09 Which English translation of the Holy Bible is best? Which one do you read and apply to your life?
Description
This article is from the Bible FAQ, by Michael Paul Johnson mpj@ebible.org with numerous contributions by others.
09 Which English translation of the Holy Bible is best? Which one do you read and apply to your life?
Here are a few of the best:
The New King James Version (NKJV) is good for those who are used to the
KJV, but want something in Modern English. The New Testament is based on
the Textus Receptus, but has footnotes where the UBS and Majority Text
differ. This is the Bible my pastor likes to preach from. The more I
work on Bible Translation, the more impressed I am with the accuracy of
this translation. Copyrighted. Used in some online search engines and
available in many Bible study software packages.
The New International Version (NIV) is the best-selling English Bible.
Its New Testamentis based on the UBS Greek text. Its language is easy to
read, and its accuracy is well respected. I often read from this aloud
to my family. It is not widely available on line, due to copyright
restrictions, but you can find it at the Bible Gateway.
Todays New International Version (TNIV) is a language update of the NIV.
This translation attempts to be more gender-inclusive in its language
than the NIV, but does not compromise in the masculine nature of God the
Father. It is copyrighted, but you can download the New Testament in PDF
format from http://tniv.info/bible/index.php.
The New American Standard Bible, 1995 Update (NASB95) is an excellent
translation, with wording that is more literal than the NIV, and which
holds to the style of the original more closely. The NASB is well known
for paying close attention to tenses of words, etc. It is based on the
UBS4 Greek text. Available from Parsons Technology and Logos, as well as
some printed Bibles. Downloadable from
http://www.gospelcom.net/lockman/download/index.htm.
The New American Standard Bible (1977) is almost as good as the NASB95,
except that it reverts to archaic English in the Psalms and in the
language of prayer, and is a little harder to read. It is not widely
available on line, due to copyright restrictions, but you can find it at
the Bible Gateway.
The World English Bible (WEB) is a revision of the ASV of 1901
into Modern English. The New Testament is revised to reflect the
Majority Text. God's name in the Old Testament is rendered as
"Yahweh" instead of "Jehovah" because that is widely regarded to
be more correct. This is an all-volunteer project still in
progress. The purpose of the WEB is to put an accurate, whole,
Modern English Bible into the Public Domain. Note that there are
no other English translations in this category that I'm aware
of. Please see http://www.ebible.org/bible/WEB for more
information. You can have daily readings from the WEB sent to
you by email by sending email to majordomo@ebible.org with
"subscribe bible" in the body of the message.
The Amplified Bible (Amp) is excellent for detailed study of a
passage. It seeks to reveal the full richness of the underlying
Greek and Hebrew, and often reveals insights that you might miss
in reading a more conventional translation. This isn't real good
for reading aloud (because of its punctuation and wordiness),
but I recommend that you get one for study to set along side one
of the above translations. Not available in any electronic form,
because of copyright and greed issues between the copyright
owners.
The New English Translation (NET) is a scholarly translation with
extensive notes. You may download a free copy for your personal use at
http://netbible.org. Copyrighted.
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