Translating Texts

To start off, I found this topic very interesting. It has been something that I’ve always been curious about. I have also had a certain friend ask me specifically as to why there are so many different translations in Christianity and I honestly had no idea how to answer him correctly. He grew up in a Muslim household, so the differences in faith are very clear from the beginning. From my previous knowledge of Islamic texts, it is not considered to be the Qur’an unless it is written in its original language, that being Arabic. So, compared to Christian texts, we have so many different ways of translating the Bible. The Bible is written in so many different languages and each language has a variety of different translations. It is difficult to truly understand what was meant to be said when you can read so many of the same verses and each says about the same thing but not exactly. I believe that this could cause some confusion when people are trying to truly understand what is going on. What I do not understand is why there is so much. What caused people to create so many different versions of a single text. I understand that it is to reach as many people as possible, but it kind of creates distance between people because there is no one thing that unites them that is physical. People from the other side of the world cannot communicate about Christ really because they are in their own language world. Sometimes this can be a positive thing but also negative.