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In the Old Testament
The impetus for translating the Bible is almost as old as the Bible itself. In even as early a time as that of Nehemiah, translation of the Scriptures became necessary for the people of God, and the Bible itself records that Ezra the scribe, with many assistants, "read in the book, in the law of God, interpreting and giving the sense, so that [the people] understood the reading" (Neh. 8:8). We know that part of this "interpreting and giving the sense" was rendering the words of Scripture from Hebrew into Aramaic, the language of the returned exiles; hence, the Bible itself validates its need for translation.
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In the New Testament
Later, after the Old Testament canon had been written and the Jews had dispersed throughout the Mediterranean lands, the first complete translation of the Hebrew Scriptures was executed by Jewish scholars in Greek between the mid-third and late second century BC. For the most part, Old Testament quotations contained in the New Testament are drawn from this translation, called the Septuagint, and by this again the Bible validates the need for its own translation.
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For the Church
Even though the early church, existing in a predominately Greek-speaking world, did not generally require translation of the Greek New Testament, translation into a number of the other languages of the Roman Empire began early and was widespread. Syriac, Coptic, Ethiopic, Georgian, and Armenian translations of the Scriptures were produced for the needs of the spreading church. And for the growing church in the West, a number of Latin translations, of varying quality, appeared. By the end of the fourth century, the need for a single, common translation into Latin motivated Jerome to bring forth his spectacular Vulgate, the translation of the Scriptures that sustained the church in the West for over a thousand years, well beyond the time of the Reformation. Even though we normally think of the Reformation as a period of blossoming for Bible translations, Jerome' Vulgate actually served as the scriptural platform for the Lord' move at the time, since much of the polemical writing of this era is in Latin and depends on Jerome' Latin translation of the Bible. Further, many early translations of the Scriptures into English were made, not from Greek or Hebrew as might be expected, but from Jerome' monumental and classic work into Latin. For example, Wycliffe' translation of the Bible in the early 14th century, the first in Europe in a nearly thousand years, was based upon Jerome' Vulgate. But it is indeed the case that the Protestant Reformers, armed with a particular recovery of light and truth in the Scriptures, picked up the task of translating the Bible into the languages of the Europeans with full vigor. Luther, easily the most dominant figure of the Reformation, is also easily the most influential Bible translator of all time. His approach to the translation of the Bible into German, completed in 1534, influenced a number of translators in other languages, including William Tyndale, who, around the same time, was the first to translate the Bible into English entirely from its original languages.
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For the Further Recovery of the Truth
As the recovery of truth progressed across the centuries, serious students of the Bible each in turn took up the task of translating the Scriptures, either as personal exercises or as fully executed versions (e.g., J. N. Darby, Conybeare and Howson, Henry Alford, Kenneth Wuest). Their devotion to and love for the Bible made possible a broad range of good translations which have rendered immense help to those equally serious students who have not been able to translate the Scriptures on their own. In our own time, we also have approached the Word of God seriously and diligently. Both Watchman Nee and Witness Lee desired to study the Bible thoroughly, so that the Lord would open the Word richly among us. While Watchman Nee at times translated short portions of the Scriptures for his messages, it was Witness Lee who realized the great need for and recognized the great benefit in translating the Bible by ourselves and for ourselves. In 1974, as he embarked upon the Life-study of the Bible, he initiated the work of translating the New Testament into English, directing a small team to translate from the original language as the Life-study progressed through the entire New Testament. Numerous improvements in the translation of the text and an appreciable augmentation in the body of footnotes were published in a revised edition in 1991.
We worship the Lord that He has placed in the hearts of so many of His believers a genuine love for His Word, and that He has also enabled us to attend to the Scriptures to the extent that we have. We praise Him that through His servants Watchman Nee and Witness Lee, He has opened up to us the inexhaustible riches of the Bible and has led us into the depths of the divine revelation. We thank Him that by His grace we had the opportunity to translate the entire Bible and to place the Recovery Version in the hands of the Lord' lovers and seekers. May the Lord bless each of its readers!
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This page is taken from Recovery Version
website. COPYRIGHT ©1997-2002 LIVING STREAM MINISTRY.
All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited.
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