The New International Jesus Inaccuracy in translating either through ignorance or because of an obscure manuscript reading is to be expected, but to skew wittingly due to academic bias or religious tendentiousness smirches the reputation of a venerable profession.
The New Testament writer Luke described both Jesus and Paul as speaking in Hebrew (Acts 21:40, 22:2, 26:14). In all three places, however, translators of the New International Version rendered the Greek word Hebra'is as "Aramaic."[1] Liberties with the text require explanation, so they supplied these notes: "Or Hebrew" at 26:14, and "Or possibly Hebrew" at 21:40 and 22:2. To reflect more accurately the Greek, they would have done better to translate Hebra'is as "Hebrew." If then concluding that such a translation might mislead the reader, they could have added a note expressing their concern, for example: "The Greek text literally reads 'Hebrew,' but many scholars think that most first-century Jews in the land of Israel spoke Aramaic; therefore, the reader should interpret 'Hebrew' to mean 'Aramaic.'"[2]
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