to do with either a “pine” or an “apple.”
One of the Greek words often translated “repentance” is a compound word from “change” and “mind.” Therefore, some have assumed (incorrectly), that repentance involves merely admitting facts about Jesus Christ and maybe sin. However, when one studies the context of this word, we see that there is a mental, emotional, and volitional aspect to the activity.
For this reason, we need to be careful that we understand some of the dynamics involved in translation. There is always subjectivity and interpretation involved in translation, and this is one reason why there are many different translations.
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