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Preservation in Other Languages

I have two questions:

  1. Since the King James 1611 was not the first English translation of the Bible, and since God preserves His Word, Christians must have had a perfect translation to read prior to the 1611 version, right?
  2. And, there must be equivalent perfect translations in every language-based on the same principle of God preserving His Word-of Psalm 12, right? And, wouldn't the first translation in every language have to be a perfect one-again, since we know God preserves His Word, and so the Christians or elect are not left without a perfect translation, like we have--otherwise God would be unfair, and we know He is not-(Romans 9.-God forbid)

I have no doubt that God has preserved His word in numerous languages and translations over the centuries. I definitely believe that He had preserved translations in Latin, Syriac, and German. But this is probably only the hem of the garment. However, I do not need to know what translations and in what languages God's word is preserved in every age. The fact that I may not know where God's preserved word was in 950AD has no bearing on me today. Neither does our ignorance negate the promises of God to preserve His word. I believe because God said it, not because I know everything about it.

In answer to your second question, this is defining God in your man's image and requiring Him to live up to his standards of fairness. This is one of the evils of the world today. If God were required to be fair by giving everyone the same thing, He would be required to send a tsunami or other disaster on every nation of the world--just to be fair. To require an equivalent translation in every language is absurd. Most languages do not have a completed Bible of any sort. The promise of preservation (Psalm 12) was to all generations (Psalm 100:5), not to every language. A generation refers to a time period, not any particular nation or ethnic group.

God has always worked through the languages that come the closest to be universal languages of the time. When that language was Latin, God had a preserved Bible in Latin. Now it is English. There may be other preserved translations today, but English is the key to reaching the world. Americans are not learning Chinese in mass; but the Chinese are learning English in mass. That does not mean that there is no need for a Chinese Bible. It only means that English is the key from which God will work today.

David Reagan
Daily Proverb

Proverbs 23:9

Speak not in the ears of a fool: for he will despise the wisdom of thy words.