The Lord Jesus Christ said, “I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds to them, God shall add to him the plagues which are written in this book; and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part from the tree of life and out of the holy city, which are written in this book” (Rev. 22:18-19). The end of Revelation is the completion of all God’s revelations to man. Any addition or deletion resulting in any changes to the complete revelation of God—the Bible—is wrong. Since the completion of the Bible, there have been some false revelations written by men trying to deceive the people of God.
The Koran is a counterfeit of the Bible. It contains many names of biblical people and places, yet it is mixed with human concepts, mainly of Mohammed. He pronounced himself to be the prophet of the one God. He wrote the Koran and claimed that it was the word of God. The moral standard of the Koran is very low. It talks about lust in its “heaven.” We definitely do not accept the Koran as part of the revelation of God.
The Book of Mormon is another false revelation. Joseph Smith, the founder of the Mormon Church, wrote the Book of Mormon. He claimed to have discovered some gold leaves inscribed with heavenly script containing God’s revelation. After he translated the inscription into the Book of Mormon, the gold leaves were taken back to heaven. No one else ever saw them. The Book of Mormon is full of errors and contradictions. Many portions have been removed because scientific discoveries proved them wrong. For example, the Book of Mormon originally said that the moon was inhabited. That portion was removed after man landed on the moon in 1969. [The claim of Joseph Smith to have had a revelation in addition to what is in the Bible is nonsensical and heretical. Revelation 22:18 and 19 indicate that the entire revelation of God has been completed and that no one should add anything or take away anything. Therefore, we should not think that we can receive a new revelation in addition to what is recorded in the sixty-six books of the Bible.]
Although the Jehovah’s Witnesses use a version of the Bible, they have modified some parts to agree with their heretical teachings. They do not believe that Jesus Christ is God Himself. They consider Him to be a separate God and a lesser God. John 1:1 tells us, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Their version says, “...and the Word was a God.” They added an “a” to modify the meaning of the verse so it would coincide with their heretical teaching. Therefore, we do not regard their version as the true Bible.
Most of the Old Testament was written in Hebrew. Only Jeremiah 10:11, Daniel 2:4—7:28, and Ezra 4:8—6:18 were written in Aramaic. Most of the New Testament was written in Greek. However, there were some portions written in Aramaic, such as Mark 5:41 and 15:34. There are some Latin words as well.
The written content of the Bible is crucial to us. The translation of the Bible is also important to us. Without the proper translations, the Bible can neither be correctly presented to us nor properly understood by us. God inspired approximately forty men to write the Bible. He also inspired many more to translate the Bible throughout the ages. The following are several of the most popular translations.
Seventy scholars in Alexandria of Egypt translated the whole Old Testament into Greek around 277 B.C. This is the oldest translation of the Old Testament. Because there were seventy translators, this translation is called the Septuagint. It is also called the Alexandria Version because it was translated in Alexandria.
The Vulgate Version was translated during the fourth century in North Africa. It is a Latin version translated from the Septuagint Version of the Old Testament and the original Greek manuscript of the New Testament. Vulgate means popular or common. This was the first Bible that was brought to England.
In A.D. 1611, fifty-four scholars translated the Old Testament and New Testament into the best English version of that time. Because this version was directed by King James I, it was called the Authorized Version. This is the most popular version among English readers.