How To Read The Bible For All Its WorthChikamu

Which Bible Translation Should I Read?

We would venture to suggest that the current NIV (2011), a committee translation by the best scholarship in the evangelical tradition is as good a translation as you can get. The GNB, HCSB and NAB are also especially good. One would do well to have some or all of these.

Along with one or more of these, readers would also do well to use one or more of the following: the NASB or the NRSV. Both translations are attempts to update the KJV. The translators used superior original texts and thereby eliminated most of what in the KJV did not exist in the original languages. At the same time they tried to adhere as closely as possible to the language of the KJV, with some modernization. The NRSV is by far the better translation; the NASB is much more like the KJV and therefore far more literal--to the point of being wooden.

Along with one or more of these, we recommend you also consult either the REB or NJB--or both. Both of these are committee translations. Both of these translations tend to be freer at times than the other described here. But both of them also have some outstanding features and are well worth using in conjunction with the others.

If you were regularly to read the NIV, and then consult at least one from three other categories (NRSV/NASB; GNB/NAB; REB/NJB), you would be giving yourself the best possible start to an intelligent reading and study of the Bible.

Here's an illustration of our point: survey these different translations of 1 Corinthians 7:36.

NKJV: "If any many thinks that he is behaving improperly toward his virgin..."

NASB: "If any man thinks that he is actring unbecomingly toward his virgin daughter..."

NIV: "If anyone is worried that he might not be acting honorably toward the virgin he is engaged to..."

NEB: "If a man has a partner in celibacy and feels that he is not behaving properly towards her..."

Next time we'll explore how to make deeper sense of Paul's letters.