Momoftwo--
What I personally do when I run up on something like that, or what seems like even greater differences in how a verse is translated, I go to BibleGateway.com and look at many versions to get the clearest sense of what was intended. I do not consider any translation of the Bible perfect--but I think that with diligent research AND prayerful consideration (both are necessary), it is possible to get to the bottom of something.
A particularly interesting technique to use, if you know a second language, is to check out a troublesome passage in that language as well as English. Sometimes another language can more easily draw out additional implications of a passage that English doesn't express as easily. A couple of striking instances in my case have come from checking out the opening of the Gospel of John in Spanish, and Psalm 23 in German.
Let me sum up what I found...
Take a simple verse--John 1:1. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." The German translation is much like this both in feel and the sound of the words.
In Spanish, you see, "En el principio era el Verbo, y el Verbo era con Dios, y el Verbo era Dios."
In Spanish, it is "Verbo" that means "Word". There's an interesting thing about the way the Spanish word is used compared to English. "Verbo" can be translated both as "word" and as "verb"--it carries both meanings. Why does that matter? You get a sense as you read the Spanish of something much more active, and dynamic. This is not a God that just sits there passively, not the God of deism that just created the world and sat back on a lawn chair to watch it--this is an active God that takes a real interest in history, that moves and intervenes. This is consistent with the depiction of God throughout the entire Bible, which proves the soundness of this interpretation.
The other one occurred with Psalm 23, when I looked at it in German.
In English, for Psalms 23:6, we have:
"Surely goodness and love will follow me
all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the house of the LORD
forever."
An interesting thing happens when you look at it in a number of German versions, that you very rarely see in English translations.
That line is translated as:
"Nur Güte und Gnade werden mir folgen alle Tage meines Lebens; und ich kehre zurück ins Haus des HERRN lebenslang."
What jumped out was the phrase "ich kehre zurück". This does not translate into English as "I will dwell" or "I will stay" or "I will remain" or anything in that sense. What it means is "I will return".
That was so different that I took the time to talk to a German friend of mine to make sure that a) I was understanding correctly and b) that was a frequent translation in Germany. This is a person of faith that I trust, and he told me that yes, that translation appears often in German and that he found it to be the most accurate one.
The implication of this is staggering--and again, I'll demonstrate how it lines up completely with what you see in other parts of the Bible.
There are two ways to take it, both of which are fitting:
Interpretation 1: At our death, the Christian returns to his or her native/true place of residence, which is Heaven. This idea that we do not truly fit into this world certainly appears in the letters of Paul, and in the admonition to be "in the world but not of it".
Interpretation 2: In life, we continually lapse and wander away from God, including the believing Christian. But we will keep returning to Him, being drawn back. Just look at the books of Kings and Chronicles to see this pattern with the Israelites, and at the parables of the lost sheep and the prodigal son to see how God feels about the returning sinner. This, again, squares up perfectly.
The English version conveys a peace and a stillness that is appropriate to descriptions of Heaven--the German complements it by adding elements of HOW that process happens both in life and after.
But without having checked into other languages besides English, I would've never caught onto the additional implications.
