Martha B. answered • 08/15/19
BA in Applied Linguistics with an emphasis in Koine Greek
The English Bibles we have today are translations of the original Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic texts of the Bible. While we do not have the original autographs, we have much more evidence that the Bible has remained unchanged over the centuries than we do that The Odyssey or Beowulf have, although these texts were originally written later. Biblical texts were copied and dispersed very early on and very widely by the people of Israel and the early church, and direct lines of apostolic and rabbinic succession can be traced from the founding of the Biblical religions until today. There are no major differences between modern copies of Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic Biblical texts and the oldest and most genuine known texts, and new discoveries are being made every day to compound the evidence that the texts we have today are as identical as physically possible to the original autographs.
Opinions differ, but English Standard Versions and New American Standard Versions of the Bible are generally considered to be the most direct translations of the Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic texts, while still being understandable to modern English speakers.
