Week 42 John 4
I’ve been wondering about the title Messiah and why some bible versions use it and others don’t. I decided to run a comparison test.
I chose the verse where the Samaritan woman says to Jesus I know the Messiah will come.
I checked an online site where I could compare this verse in 63 bible versions. Almost all of the versions used the word Messiah (or Messias of Mashiach). The other four used another name (Anointed One or the Christ). So about 94% of the versions liked Messiah in John 4:25.
So then I looked up a second verse. It was the time when people came to John the Baptist and asked who he was. He said: I am not the Messiah. Out of the 63 versions 23 used Messiah (37%). The other 40 used the Christ (or something else).
After I was finished counting it occurred to me that the exercise was a bit of a waste of time. But there’s a couple of useful takeaways:
1. One obvious thing: there’s lots of bible versions and each one uses different words & ideas in re-writing the bible
2. One not-so-obvious thing: all the different people who write different bible versions bible versions have different ideas and make their own decisions about what to say. And it isn’t always clear to a bible-reader what’s behind those ideas and decisions.
3. One reminder: give it some thought before landing with both feet on one version.
Note: quotes from John 4:25 1:20 (NLT). My online resource was biblegateway.com