What is your favorite Bible translation?

[A_JAY]

For study NASB95 along with an easier to read translation like NIV or H/CSB. For devotional reading NASB, ESV, NKJV, H/CSB, NIV. NRSV

For a first time read through of the Old Testament something like Good News for Modern Man, then one of the above for more serious study.

 

[Bible Highlighter]

I have a KJV / NLT Parallel Bible but I have been so accustomed to using the BIble on the internet and in reading tons of Christian articles to research various Bible topics. I like using the various translations at Biblehub.com because the parallel versions are quick and easy to get to from Google; Plus, I like the lay out of the website waaay better than Biblegateway. It is more comfortable on my eyes. Plus, Biblegateway's website has those arrows on the side that gets in the way of my trying to scroll down the page when I use my tablet.


...

 

[Quasiblogo]

For a first time read through of the Old Testament something like Good News for Modern Man, then one of the above for more serious study.

You know, those stick-people drawings are as effective as Sistine Chapel paintings

 

[amariselle]

I prefer to compare several different translations when I'm studying Scripture.

When it comes to clarification, however, I've always chosen to refer to the King James. I'll always have a preference for the KJV in this regard, though I am by no means "KJV only."

I can also appreciate the NKJV and I would like to get one in print one day.

 

[ralfyman]

The most accurate ones to date, such as NRSVCE, NABRE, the upcoming NRJB, etc.

 

[tturt]

My favorite is The Passion

 

[Sam91]

You know, those stick-people drawings are as effective as Sistine Chapel paintings

Those stick people drawings have stayed with me since the age of 5. My mum threw away my Good news Bible when it lost the cover after me reading it so much. Was without a bible until I was given a Gideon NT 3 years later. My family didn't go to Church so how I had received my 1st bible is a mystery.

It was a good Bible for a 5 year old.

 

[Sam91]

I own NIV, ESV, NKJV. I listen to NIV and KJV on audiobible.

My order of preference is as above. NIV being a thought for thought translation is the easiest of the 3 to read and the translation I've read since a teen. I read most of the bible in ESV last year. It is a more word for word translation rather than phrase so it flows slightly less well.

I haven't read much in my NKJV bible as it is a study bible too so I find the points on the verses a distraction and end up readibg the points being made instead of the word of God. That being a hindrance I actually let my friend borrow it an hour ago. It's a medium term loan. She can keep it as long as she wants... as long as I get it back one day. > . <

Update: She liked it so I told her to keep it. I bought a new NKJV with Jesus' words in red, lots of cross references and stars indicating when a messianic prophecy is found and a filled in star when it is fulfilled.

 

[anna ~ grace]

I really like the KJV. There was something that was called the Berkeley Version which I liked a lot, too. RSV is alright.

For Catholic Bibles, I like the DRB. And this looks good;

RSV Didache Bible with Commentaries Based on the RC Cathechism Cathechism of the Catholic Church

 

[Quasiblogo]

Hi Sam. I see from reading in biblegateway.com that the "Good News" Bible has been renamed the "Good News Translaction”. Sans sticks? Not sure.

Those stick figures were so whimsical that I suppose I wasn't shocked when the musical Godspell showed "real" people

 

[Julian of Norwich]

I read the 21KJV. That's probably my favorite since it still has the poetry of "Biblical language" but the words that are obsolete or where meanings of words are archaic, it's been corrected. That's on an app on my phone. So is the ESV, which I like in order to clarify a meaning between a contemporary version and an originally older version.
I also was given a beautiful DR bible.

 

[Quasiblogo]

I should have thrown in the JB Phillips NT.

Anyone ever read the limited NT books in “St Paul from the Trenches 1916”? Known as the GWC version.

 

[Julian of Norwich]

I should have thrown in the JB Phillips NT.

Anyone ever read the limited NT books in “St Paul from the Trenches 1916”? Known as the GWC version.

Never read that one (well, I think I've heard of it though).

I've tried comparing multiple verses of the KJV and ESV (since the ESV has such a good rep. and our church uses them as the pew Bible) and I was surprised that even though I LOVE the beauty of the KJV, that I even really liked the dignity of the words of the ESV!

 

[pescador]

I have favorite bibles. For clarity, research and understanding my favorite is the NET Bible. For understanding of the cultures of the bible and therefore what it meant to older cultures I like the NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible. For just general reading I like the TNIV "The Books of the Bible". For olde English I like the 1599 Geneva Bible, including the many footnotes (eliminated in the Authorized Version, a.k.a., the King James) (I wonder why?!)

 

[pescador]

The most accurate ones to date, such as NRSVCE, NABRE, the upcoming NRJB, etc.

Why do you say that these are the most accurate ones?

 

[ralfyman]

Why do you say that these are the most accurate ones?

It's usually explained in the preface. For example,

Preface to the New Revised Standard Version

Following the publication of the RSV Old Testament in 1952, significant advances were made in the discovery and interpretation of documents in Semitic languages related to Hebrew. In addition to the information that had become available in the late 1940s from the Dead Sea texts of Isaiah and Habakkuk, subsequent acquisitions from the same area brought to light many other early copies of all the books of the Hebrew Scriptures (except Esther), though most of these copies are fragmentary. During the same period early Greek manuscript copies of books of the New Testament also became available.

 

[Guojing]

When I want to participate in bible discussions on the Internet like this one, I will use the KJV as it is most widely accepted.

To understand on my own, I will use the NLT.

 

[GreekOrthodox]

pffft... the only translation I accept now is LOLcat!

John 3:16 -
"So liek teh Ceiling Kitteh lieks teh ppl lots and he sez 'Oh hai I givez u me only kitteh and ifs u beleeves him u wont evr diez no moar, kthxbai!'"

 

[Concord1968]

For olde English I like the 1599 Geneva Bible, including the many footnotes (eliminated in the Authorized Version, a.k.a., the King James) (I wonder why?!)

Because the notes undermined the episcopal hierarchy of the Church of England, of which James I was the head of.

 

[pescador]

Because the notes undermined the episcopal hierarchy of the Church of England, of which James I was the head of.

Correct. The footnotes were removed so that King James and his church leaders would have absolute interpretation of scripture. That's one of the main reasons the Puritans (and others) fled with their Geneva bibles in hand.

Unfortunately there are many, even today, who assume hundreds of years later that the KJV is the only correct translation. It is clearly misguided belief.