Chapter 4 of ‘Whole Bible Christianity’ section on “Can the Bible be Trusted?”
I’m sure you’ve heard teachings that cast doubt on the authenticity of the Word. For instance, some claim that ‘translational bias’ has corrupted the translations. What they mean is that no one can translate well enough to get God’s message across because our own brains get in the way. We have too many assumptions.
It is true that when it comes to translating the Bible, even the most well trained scholar can color his or her translating. It is also true that even scholars have assumptions. We all have a bias of some sort even when casually reading the Word. It’s been a problem since the beginning.
1Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, “Indeed, has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?” 2The woman said to the serpent, “From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat; 3but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat from it or touch it, or you will die.’ ” (Genesis 3:1-3 NASB95)
The serpent was obviously against what God instructed the first man and woman to do. “Has God said” is a common refrain among those who seek to destroy the authority of the Father throughout history. Eve had a bias too, as shown by her ‘don’t touch’ twist on what God said (He only said “don’t eat”). Created beings play fast and loose with God’s Words, and we need to watch ourselves. Bernard Ramm puts it this way.
“…we all need a new sense of respect for the Holy Scripture. Believing it to be the veritable word of God, we must exercise all the human pains possible to keep from overlaying it with a gossamer pattern of our own spinning. In each of those cases where human error enters, divine truth is obscured. Let us then steer a straight course through the Holy Bible, neither turning to the left side of heresy nor to the right side of unbridled imagination.”
But the weightiest truth against the claim of translational bias, or any other teaching casting doubt on the Bible, is that the foundation for all of the books is the first five. The Torah was the first canon by which any additional writing, or any prophet or preacher, was always measured.
To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, it is because they have no dawn. (Isaiah 8:20 NASB95)