Don’t change Bible to fit your needs

I had a few thoughts after reading Ginger Storniolo’s comments (Fence Post, May 12) on Bible translations being so inaccurate that we really can’t know what it says. To see if historical documents have changed, you can compare older copies to newer ones; the more copies the better the comparison. The Bible has 24,000 copies, and dates back to within 50 years of their authoring, in some cases. Compare that to Homer’s work (643 copies, 400 years after authoring). That comparison reveals Bible translations of today to be extremely close to the originals.

Then Ms. Storniolo notes the translations all say different things, but really they don’t. On abortion, for example, pick any five translations you like (just Google a bit), and read Psalm 139. Then make up your own mind. I think the real issue is that we pretend (even to ourselves) to believe the Bible, but keep a list of excuses handy so we can ignore parts we don’t like. Let’s be honest — if you don’t agree with the Bible, just say so, that’s fine. But don’t pretend it says something it doesn’t.

Steven Haworth

Des Plaines