(May 12, 2015 at 10:43 am)Pyrrho Wrote: The following comments are general comments about translations and versions of things, not about the Quran in particular. There is sometimes a difference between a version and a translation, but "version" is a more generic term, so, in some instances, there may be no difference at all. Sometimes, things are paraphrased, and that may be considered to be a version without being considered to strictly be a translation. Even that distinction is imprecise, as a translation is always using other words for something, as otherwise it would be the original and not a translation of anything. Usually, though, a paraphrase is less exact in following the original than a translation.
For an example of a paraphrase:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Living_Bible
Also, "version" can have a different meaning still, in that the Catholic Bible and the typical protestant Bibles are different versions of the Bible, in that they do not contain the same books, and there are some differences within some of the books that are in common. For more on this, see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bible#Versi..._the_Bible
It is possible that your uncle had in mind this sense of the word "version," though that does not explain his problem with a specific translation that you selected of the Quran.
Each version and translation is unique. The Catholic Bibles may contain the same books as each other but their translations are different. Likewise the Protestant Bibles may contain the same books but their translations are completely different from each other. The main thing is the basic ideas are the same in all of them.
