Bible holds the reputation of being the most accurate bible translation in english. In other words, the main goal of an application study bible is not to dig deep into the meaning of the text. Whether you have been studying the bible for years or you are a new believer, this book. Judging from the psalms alone, i would say that it would be a christian sect, and that unlike the mormon cult its scriptures will point its adherents to. All the translations today are based on material memorialized in print well. Is the king james version more accurate than modern translations. They were educated in both vietnam and the united states of america and serve churches of different denominations. At best, it is a commentary on the bible, yet unfortunately one masquerading as scripture itself, and no commentary is a suitable substitute for scripture. Well organized and it gives you the important facts right away, without inserting too much fluff or a particular doctrinal view. Being a new christian, i have had difficulty deciding which bible to read. I know the esv is your preferred translation, but i sometimes find the wording of the esv hard to understand, so i often switch to the niv, hcsb, or nlt for clarity on a passage. In other words, instead of translating each word individually, they attempt to translate the original thoughts behind each word and phrase.
Proponent of king james bible themselves points the differences between king james and modern standard. Furthermore, there are over 300 words in the kjv that no longer mean what they meant in 1611. The esv is the most recent translation, which stands firmly in the formal equivalency tradition. The fundamental problem here is that accuracy of any current day copy or translation must be compared to an impeccable, original source. For this plan we look mostly at the new living translation which provides a relevant and accurate translation of the bible. Heres why christians should be concerned about the passion. Since then, the bible has been translated into many more languages. Much of my writing has focused on defending meaningbased bible translation. New world translation of the holy scriptures wikipedia. If they were all written down, i suppose the whole world could not contain the books that would be written. This study series dives into the book of john in the bible to provide a practical study as well as thoughtprovoking questions for creating a meaningful interaction between you and god. Because of the popularity in the esv translation, an edition was published in 2009 with the apocryphal books included as well. Jan 23, 2006 there are two main translations today which john piper and dg would recommend.
The most popular bible of the year is probably not what you think it is. The manuscripts commonly used for the translation of the old testament into english are the masoretic text mt and the septuagint. We, however, will not boast beyond measure, but according to the measure of the area of ministry that god has assigned to us, which reaches even you. The quantity of new testament manuscripts is unparalleled in ancient literature. The new world translation is a poor translation from the original koine greek. What bible translation is closest to the original written scriptures. The bible has been translated into many languages from the biblical languages of hebrew, aramaic and greek. Luke and john, combined in one narrative and rendered in modern. It has a nice written style, and usually contains those extra books known as the.
The nwt new world translation of the jehovahs witnesses sect is not accurate for at least two reasons. In my linguistic research in connection with the hebrew bible and translation, i often refer to the english edition as what is known as the new world translation. After this comes the proclamation that this jesus is the son of god sent from the father to finish the fathers work in the world see 4. Greek translation of the old testament, the samaritan pentateuch, and the targums ancient paraphrases of the old testament, as well as the talmud teachings and commentaries related to the hebrew scriptures. Robert plummer answers in honest answers episode 73. Several other english versions followed, including the great bible 1535 and bishops bible 1568. Strongs concordance is just as reliable as any other.
Holy bible, new living translation 1996, 2004, 2007, 2015. Today, well continue the discussion with a look at one type of bible translation that you can find here at bible gateway. The kjv was translated from later manuscripts that are less accurate to the original text of the bible. The nivs commitment to accuracy the international bible. The first english language version of the full bible was john wycliffes translation of. How many of the above statements do you think are true. The translation by the anonymous committee is thoroughly uptodate and consistently accurate. The new vietnamese bible nvb was translated by a committee of ten vietnamese theologians trained in greek and hebrew.
Overall, the cjb is a good and accurate translation of the bible. In fact, the new world translation is a scholarly work. A highly readable, accurate translation written in modern english. And even though the current edition is 95% the same as it was before, the niv translators spent six years going over every revision. Instead it says, in the beginning was the word, and the word was with god, and the word was a. Many people find that they need more than one bible and use different ones for. The new testament portion was released in 1950, as the new world translation of the christian greek scriptures, with the complete bible released in 1961. Concerns over accuracy and interpretation are especially true among religious. The voice attempts to translate the poetry, humor, and beauty of the bibles passages to produce an effect similar to what one would experience reading in the original.
Like joseph smith and the book of mormon, brian simmons has created a new scripture with the potential to rule as canon over a new sect. The darby translation of the bible is a reliable translation by john nelson darby. Of course my translation is the most accurate and up to date. It is also recommended by scholars and my pastor uses it. The passion translation bible is a new, heartlevel translation expressing gods fiery heart of love to this generation using hebrew, greek, and aramaic manuscripts, merging the emotion and lifechanging truth of gods word. J john, the evangelist, says i find that, in terms of communicating the meaning of. The book s author, eugene peterson, claims he was seeking to make the bible more understandable.
The doctrines that they complain about are significant. Which is the most accurate english translation of the bible. More than 125 years after its introduction, it is still considered to be one of the most accurate english translations of the bible. The first edition of the niv bible took more than a decade to translate. Jan 02, 2020 complete jewish bible pros and cons restoring the jewishness of the bible is a good thing. Those chapters speak of the creation of the universe, the fall of man into sin, the worldwide flood of noah, and the languagealtering event at babel. Esv when they had appointed elders for them in every church, having prayed with fasting, they commended them to the lord in whom they had believed. That is, the most literal or most accurate bible is the esv and the least accurate bible is gods word.
English bible translations also have a rich and varied history of more than a millennium. We do know what language the ot and nt were originally written in without question with some very minor exceptions, the ot was written in hebrew overwhelmingly or aramaic ezrane. The first english language version of the full bible was john wycliffes translation of the vulgate in 84. Johns gospel is one of the most powerful books of the new testament. Apr 05, 2018 your bible isnt actually accurate theres something important we need to keep in mind when reading any bible translation of the english or other languages.
Holy bible, new living translation 1996, 2004, 2007, 2015 by tyndale. John piper, a prominent voice in evangelical and reformed circles. The bible was written predominantly by jews and to a jewish audience. The bible teaches that the earth is the center of the universe. I want to get a sense of the complexities of the passage and what translators have wrestled with to create their translations. Apr 16, 2020 how accurate is the new world translation of the holy scriptures. The publications of the church of god, a worldwide association, use the new king james version as their primary translation, and we recommend this version above the others. Which version of the holy bible provides the most accurate. The bible is also a book of history whose facts are being proven to be true with almost every archaeological finding. May 04, 2016 the need to pick the beall and endall bible translation, the one that is simultaneously literal and understandable and beautiful, the one that as one press release for a major translation claims eliminates. The complete bible has been translated into over 500 languages, and portions exist in almost 3000 languages and dialects.
A drug user undergoing rehabilitation reads the bible as part of his regular activities at the center for christian recovery in antipolo, philippines, september 12, 2016. A translation that focuses on formal equivalence will be most helpful. The bible places great stress on accurate historical details, and this is especially obvious in the gospel of luke and the book of acts, lukes twopart masterpiece see his prologue in luke 1. It quickly became a favorite translation for serious bible study. While encouraging and affirming the use of versions from across the translation spectrum, the most accurate versions are those that reproduce the meaning of the texts and so give priority to function over form. The new world translation of the holy scriptures nwt is a translation of the bible published by the watch tower bible and tract society.
The new world translation of the holy scriptures is published by jehovahs witnesses. These translations read easily, and hence may be useful in studying narrative portions of the bible, such as exodus, samuel, kings and chronicles, but they are not recommended for close study of more conceptual books, such as the epistles of paul, where accurate translation is very important. The following bibles are presented in descending order of accuracy. Here is a list of the closest bible translations in english. This lowcost edition, presented in the new living translation, communicates gods message of love and hope in three ways. I used it for my dissertation on bible translation and gender in college and it helped a lot. The latin vulgate translation was dominant in western christianity through the middle ages. Eventually, the 27 books which form the present new testament, along with the ot. Darby translation of the bible by john nelson darby. John testifies to christs messiahship, and baptizes at john 1. We find that the nkjv is a very good and accurate translation.
Esv bible translation revisions potentially dangerous. The most controversial book of the bible is genesis, especially the first eleven chapters. The books author, eugene peterson, claims he was seeking to make the bible more understandable. What bible translation is closest to the original written. Many spanish translations of the bible are paraphrase translations, so biblical scholars saw the need to have an even more accurate translation of the scriptures. The book is in violation of the warning in revelation 22. When the 1611 king james bible was published, it was a book that summed up and refined the preceding tradition of english bible translation. Though it is not the first bible to be published by.
One of the few modern translations to originate in britain. In my opinion, having good bible translation is just one part of developing good study habits for they encourage accurate understanding, which leads to accurate exegesis which then leads to orthodoxy which leads to orthopraxy. The bible, an american translation university of chicago press, 1935 the new american bible with the revised book of psalms and the revised new testament thomas nelson, 1983. And we know that his account of these things is accurate. There are literally thousands of hebrew and greek manuscripts preserved to the present day. Reutersromeo ranoco a debate is stirring over revisions made to the final translation of the english standard version bible regarding gender, with one biblical scholars saying the changes are potentially dangerous. Both of these translations seek to capture as fully as possible the precise wording of the original greek, hebrew, and aramaic texts.
The reason that the more modern translations are missing words is because textually, theyre actually more accurate. Is the king james version of the bible the most accurate. Application study bibles tend to focus primarily not exclusively on helping you apply the bible to various situations in your life. The other criterion in determining what is the most accurate bible translation is the type of manuscript used as the base text. Niv holy bible zondervan, 1978 modern language bible the new berkeley version zondervan, 1969. The english bible is a translation of a translation of a translation etc. Welcome to bible book club, helping you read the bible with your friends.
One of the bibles most popular translations is the niv new. This is a great book on the history of bible translation. The first verse of johns gospel does not say, as it does in the rsv, in the beginning was the word, and the word was with god, and the word was god. Recently, we offered a few thoughts in response to the common question which bible translation is the best. The most popular dynamicequivalency translations, which dominate the evangelical world, are the new international version niv, todays new international version tniv, the message msg, the living bible tlb, the good news bible gnb, and the new living translation nlt. I had been strongly advised to read only the king james version as being the best translation available.
Good quality, understandable plain english, and as accurate as english allows it to be. Dynamic equivalence study bible translations attempt to translate the bible in a thoughtforthought manner. This is a perfectly reasonable thing to wonder, particularly if youre new to the bible and are bewildered by the dozens of arcanelooking acronyms niv, esv, nrsv, etc. Those are strong words to describe a bestselling bible translation 1. Debarred sons of aaron from exercise of priestly offices leviticus 21. It is a literal translation, holding to the formal equivalence school of thought that the translation should be as literal as possible. The niv translation process is one of rigorous checks and balances. If we assume the modern translation is accurate, that means kjv must be quite wrong then.
Endorsements endorsements the fact that the net bible nt explains itself with a wealth of detailed notes discussing matters of accuracy allows the translators to focus more on readability and eloquence in the translation without inadvertently misleading the reader about the original text. Words have been added, deleted, and modifications made to make the text to eliminate doctrinal difficulties and to make the text agree with their theology. Feb 28, 2014 the devilish puppet master of the wordfaith movement justin peters selected scriptures duration. Due to the large number of translations available online for free it is very easy. Jan 26, 2012 i have a phd in hebrew bible and archaeology harvard 1999. A wordtoword bible translation is a bible that aims to hew as closely as possible to the wording and grammatical. If you really want to get annoying and split hairs, application bibles arent technically study bibles. The complete jewish bible should be commended for recognizing those facts. It is the book of the bible we encourage nonchristians to read, in the hope that its message will lead them to faith in christ after all, that is the purpose of the booksee john 20. While there are slight variations among them, most of those variations have little or no impact on major doctrines. Is the king james version of the bible the most accurate translation. The book is promoted as being easy to read, even by those not familiar with the bible.
When you want to read a bible, which translation should you go for. Because the hcsb recognizes the priority of meaning over form, i would give it high marks for accuracy. In our view the book the message is not a valid translation of the bible. Before we arrive at which modern translation is the most accurate we need to know a little bit about the manuscripts writings translators have used to produce copies of the bible such as the king james version and others. Introduction the christian standard bible csb, published in 2017, is a major revision and replacement of the holman christian standard bible hcsb, which was first published as a full bible in 2004 and revised in 2009. The voice was produced through an unusual translation processalong with bible and language scholars, many artists, writers, and musicians helped determine the final text. Modern translations translate directly from the manuscripts that scholars are most sure represent what the bible originally looked like, as opposed to what the kjv was translated from, which had had many additions and so forth tacked on. This is evident in the new world translation of the bible that jehovahs witnesses use. None of this is possible without the holy spirits leading and guiding, of course. This 10pack of the gospel of john nlt is perfect for evangelism and giving away. Other translations wrestle with the tension between accuracy, readability, and eloquence in. A concordance is nothing more than a comprehensive listing of all or at least most occurrences of a specific word. John begins with the profound announcement that jesus is the in the beginning creative word of god who had become embodied incarnated as a human being to be the light of life for the world. It is a literal translation from the hebrew and greek languages that incorporates the scholarship of several centuries of textual criticism conducted since the original kjv.
The disadvantage of literal translations is that they are harder to read because more hebrew and greek style intrudes into the english text. It is translated from the oldest and best greek manuscripts and although the hebrew contains variant readings, i am assured that my translation is of the highest quality. There are two main criteria to consider in determining what is the most accurate bible translation. Complete jewish bible pros and cons restoring the jewishness of the bible is a good thing. But there are certain books of the bible that just seem to stand out, and the gospel of john is surely one of those books.