Scripture doesn't come from any human source. It is a miraculous book authored by God through

the Holy Spirit moving human writers to write exactly what God wanted said.

Welcome to Grace To You with John MacArthur. I'm your host Phil Johnson.

You've seen the self-help books you've heard the self-help talk shows different people offering

different solutions to all the same problems. Well, if you're looking for the one source you

should trust, stay here as John MacArthur continues his look at how to get the most from God's word

on Grace To You. But John, before you begin today's lesson on the inspiration of Scripture,

I'd like you to respond to a question that came in on our Q&A line from a listener named Deborah.

It's a short question, but it's an important one. My name is Deborah. My question is,

what versions of the Bible are better than others? And why? Thank you, John.

Well, thank you, Deborah, and that's a big question. The short answer is that I have preached

for decades from the new American standard translation of the Bible. There's a reason I have

done that because I have felt through the years that it is the best translation. You may be more

familiar with the King James version or the new King James version or the ESV, and there are many

others. But what you look for in a Bible translation just to be clear, foundationally clear,

is that it is based upon an accurate translation of the original texts of Greek and Hebrew.

Greek and the New Testament Hebrew and the Old Testament. So let me explain that a bit. The job

of a translator is to find exactly what the author said. Let me say that again. The job of a

translator is to find exactly what the author said and say that again in the language he's translating

into. Now notice the word author. Translation has to do with what the author said. Translation does

not have to do with what the reader reads, but that has become very confusing over the last

number of decades because people have translated the Bible thinking of what the reader will read.

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