Bible Translations Overview

It never fails. Every time I teach a series on how to study the Bible, some­one asks the ques­tion: “What’s a good trans­la­tion to use?” Granted, this Giv­ing the Sense series is only the sec­ond time I’ve taught a series on how to study the Bible.

Any­way, the answer to the above inqui­si­tion is usu­ally far more com­pli­cated than the inquirer real­ized when mak­ing his inquiry. A sim­ple answer can be given, and in this series has been given.¹ But a basic under­stand­ing of Bible trans­la­tions is impor­tant if you’re going to be study­ing the Bible. This post is intended as an overview. I’ll get into things like man­u­scripts later.

Dynamic Equiv­a­lence Translations

Most peo­ple these days use a dynamic equiv­a­lence trans­la­tion; this isn’t the case for the church I attend in Penn­syl­va­nia or Wash­ing­ton (there nasb and esv respec­tively are used). You’re using a dynamic equiv­a­lence trans­la­tion if you’re using the niv, nlt, or the newer hcsb. They don’t so much trans­late words as they do thoughts. The goal of a dynamic equiv­a­lence trans­la­tion is to focus “on trans­lat­ing the mes­sage of the original-language text. [ensur­ing] that the mean­ing of the text is read­ily appar­ent to the con­tem­po­rary reader. This allows the mes­sage to come through with imme­di­acy, with­out requir­ing the reader to strug­gle with for­eign idioms and awk­ward syn­tax.”² It is intended for read­ing for devo­tions or out in public.

These trans­la­tions can be extremely help­ful to a new reader, or even an expe­ri­enced reader. They should not, how­ever, be used as your pri­mary Bible for study­ing. This is because they do a lot of the work of inter­pre­ta­tion for you. While they might do a good job, the text will inevitably reflect the trans­la­tors’ the­ol­ogy. If you study a dynamic equiv­a­lence trans­la­tion, you will find that—in at least some places—you are study­ing the thoughts of the trans­la­tors and not the Word of God itself.

Again, though, these trans­la­tions are good for read­ing and can be help­ful when study­ing. My two favorite are prob­a­bly the 2011 niv and the hcsb. I just would not rec­om­mend that make them your pri­mary Bible for studying.

For­mal Equivalence

For­mal equiv­a­lence trans­la­tions (often referred to as “word-for-word” trans­la­tions) are an attempt to do as lit­tle thought-for-thought trans­la­tion as pos­si­ble and sim­ply trans­late each indi­vid­ual word. No trans­la­tion does this entirely because it would be vir­tu­ally impos­si­ble to read; ancient peo­ple often talked in sen­tences harder to under­stand than those of Yoda. The asv might just come the clos­est, but it is based on rather out­dated man­u­scripts (a sub­ject that we will address in a later post). Prob­a­bly the most lit­eral, mod­ern trans­la­tion is the nasb. The esv, in my opin­ion, strikes a bal­ance between still being among the most lit­eral mod­ern trans­la­tions and still being read­able to inex­pe­ri­enced readers.

I have issues with both the esv and the nasb; there are places in each where I think they could have trans­lated things bet­ter. On the whole, though, I tend to pre­fer the esv for read­ing (at some point in the future, I plan to write a post explain­ing why). You will want to have a good for­mal equiv­a­lence trans­la­tion for study­ing; I rec­om­mend hav­ing two or three. The nasb and the esv are my pri­mary for­mal equiv­a­lence Bible’s, but I will often refer to the asv as well.

Para­phrases

These are trans­la­tions where the translator(s) have lit­er­ally gone out of their way to warn you: “The words you are read­ing here are not God’s; they are mine.” A para­phase is an attempt by a trans­la­tor to take some­thing the Bible says and put it in their own words. There is noth­ing wrong with para­phras­ing. Preach­ers do this all the time when they pref­ace state­ments with “it’s as if God is saying…”

You can read these, but do under­stand that what you are read­ing is quite removed from the orig­i­nal words of Scrip­ture. Some para­phrase exam­ples include The Mes­sage and The Liv­ing Bible.

The King Jimmy Bible

The King James Ver­sion is a big topic to cover. I have two prob­lems with it that explain why I rarely use it. The first is sim­ply that the lan­guage is so archaic that it is dif­fi­cult to under­stand. Genesis 24:64 prob­a­bly gives most mod­ern read­ers the impres­sion that Rebekah lit a cig­a­rette when it says that she “lighted off her camel.” If your Bible is so old that you have to trans­late its words so peo­ple can under­stand it, it’s prob­a­bly time for a new translation.

The other prob­lem I have with the King James Ver­sion is that it is based off of very poor man­u­scripts. Since the kjv was trans­lated, we have found a lot of man­u­scripts that are a lot closer to the time the Bible was actu­ally writ­ten. It makes sense to use the older, more recently dis­cov­ered man­u­scripts because the chances are pretty good that error crept in over a period of 800+ years (the kjv was trans­lated from man­u­scripts dat­ing around 1000ad). I will explain more about the man­u­scripts issue in a forth­com­ing post.

So which trans­la­tion is best?

There really is no answer to that ques­tion. My per­sonal favorite is the esv, but I have even found things I don’t like about that one. Trans­la­tions really can’t be per­fect. Your best bet is to use sev­eral trans­la­tions and do word stud­ies when mean­ing is unclear.

Where do I find these translations?

That’s a ques­tion I can answer. The esv trans­la­tion has its own web­site which is really good. For other trans­la­tions you can try biblegateway.com. You can also down­load soft­ware like e-Sword or Xiphos.

Another site I have been try­ing out lately is Great Trea­sures. I haven’t used it much, but if it is as good as I hear it is, I may post a review some­time soon.