The Bible is The Word of God

In 2005 the Dallas Biblical Arts Center was destroyed in a terrible fire. Some of the expensive works of art were rescued by courageous firefighters on the scene, but not without damage. Many of the works were destroyed.

I visited the museum the year before it's destruction, when the dead sea scrolls were on exhibit there. It was an incredible exhibit. The museum housed a wide variety of  Bibles in numerous languages and ages. They had one of the very first types of printing presses there that was used to demonstrate how bibles were first printed.

As we toured the museum they explained the processes of translating the Bible and the extreme care that went into it to ensure that nothing was translated inaccurately. Lets look at the steps involved.

• Reviewer Check
• Consultant Check
• Exegetical Check
• Consistency Check
• Format Check
• Style Check
• Proofreading
• Oral Read-through

There are translators and a review committee who prepare the first draft, review the work of others on the team, test the translation with other speakers of the language then receive, study and assess their comments, revise the draft, and check the final manuscript for publication. Revisions are made to make it more faithful to the original meaning, more natural in expression, more accurate and readable.

Then it is back translated word-by-word or phrase-by-phrase to verify that it reflects as closely as possible the meaning and grammatical structure of the indigenous language text. Back translation can improve the reliability and validity by requiring that the quality of a translation is verified by an independent translator translating back into the original language.


Another important element to note is that the Bible should always be translated from it's original language and not from another translation. So as a language changes over time, a Bible translation may be revised to make it more readable, but it must still be translated from the original language to ensure accuracy.

That is quite a process isn't it? Do you know why so much care goes into translating the Bible? Because the Bible is inspired and holy, adherence to the original meaning of the text is crucial. Today computers are used in Bible translation to ensure accuracy but the standards must remain.

I will be discussing more about the Bible in upcoming posts. For now I wanted to share some pictures that I took during my tour of the Dallas Biblical Arts Center. This was before I owned a digital camera so the quality is not what I would like but still acceptable. Click on the pictures for an enlarged image.

From Parchment to Scroll to Bible ~ The Word of God Preserved

Plague of Locusts found in Exodus 10

Hebrew Torah Scroll

I think this is a German Bible

The Gospel of John

I believe that little card says 1578 First Geneva (something) Bible

"You have exalted above all things Your Name and Your Word." Psalm 138:2 (emphasis mine)

"A girl needs to be so lost in God, that the guy is going to have to seek HIM to find her!" ...Maya Angelou