Since then, we’ve discovered many earlier Greek manuscripts dating far closer to the original manuscripts of the New Testament than those composing Textus Receptus
If we are those who desire to be righteous through our union with the Anointed One, does that mean our Messiah condones sin even though we acknowledge that we are sinners? How absurd! For if I start over and reconstruct the old religious system that I had torn down with the message of grace, I would appear to be a lawbreaker.
And now the essence of this new life is no longer mine, for the Anointed One lives his life through me-we live in union as one! My new life is empowered by the faith of the Son of God who loves me so much that he gave himself for me, dispensing his life into mine!
So that is why I don’t view God’s grace as something peripheral. For if keeping the law could release God’s righteousness to us, then Christ would have died for nothing.
You can see how The Passion Translation takes this complicated passage and enhances its meaning by going beyond Greek and Hebrew language patterns, which don’t translate well into English, in order to bring out and magnify God’s original message. The section of Galatians from the TPT Bible brings greater clarity and understanding by translating the original Greek in a way that’s faithful and fresh, reliable and readable. That’s why this section from Paul’s letter in the TPT Bible reads as if he wrote it to contemporary English readers! To see more differences between The Passion Translation and ESV as well as other versions of the Bible, click here!
In fact, for 55 percent of Americans-and perhaps for you-it’s their translation of choice. While the legacy and impact of the KJV is rich and deep, many do not see it as an ideal translation for your personal devotional life for two important reasons, both having to do with language.
First, the forty-seven scribes who translated the King James Bible didn’t know all we know today about the Bible’s original languages. While the original Hebrew text was adequate, their understanding of it wasn’t. They also relied upon texts like the Greek one of the connecting singles New Testament known as Textus Receptus. Originally collated by Erasmus of Rotterdam and updated by French scholar Stephanus, this text was an improvement over previous New Testament Greek sources but marked by several problems. It was based upon few Greek manuscripts largely representing the Byzantine type of text dating from the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, which most scholars believe was a revision, even expansion, of the originals. And in places where no Greek text was available, the Latin Vulgate was translated back into Greek. The most significant and accurate of these include Codex Alexandrinus (dated AD 400), Codex Sinaiticus (AD 350), and Codex Vaticanus (AD 325)-all found after the composition and publication of the KJV. Now most modern translations use entum Graece edited by Nestle and Aland (currently the twenty-eighth edition) as a translation source, which incorporates these and other important manuscripts and which The Passion Translation references.
The King James Version of the Bible has been the most well-known, well-loved Bible translation in the English-speaking world for centuries
Second, the KJV does not reflect our modern language. Phrasings such as “thou art,” “ye shall,” “thus saith,” or “thou knowest not” are not commonly used today. If we don’t speak like English speakers from the days of Shakespeare, why read or preach from God’s Word in a language from the seventeenth century? While there are undoubted literary qualities of the KJV that marvelously express the English language, it is no longer a living language. It’s a language that spoke God’s message of love to people then in the language of their day; we need that same message right now in today’s language.
