“Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” -2 Timothy 2:15

Study can be difficult. It can be challenging when we come across words that we don’t know. Words that we don’t use or see anywhere else except when we read the Bible. Words like “Mammon” (Mt. 6:24). What does that word even mean?

If you can answer that there is one of two logical reasons for this: You have been told its meaning by someone else (through your study of other’s writings or instruction by a teacher), or you know another language, aramaic. That is because this word, like many others in the Bible, are transliterated from their original language rather than translated into english.

What is Translation?

A translation is when the meaning of a word is changed from one language into another. For example the Hebrew word “shalom” is translated into the english word “peace” because it has the same basic meaning. Sometimes English translations have to use two or more words to carry the same meaning from another language. For example in Isaiah 6:8 when Isaiah hears the voice of the Lord calling for a representative, he responds with the Hebrew word “hinneni!”, which is translated into English, “Here am I!” This is known as a functional equivalent translation.

The goal of translation is to help readers understand the authentic meaning of the original writer.

What is Transliteration?

A transliteration is different. Instead of translating the meaning of a word, it retains the sounds of the original word from its native language. There are so many examples of this in the Bible that many believe them to be English. Some prominent examples of this include: sabbath (Hebrew, shabbat meaning “rest”), Christ (Greek, Christos, meaning “Anointed One”), amen (Hebrew, ‘amen, meaning “truly” or “so be it”), Calvary (Latin, Calvaria, meaning “skull”).

Why Does This Matter?

Understanding this matters a great deal because sometimes a transliterated word loses its original meaning through time. The most controversial example of this is the transliterated word “Baptize.” The Greek word baptizo literally means “to immerse, dip, or plunge into water.” Think of the confusion that might have been curtailed if this word had been translated rather than transliterated. Alexander Campbell did just that in his Bible translation known as The Living Oracles. Look at his translation of Romans 6:3-4, “Do you not know, that as many as have been immersed into Jesus Christ, have been immersed into his death? We have been buried, then, together with Him, by the immersion into death: that like as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father; so we also shall walk in newness of life.” Can you see how understanding the Greek meaning of this word would help a lot of people that have been deceived by false teachings influenced by Catholic doctrine which uses methods such as sprinkling, or pouring water over infants and adults to baptize them?

Thankfully, we don’t have to know other languages to properly understand the Bible. But we do have to “be diligent” or “study” to “rightly divide” or understand “the word of truth” and thus present ourselves “approved to God.”