The different translations have different methods, and schools of though even, with translation. These methods of translation can be more or less effective, dependant on how far along a person is with the Lord.
The best translation I have found myself, I think, is "The Scriptures," translated by the Institute for Scripture Research.
Their school of thought apparently is "Let us translate the scriptures as literally as possible, leaving all theological ambiguities, as well as names of people, places, and God, in the original language. Then the reader can research the culture, and understand what is being said with more purity."
So, where the Scriptures say "kidney" in hebrew, they don't translate it to "mind" or "emotions." They translate it literally. For example:
Jeremiah 17:10 said:
"I, Yahweh, search the heart, I try the kidneys, and give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds."
It is then up to the reader to find out what in the world Yahweh meant when he said these things. This allows us to more efficiently get to the root of the Word, instead of taking the opinion of a scholar, though it is usually correct, and brush it off without looking it up, thinking that there is less to the scriptures than there really is. Optimally, I think this translation should be coupled with the bracketed expansion idea of the Amplified Bible. This would probably provide the best one-glance insight to what the scriptures are saying, with CLEAR decifering between what is literally translated, and what is the well-educated opinion of the translator on what the literally translated words mean. Then the reader's lexicon time can be spent diving deeper. The more efficiently ideas are conducted, the better the reader can understand.
But should a new believer read this Bible? I think someone who grows up in our culture, let alone a pagan culture, would have trouble reading "Set-apart, Set-apart, Set-apart, Yahweh El Shaddiah!" if he hadn't had some studying under his belt. And while he's fiddling with the pages trying to understand, he may be lead astray by spirits of confusion, and his guard might be let down to the attacks that so swiftly come. A weaned believer has been battle hardened--he knows Satan's tricks of fatigue. What's more, he's probably studied the Bible longer and understands the Hebrew culture better. So for a new believer, I think "Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty" is a better translation.
The NIV gets jumped for using the "translate by the idea, not the word" method, but I think, for the MOST PART, it is an excellent resource for a man who just met the savior yesterday and knows nothing about the culture of the Jews. Hey, in many places it's more literal...and more correct...than the KJV. However, when that baby christian grows up, he needs to find out what the word that was translated "Holy" means. And he needs to find out that once the grave and Gehenna were translated as "hell," they have been distorted by antiquity and western culture. He needs to know that "God" is an English word, not a Hebrew word, and he needs to know what the Creator was called by the Hebrews, and why. There are lots of things an experienced Christian needs to know, that would only bring confusion, and too much information, to a new believer.
That'll really mess up the conversation.
