Bible Translations

There are so many different translations of the Bible. What translation should I be reading?

There are a number of excellent translations. Which one you read depends on your purpose in reading the Bible. Here are a few suggestions:

New American Standard Bible (NASB) - This is a word-for-word translation. For example, you can pick a word in the New Testament and look up the original Greek word. This makes the NASB excellent as a study Bible, but for general reading it does not flow easily and may be difficult for some people to read. If you want to know exactly what the Bible says, and are willing to put some time into Bible study, then the NASB is the way to go.

King James Version (KJV) - The KJV is also a word-for-word translation. Unlike the NASB the English text flows beautifully. This is truly a wonderful translation. The problem with the KJV is that it is difficult for us to understand the old style grammar and language. When reading the KJV you need to be aware that the meaning of English words have changed over the past 200 years. So you may read a word, such as "replenish", and think you understand what it means. However, it may mean exactly the opposite. For example, we understand "replenish" (Genesis 1:28) to mean to fill again, or replace what once was there. At the time the KJV was translated "replenish" meant to fill for the first time.

New International Version (NIV) - This is a thought-for-thought translation. It conveys the meaning of what the original authors intended to say, but may not use their exact words. The NIV is an excellent translation that is easier to read than the NASB, and can be used for both study and ready.

New Living Translation (NLT) - This is a paraphrase. The translators intent was to produce an easy-to-read and understand Bible. You could say that some commentary is built into the translated text to help readers understand what is being said. This is an excellent translation for reading, but it is not great for doing an in-depth study of the Bible.

These are the top four translations in use today. You can trust any of them to be accurate and true to the original text. I use all four depending on how I'm using the Bible.