Can Theology Influence a Translation
When Beliefs and Language Meet
“Be diligent to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who doesn’t need to be ashamed, correctly teaching the word of truth.”
— 2 Timothy 2:15 (CSB)
Bible translators carry a difficult responsibility. They are trying to take words written thousands of years ago in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek and express them faithfully in another language. Most translators take that work very seriously, and many translation projects involve teams of scholars who check one another’s work so that no single person’s preferences carry too much weight.
Still, translators are human beings. They have backgrounds, beliefs, habits of thought, and ways they have understood Scripture for many years. Because translation sometimes requires choosing between more than one reasonable English word, those beliefs can occasionally influence which choice seems most natural.
That does not mean translators are deliberately changing Scripture.
Usually the issue is much quieter than that.
Every Translation Requires Some Interpretation
As we saw in the last chapter, translation is not simply replacing one Greek or Hebrew word with one English word. A translator has to look at grammar, context, figures of speech, and the way a word is used elsewhere.
Sometimes the choice is fairly obvious. Other times, two or more English expressions may be possible.
That is where interpretation enters the picture.
Suppose an ancient word can reasonably carry two related meanings. A translator who has understood a passage one way for many years may naturally choose the English word that fits that understanding. Another translator may look at the same sentence and choose differently.
Neither person necessarily has bad motives.
They may simply be seeing the passage through slightly different lenses.
Our Beliefs Can Become a Lens
This is not only true of translators.
It is true of all of us.
We tend to notice the things we already know. If we have heard a verse explained the same way for thirty years, it can be difficult to read it without hearing that explanation in the back of our minds.
That is one reason humility matters when we study Scripture.
Sometimes we need to ask, “Does the text actually say what I have always been told it says?”
That can be a healthy question.
It does not mean everything we learned before was wrong. It simply keeps us willing to listen.
Church or Assembly?
A helpful example is the Greek word ekklesia.
Most English Bibles usually translate it as church when it refers to Christians. That is familiar and often perfectly understandable.
But the Greek word itself means something like a gathering or assembly of people. In the New Testament world, it did not automatically bring to mind everything the English word church may mean today—a building, a denomination, a large institution, or a religious hierarchy.
That does not make church a dishonest translation.
It simply means the English word has gathered centuries of additional meaning.
Sometimes knowing the older sense helps us picture the first Christians more clearly: people gathering together as a community of believers.
Elder, Overseer, and Later Church Titles
Something similar happened with words describing Christian leaders.
The Greek presbyteros is usually translated elder, while episkopos means overseer and later gave rise to the church title bishop. The New Testament also has a separate Greek word, hiereus, for a priest in the sacrificial or temple sense. Over time, Christian offices and English church titles developed their own history, so later terms can sometimes carry meanings that are broader than the original Greek word by itself.
Over the centuries, words such as priest and bishop became connected with more formal church offices and structures. Those later roles developed their own traditions and meanings.
When we read an ancient passage through a later title, we can sometimes bring more into the verse than the first readers would have heard.
Again, that does not mean every traditional translation is wrong. It means language has a history, and sometimes that history matters.
Repent and Do Penance
Another interesting example comes from Jesus’ call to repentance.
The Greek word metanoeō carries the idea of turning, changing one’s mind, or changing direction. In early Latin translation, wording developed that could be understood along the lines of doing penance. Over time, the word penance became connected with a more formal church practice.
The Greek verb metanoeō refers to repentance—a change of mind and heart that turns a person toward a different course. In the Latin tradition, expressions such as paenitentiam agite (Repent or "Do penance") were used to translate this call. Over centuries, Latin and later European words related to paenitentia (repentance, regret, or a change of mind and heart) also became associated with formal practices of penance. That history became especially important during the Reformation.
That later history became especially important during the Reformation, when Christians argued about whether Jesus was primarily calling people to an inward turning toward God or referring to a formal religious act.
We should be careful not to accuse ancient translators of deliberately creating later doctrine. Words change meaning, and religious practices grow around them.
But this is a good example of how a translation can gather theological meaning over the centuries that may not have been as obvious in the original expression.
John 1:1 and a Difficult Greek Sentence
Sometimes theology enters the discussion because the original grammar itself requires careful interpretation.
John begins his Gospel:
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
— John 1:1 (CSB)
The final Greek phrase has received a great deal of attention because the word translated God does not have the Greek article in that particular construction. Some have argued that it should therefore be translated “the Word was a god.”
Greek grammar is not that simple.
The absence of the article does not automatically require the English word a. In this kind of sentence, the wording can describe the nature or quality of the subject. That is why the traditional translation “the Word was God” has very strong grammatical support.
This is a good place to remember our purpose. We do not need to choose a translation because it supports a doctrine we already hold. We should ask what the Greek grammar and the surrounding passage most naturally support.
Sometimes the evidence is stronger for one translation than another.
Objectivity does not require us to pretend every possible translation is equally likely.
Within You or Among You?
Another example appears when Jesus speaks about the Kingdom of God in Luke 17:21.
Some English translations have expressed His words as the Kingdom being “within you,” while others say “among you” or “in your midst.”
Those expressions can lead a reader in somewhat different directions. “Within you” may sound like Jesus is describing an inward spiritual experience, while “among you” points toward the presence of God's Kingdom among the people through Jesus Himself.
The surrounding conversation matters. Jesus was speaking to Pharisees, which is one reason many translators and interpreters prefer wording such as “among you” or “in your midst.”
This is a good example of why one English phrase should not be pulled away from its setting and made to carry an entire doctrine by itself.
Sometimes the Problem Is Not the Translation at All
There is another possibility we should keep in mind.
A translation may be perfectly reasonable, but generations of religious teaching may have given an English word a meaning that is much heavier than the original writer intended.
Words such as church, priest, repentance, hell, and even faith can carry a great deal of religious history.
Sometimes going back to the original word and its ancient setting helps us peel away some of those later layers.
That does not mean we need to distrust every familiar word.
It simply helps us ask what the first hearers were likely to understand.
How Can an Ordinary Reader Check?
Most of us are not going to become Hebrew and Greek scholars, and we do not need to.
When an important passage seems to change meaning from one translation to another, a few simple habits can help. We can compare several respected Bible translations, read the whole paragraph rather than one verse by itself, pay attention to footnotes, and use a good scholarly resource when the difference really matters.
We should also be cautious about online claims that begin with something like, “The Greek really says…” followed by a completely different teaching than almost every serious translation.
Knowing the definition of one Greek word is not the same as understanding Greek.
Grammar, context, sentence structure, and the way a writer uses words all matter.
Good scholarship can be very helpful here.
We Should Not Become Suspicious of Every Translation
It would be unfortunate if this chapter caused readers to distrust their Bibles.
That is not the purpose.
Most differences between reliable translations are ordinary differences in wording, not attempts to change Christian belief. Modern translations often use committees precisely because having many scholars from different backgrounds can help reduce the influence of one person's theology.
No translation is completely free from human judgment, but that does not mean no translation can be trusted.
It means we read thoughtfully.
Let Scripture Correct Us Too
Perhaps the harder challenge is not asking whether translators have theological assumptions.
It is asking whether we do.
We can become so accustomed to a teaching that we begin reading it into every passage. Sometimes Scripture confirms what we have believed for years. Other times, if we listen carefully, it may ask us to reconsider something.
That is where the Holy Spirit's role as Helper and Teacher becomes meaningful again.
We can approach Scripture with prayer, careful study, and enough humility to say, “Father, help me understand what You want me to see, even if it is not exactly what I expected.”
There is wisdom in that kind of openness.
What We Can Say
Yes, theology can sometimes influence translation because translators are human and translation requires judgment. But that does not mean Bible translators are generally trying to manipulate Scripture. Most are trying sincerely to carry the meaning of ancient words into language people can understand.
When translations differ in an important way, we do not need to become frightened or suspicious. We can slow down, compare the wording, look at the context, and when necessary examine the original language with the help of good scholarship.
The goal is not to find the Bible that agrees most closely with us.
It is to let Scripture speak as clearly as we can hear it.
In the next chapter, we will gather much of what we have learned about manuscripts, canon, copying, and translation and address one of the biggest questions people ask about the Bible:
Was the Bible changed by men?
