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cherylokimoto.com
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What version of the Bible should I read?
If this is your first Bible, you need to get one that you can easily understand. There are ten fairly common English translations of the Bible:
- New International Version (NIV)
- New American Standard Bible (NASB)
- The Message
- Amplified Bible (AB)
- New Living Translation (NLT)
- King James Version (KJV)
- English Standard Version (ESV)
- Contemporary English Version (CEV)
- New King James Version (NKJV)
- New Century Version (NCV)
Each one of these Bibles has advantages and disadvantages when compared to each other. Initially, you don’t really need to worry about those differences. Initially you only need to know you can understand what the Bible says. For example, Romans 5:1-8 contains some very important theology. You need to be able to understand the way it is written before you can understand its meaning. Read Romans 5:1-8 in multiple different versions (click here to see it in the versions listed above). Once you have eliminated the versions of the Bible that are hard for you to understand, compare the remaining versions. Select a few different passages from different books in both the Old and the New Testaments. Compare them and evaluate the
readability of the different versions. You can do this by going to BibleGateway.com or by going to your local Christian bookstore.
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Once you are already familiar with the Bible and want a good study Bible, then it's time to learn about how the Bible is translated and what the differences are in the translations. An excellent resource for that is How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth, by Gordon Fee and Douglas Stuart. Here are some quick points of reference:
- When you are reading a translation of the Bible, you are depending upon someone else to give you a faithful interpretation of what the original writers intended to say. It is best to hear what multiple interpreters have to say, so it is good to have at least two or three distinctly different versions of the Bible. (E.g. You wouldn't want both the KJV and the NKJV as your two primary study bibles.)
- There are three basic types of translations:
- Formal or literal translation: attempts to keep the as close to the original language as possible in both words and grammar; KJV, NKJV, NASB, ESV
- Functional or dynamic translation: attempt to keep the meaning of the original language but put it in language that will be more readily understood by a contemporary audience; NIV, NLT
- Paraphrase: simply translates ideas from the original language to the contemporary language; the Message, the Living Bible
- For serious Bible study, you should have both a formal and an functional translation. Use paraphrases only very sparingly for serious Bible study.
If you have any questions, please email me at cheryl@cherylokimoto.com.
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