In Our Own Language
For many years after the creation of the human family, everyone spoke the same language. After a while, though, folks became so disobedient to God that He caused them to start speaking different languages (read Genesis 11:1-9). Today, if you want to understand a message from someone who speaks a different language, you must get that message by “translation.” This simply means bringing thoughts from one language into another. If someone says: “Buenos dias,” and you do not speak Spanish, someone must tell you that this means: “Good day.” That’s translation.
When the Bible first was written by the people God selected to do this great work, it was written in languages that most of us do not read. The 39 books of the Old Testament were written mainly in the Hebrew language (with some Aramaic). The 27 New Testament books were in Greek. The Hebrew language looks very strange. The words are read from right-to-left—just opposite from the way we read. Sometimes Greek words look a little like English.
For hundreds of years, language scholars have worked hard to translate the message of the Bible so that people who want to know God’s Word can read it in their own language. The Bible has been translated more than any other book in the history of the world! It has been put into about 2,000 languages, which cover most of the world’s people. How thankful we should be that we can read these wonderful Scriptures.
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