Tools of the Trade: The Bible
God's word is an essential tool for a disciple seeking God's will.
There is a lot of debate these days about bible translations. When I attended bible college, all the rage at that time was the New American Standard because it was as literal a translation as possible. As a young Christian, that seemed reasonable to me. Now I take a bit more of a circumspect view of bible translations.
First of all, if you know Greek and know it well then I recommend you just read the Greek bible. Then after reading the Greek bible you do exactly the same thing that I’m going to recommend to everyone else below.
Literal Translations (Formal Equivalence)
Everyone should have a few literal translations. Popular translations include the King James Version, The English Standard Version, the New American Standard.
Pros
These will help when you really need the underlying meaning of a specific word. When doing intensive study, using commentaries, dictionaries, and other tools, you will already be doing more than just reading a sentence. You will be studying every word and how they fit together. You are taking the time to look up the meanings of words you don’t know or might be used in a way that is different. For this reason you are better off using a more literal translation.
Cons
If you don’t have your tools at hand, you can easily not understand what is written and misinterpret it. There are many idioms in the bible and if you don’t know these Jewish idioms you are going to be confused. The English translation can also be a bit stilted and not flow as easily for you. If you are not a really good reader, you may find yourself having to read a passage over and over to grasp what it is saying.
Paraphrases (Dynamic Equivalence)
Often, these are referred to as paraphrases. the NIV, The Net Bible, The NLT. There are some other bibles like the Message that go beyond mere dynamic equivalence. They have their place but I will address them separately. The three translations I listed above likely go from left to right in the amount of dynamic translation they do.
Pros
Experts who have studied the culture and linguistics of the Greek will translate the passage in a way that it flows naturally in English. This means that a casual reader is more likely to immediately understand what is written. It reads like someone wrote it with an English reader in mind. Often, idioms are changed to something understandable to modern readers.
Cons
We the reader are depending the translators to correctly understand the original language and also to correctly put it into English. Now this is true of formal as well but it is more true of dynamic.
Hyper-Dynamic Equivalence
The Message and perhaps the original Living Bible are hyper dynamic translations. What do I mean by that? Well they don’t just translate thought for thought. They analyze the cultural setting and translate the culture so that it reads like the kind of English we’d read in the twenty first century. So a preacher often figures all this out as part of his sermon prep. The Message tries to do all that for you.
I would not recommend this translation as anyone’s primary bible. I think there are passages that are patently bad translations. I would the if like me you own dozens of bibles say you should include The Message at some point. He does really bring light to many passages in an insightful way. Use the Message like a commentary basically.
So what do I do? Which bible do I buy?
Well if you are a brand new Christian, someone has probably put a bible into your hands. Just use that one. Once you get past the new born Christian stage pickup up a few more. If you can afford just one bible, then I’d go for the NIV or the NET bible. It’s not that dynamic but it is where it needs to be and is very usable. Just be aware that the new version of the NIV uses gender neutral language in many places. While generally a good idea it might not be valid in some places so keep that in mind. The NET bible is not as mainstream of a translation but if you get the one with the full notes (do that!) then they explain all of their translation decisions so you can judge what they did for yourself.
If you can afford two bibles, then I’d recommend the ESV and NLT. The ESV is easy to read for a formal translation and does a decent job of translation. Use the NLT when you just want to sit in your easy chair and read the bible for inspiration and guidance. Use the ESV when you are studying more intently. You should be doing both of these things.
If your church is strictly KJV only then of course buy a KJV. I think you will do a lot of English translating if you use that version. The NKJV is a nice compromise. It has excellent notes. In fact if you are someone who grew up with the KJV and really love the way the KJV reads then the NKJV is likely a superior choice to the ESV. So get the NKJV and the NLT in that case.
Does it sound a little bit like I can’t make up my mind? Well remember what I said at the beginning about the Greek text? Well even if you know Greek you should read what other translators decided. So you ought to have a few more translations. In fact if you have bought a Greek bible then you are likely really into bible study so just buy all the ones I mentioned above.
Now even if you are not ready for Greek, and honestly most people are not into the Greek, then over time you should keep buying more translations. When you are doing bible study, it is very handy to read a verse in a whole bunch of translations. Try to get a feel for what the translators are struggling with in the underlying text. I expect though at this point you won’t be a baby Christian anymore. You will at least be a toddler.
Some examples
Let’s look at a bible verse (you didn’t think I was going to do a whole post without quoting the bible one time did you?)
Here is the Nestles Aland NA27 Greek Text
2 Timothy 3:16.
16 πᾶσα γραφὴ θεόπνευστος καὶ ὠφέλιμος πρὸς διδασκαλίαν,* πρὸς ⸀ἐλεγμόν, πρὸς ἐπανόρθωσιν, πρὸς παιδείαν τὴν ἐν δικαιοσύνῃ,Kurt Aland et al., Novum Testamentum Graece, 28th Edition. (Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, 2012),
Here is my feeble interlinear translation. Hyper-literal basically.
[All] [writing] [blown out by God] [and] [successful at accomplishing objective] [for] [the act of teaching], [for] [discipline, punishment], [for] [correcting, restoring], [for] [guidance for upbringing, training, instruction] [in] [fairness, justice, equitableness].
Now here are how the various translations do it
16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,
The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), 2 Ti 3:16.
Looks pretty good to me.
16 Every scripture is inspired by God and useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,
Biblical Studies Press, The NET Bible, Second Edition. (Denmark: Thomas Nelson, 2019), 2 Ti 3:16.
You see here with the more dynamic NET bible that they are inferring that God breathed is equivalent to what we think of as inspired.
All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness
The New King James Version (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982), 2 Ti 3:16.
Here we have the NKJV. It too goes with inspiration. This particular passage is pretty dynamic as doctrine while easily inferred is not a Greek word used. In fact the NET is actually more literal than the NKVJ on this one passage. This happens. No bible is purely formal or dynamic.
16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness,
The Holy Bible: New International Version (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1984), 2 Ti 3:16.
The NIV is a solid translation though I might take issue with the word useful seeming a bit weak to me. I prefer profitable. Overall though really solid.
16 All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right.
Tyndale House Publishers, Holy Bible: New Living Translation (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 2015), 2 Ti 3:16.
Now we are seeing some real dynamic equivalence here. The interpreters in this case seem to have made a pretty good choice but it’s obvious the words aren’t the same.
Those are just examples. There are a lot of other passages I could look at in the bible to compare translations. They all are better at different times in my opinion. That is based upon the commentaries I read mostly and my very limited knowledge of Greek. As you can see I hope, if you own a bunch of translations and know the approach of that translation, then you can use the bible effectively and if you have a bunch of translations it will really help.
One less costly way of getting a lot of translations is to get a parallel bible which will have anywhere from four to eight translations in one book. This book can then be your study book and you can carry whatever version you prefer as your go to church bible. I often find at church I prefer to own the bible the pastor uses just so I can follow along.
I hope this post helps you in thinking about translations. I plan on doing additional posts about bible study in the near future.
Thank you for reading. There will be more God willing. I love you all. I pray God blesses your mission.
I love how you explain the difference between some of the translations, but go a step further by giving an example (about the Bible itself! You could have picked any verse but you chose 1 Tim 3:16!) of each of those translations. It’s great for people to be able to read & see the differences.
I would like to add something you didn’t mention in the post… you don’t have to buy all of those versions. I might suggest buying your two favorites (one for in-depth study & one for “easy” reading), but also downloading the YouVersion Bible app because it’s free & gives you access to over 2000 versions (this includes English & other languages). This may be the most economical way to go, especially for folks who are new to the Bible & may not know which version they want to invest in yet.