Why Would We Question Our Bible Translators?

People smarter than me and you have dedicated years to researching and collaborating with other scholars to present the English translations we have today.  Why would we need to question their authority?

It's All Greek To Me!

Where does Bible study stop for us laymen (and women!)?  With today's Bible computer programs and available helps (English/Greek Interlinear Bibles) even my teenagers can follow a passage and recognize Greek word usage.  Note the Berean's response to the Apostle Paul's teaching:

Now these were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they received the word with great eagerness, examining the scriptures daily, to see whether these things were so. Acts 17:11 (NASB)

Also, consider the exhortation from proverbs:

It is the glory of God to conceal a matter, but the glory of kings is to search out a matter. Proverbs 25:2 (NASB)

No authority trumps our responsibility or priviledge to "examine the scriptures."  If someone handed us a Bible with passages clipped out and pages missing would we go on blissfully satisfied we had the real McCoy?  Of course not!  But ignorance is not the only weakness that can assail us.

A Blast to the Past

I hearken back to a Bible class I took years ago.  I was to outline and comment on Psalm 46 and in my own study noted that there was a repeating theme (vv. 1, 7, & 11) of God's presence and help.  However, having read some required reading about the passage, I found that the authors of multiple sources were convinced that the passage had been "fiddled with" and that the difference between v. 1 and the two identical vv 7 & 11 confirmed this.  My confidence was blown and my report leaned heavily on the scholars, making only minor mention of my own discovery.  My Professor (incidently, one of the translators of the NASB 1977 Bible) took me to task for ignoring my own observations!  Venturing out on my own was too lonely for me at the time.  Does this ever happen to our Bible translaters?  Do they ever find themselves on stage before their peers and have trouble bucking the trend?

Do the Greek words aion and aionios mean eternity?

I offer the following discussion as a springboard for your own study.  I emphasize our need to observe the text of the Bible itself.  Concerning aion/aionios, note that they occur 199 times in the NT and of these instances the KJV translates them as "age" (2), course (1), world (43) and eternal--or a variation-- (153 times).  In 23% of the instances of aion/aionios, the KJV translators understood that they could not use the word "eternity."  What confidence should we have in how they used aion in the other instances?  (However, age or eon fit nicely in almost every instance.)

Consider the following examples taken from Hope Beyond Hell by Gerry Beauchemin:

Does eternity make any sense in the following passages?

What will be the sign...of the end of [eternity] (Mt. 24:3)
I am with you...to the end of the [eternity] (Mt. 28:20)
The sons of this [eternity] are more shrewd (Lu. 16:8)
The sons of this [eternity] marry (Lu. 20:34)
Worthy to attain that [eternity] (Lu. 20:35)
Since the [eternity] began (Jn. 9:32; Ac. 3:21)
Conformed to this [eternity] (Ro. 12:2)

Eternity has an end?

17 more examples follow.

I suggest that tradition, and not scholarship, was king when it came to translating aion/aionios in most of our English translations today.  Make the investigation yourself.  How does God use the word aion or aionios in His Bible? 

Any student of the Bible will agree that merely observing scripture--that is, counting, measuring, turning pages, chewing on passages, looking at the repetition of words and reading over and over again--will bring helpful revelation without any aid from a commentary, background book or scholar's opinion.  But, as my professor from school often reminded us, ask for the Holy Spirit's help!