This episode contends that believers should abandon an "all-or-nothing" approach to the reliability of translations of the Bible. As stated in the previous episode, the large number of textual variants is a natural bi-product of the more than 5,500 copies of the New Testament. Since most of the textual variants don't affect meaning (spelling, word-order, etc.), Christians can be confident that English translations of the Greek and Hebrew text are 99.9% faithful to the original autograph. Some are concerned that admission of doubt over the translation of ANY text places one on the slippery slope of skepticism leading to a shipwrecked faith. Miles Smith, one of the translators of the KJV, insisted in the preface that doubt was preferable to dogmatic claims of certainty where the meaning of a text was uncertain. "It is better to make doubt of those things which are secret, then to strive about those things that are uncertain." He acknowledges some room for doubt about the appropriate translation of a few passages, and this posture is preferable to unfounded confidence where "things are uncertain." He nevertheless affirmed the reliability of the KJV in the vast majority of translations, whose renderings amounted to "rubbing and polishing." The episode warns against unhealthy skepticism that quibbles over total certainty where compelling evidence is everywhere. Mark Twain remarked, "It ain't the parts of the Bible that I can't understand that bother me, it's the parts that I do understand."
Translation: the Art of “Rubbing and Polishing”
This episode addresses the challenges of translation, with the acknowledgment by Miles Smith that no translation is perfect. Miles Smith, writing in the preface of the KJV, described the final work as having "some imperfections and blemishes" as a result of the fallible process of translation. This acknowledgment however shouldn't be overstated: the goal of new translations is to make good translations even better. "Rubbing and polishing," Smith declared, are the ongoing tasks of translators. The episode describes the challenges of translating "hapax legomenon," words that are only found once in the Old or New Testaments. Even though comparison with other places in the Scripture that use a word is not an option, translators can consult the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible, and note how third century Hebrew scholars rendered the Word of God in Greek. The much larger vocabulary of Greek allowed the translators of the Septuagint to select words that illuminate the translation of hapax legemenoi. Regarding the New Testament, translators can rely now rely on the trove of contemporary correspondences in koine Greek to help translate extremely rare New Testament words.
The Translators of the KJV, where Scholarship Meets Piety
This episode focuses on the translators themselves, all of whom excelled both in scholarship and piety. Andrew Lancelot spoke 15 languages, was called the "Interpreter 'General of the Tower of Babel, AND he prayed 5 hours a day. The committee that produced the KJV was very likely the most qualified and holistically balanced group of translators ever to translate the Bible. The translators didn't just know Greek and Hebrew--they spoke it. Regarding the final product, the translators considered how their work sounded to its hearers, many of whom were illiterate. The KJV is consequently a faithful and poetic translation that drips with the majesty of God. The episode closes with a call to all Christians to draw on the piety and scholarship of devoted well-rounded saints in history who lived what they learned.