Recently, I have been getting asked, or more correctly, challenged by readers using the variations in translations to defend their position that the Bible does not present a consistent, systematic theology and is therefore, a man-made book, like any other. Below is my admittedly shallow attempt at answering that objection. In the end, of all back-and-forth on the subject, Biblical Christians believe on Faith and a conviction of the Holy Spirit.
Summary
So, to sum up, the reason for different translations is not because there is no consensus on the major points of Biblical Christian theology. Differing translations are largely do to the range of objectives on the part of the translation group as to how contemporary (easy to read with current terminology) or how traditional (from the original languages on a word for word basis) readers wish to understand and apply God’s Word.
Further, no translation is without error, just the original. And, of course, there are many who strongly feel that the Bible in general is full of discrepancies and therefore all Scripture was written by man and unreliable. The view of a Biblical Christian is that most apparent discrepancies are explainable and defendable if one approaches the question from an inerrant predisposition (which I recognize is a cop-out). Those differences which are not easily explainable, to mankind, are still defendable if one believes (by faith) that the Originator of the Bible, the Creator of the universe, is omniscient and omnipotent and we are not.