question: best English translation?

[countrymousenc]

What is your favorite English translation of the Bible? Is any particular one endorsed by the Orthodox Churches?

 

[The Prokeimenon!]

I grew up on the King James Version, so I like that one alot, but it's pretty hard to understand at times. The RSV is a good one, and you can get one with all the Old Testament books, but the "Apocrypha" are tacked on at the end, instead of being in their proper place.

The Orthodox Study Bible (NKJV) is wonderful. It's only NT and Psalms, though. There is a brand new English translation of the Septuagent (Greek Old Testament) coming out in 2005. Can't wait!

The Catholic New American Bible is really really easy to read, though I don't know if it's a good translation or not.

Somebody said "The best Bible is the one you'll read." I'm not sure where I heard that, but it's good.

Moses

 

[Photini]

About two weeks ago I was blessed with a gift from a friend...The Orthodox New Testament...the Holy Gospels. I am hoping to purchase the Epistles very soon. It is published by the Holy Apostles Convent. I cannot express to you how happy I am to have this translation finally.

 

[Oblio]

About two weeks ago I was blessed with a gift from a friend...The Orthodox New Testament...the Holy Gospels. I am hoping to purchase the Epistles very soon. It is published by the Holy Apostles Convent. I cannot express to you how happy I am to have this translation finally.

This is my favorite also. The strength is in the extensive endnotes of the Fathers commentary and manuscript variances/Greek nuances. Inline icons are also nice, though color would be much better.

 

[Oblio]

You can find details here. You might get a better deal through Light and Life

 

[countrymousenc]

About two weeks ago I was blessed with a gift from a friend...The Orthodox New Testament...the Holy Gospels. I am hoping to purchase the Epistles very soon. It is published by the Holy Apostles Convent. I cannot express to you how happy I am to have this translation finally.

Thanks for the tip, and here's the link for a website where both volumes can be purchased:

http://omna.nettinker.com/biblenews.htm

And also see Oblio's links above. (oops, posted at the same time!)

 

[Reader Nilus]

What is your favorite English translation of the Bible? Is any particular one endorsed by the Orthodox Churches?

My personal favorite is The New English Bible. I only know of one that is prohibited from public reading in my diocese and that is the New Revised Standard Version.
Jeff the Finn

 

[ChoirDir]

www.lxx.org

 

[Orthodox Andrew]

Are not many English Bibles missing books?

 

[Panteleimon]

I bought the bible in the link below, and love it. I even wrote one of the reviews on Amazon! Eric

New Oxford Annotated Bible With the Apocrypha
by Herbert G. May (Editor), Bruce M. Metzger (Editor) ISBN: 019528335X

Just highlight the above ISBN number and paste into Amazon's search. There are a few that are similar, thats why you need the ISBN number. The leatherbound version. Sorry I can't post the link yet. I'm new and could use some blessings......

 

[Oblio]

Unfortunately you will need to rack up a few more posts before you can post links.

 

[countrymousenc]

I only know of one that is prohibited from public reading in my diocese and that is the New Revised Standard Version.
Jeff the Finn

One of my friends calls it the "New Reviled Standard Version." It does seem to reflect a modernist bias.

 

[Matrona]

I bought the bible in the link below, and love it. I even wrote one of the reviews on Amazon! Eric

New Oxford Annotated Bible With the Apocrypha
by Herbert G. May (Editor), Bruce M. Metzger (Editor) ISBN: 019528335X

Isn't that NRSV, though?

NRSV is such a bad translation it's actually forbidden to read it in some Orthodox dioceses... or whatever the plural is. (I wasn't raised going to church, so some concepts and words are still quite foreign to me. "Prayer request? What's that?") NRSV is the "gender neutral Bible". I have one but I only use it for the apocrypha, for the books in the protestant Bible I either read them out of my Orthodox Study Bible or online at www.biblegateway.com.

 

[Oblio]

Isn't that NRSV, though?

NRSV is such a bad translation it's actually forbidden to read it in some Orthodox dioceses... or whatever the plural is. (I wasn't raised going to church, so some concepts and words are still quite foreign to me. "Prayer request? What's that?") NRSV is the "gender neutral Bible". I have one but I only use it for the apocrypha, for the books in the protestant Bible I either read them out of my Orthodox Study Bible or online at www.biblegateway.com.

No, It is the RSV.
You do have to be very careful that you get the RSV rather than the NRSV.

 

[prodromos]

One of my friends calls it the "New Reviled Standard Version." It does seem to reflect a modernist bias.

That's like the NIV, the Non Inspired Version.

 

[countrymousenc]

That's like the NIV, the Non Inspired Version.

LOL, Yup!

 

[Matrona]

No, It is the RSV.
You do have to be very careful that you get the RSV rather than the NRSV.

The Oxford bible I have is NRSV. I had to get the NRSV for my Biblical literature class. It is very difficult to find a bible with the apocrypha in the South....

How I wish I hadn't had to waste $30 on it. But I couldn't find a Catholic bible soon enough.

 

[Maximus]

I know I will probably get jumped on, but from what I have read I think the old Douay-Rheims is probably the most reliable English Bible.

St. Jerome was faithful to the original Greek in his Latin Vulgate translation, and the translators of the Douay-Rheims were faithful in translating the Latin Vulgate into English.

I have seen comparisons of the Douay-Rheims with the Latin Vulgate and the Greek, and it seems to me the Douay-Rheims English is as faithful as it gets.

St. Jerome had access to manuscripts that are not available to modern scholars, his native language was Greek, and he was a master of Semitic languages.

Add to that the fact that he was a saint and actually lived in Jerusalem, and you have some pretty good reasons to trust the Douay-Rheims Bible.

 

[Suzannah]

Dear Maximus: I won't jump on you! I've never read the Douay version...I'm curious though, as you seem very knowledgeable, your opinion of the NASB? It's the version I have always used and I'm wondering what others think of it, and more specifically if the EO Churches have an opinion as well???
Thanks!

 

[Lotar]

You can check out the Douay-Rheims here http://unbound.biola.edu/ along with a number of other translations, plus they have the apocrypha. I think the Douay-Rheims version is pretty good, it's easier to understand than the KVJ.

I tell you, I've been looking and looking, and the only bible version I've found with the deuterocanons is the African Heritage Bible, and I'd just feel really strange buying that

The other week at Borders I was reading through this version called something like "The Bible in Modern English." Basically it was the guy's inturpretation of what the bible says, all I had to do was read a couple passages to tell the guy was a Baptist.