During the month of August, we will be digging into the Zonegathering vaults to bring you some of our Bible Drill Wednesday Greatest Hits. Today, we are reprinting Bible Drill Wednesday: Bible Translations, written by Heather Zempel and first published on Wednesday, September 20, 2006. This Bible Drill will help you understand the differences between Bible translations and help you select the most appropriate translation for your purposes.
Finding the right Bible in the Family Christian Store can be like finding a specific tree in an overgrown forest. There are Bibles for women, Bibles for men, and Bibles for children. There are parallel Bibles and study Bibles and interlinear Bibles and picture Bibles. There’s hard back, soft back, leather-bound, and metal cased. There’s a seemingly endless variety of translations. There’s even a new Veggie Tales Bible. Choosing the right Bible can be overwhelming.
Translations vary from strictly literal and highly accurate word-for-word translations to more narrative and understandable thought-for-thought translations. In general, as accuracy increases, readability decreases. And as readability increases, accuracy decreases. When choosing a translation, you need to take into account those two variables: accuracy and readability.
Zondervan has a very helpful graphic for determining where translations fall on the accuracy-readability continuum. They also show a sample verse in several different translations here.
Here are some helpful terms:
Translation: a textual conversion created from the original languages.
Version: a revision of a translation. The English translation is used as the source text, not the original Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic.
Literal translation: staying as close as possible to the original wording, even if some of the meaning, nuance, understanding, and readability is lost. Examples include the New American Standard Bible (NASB) (strictly literal), King James (KJV), American Standard (ASV), and Revised Standard (RSV).
Literal with Freedom to be Idiomatic- New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)
Thought-for-thought: translates the thought or the phrase and opposed to word-for-word. The New International Version (NIV) has one of the best combinations and balances of accuracy and readability.
Dynamic Equivalent: this translation falls between the literal translation and the paraphrase. As opposed to word-for-word translation, it translates thought-for-thought. It converts certain literary devices of the biblical languages into their English equivalents. Examples include the New Living Translation (NLT) and the Contemporary English Version (CEV).
Paraphrase: attempts to convey the meaning of the text without translating word-for-word. Sometimes, additional comments are included to provide interpretation or clarification. Examples include the Living Bible (LB) and the Message (MSG).
The translation you choose will depend on the purpose of your reading. If you are studying or memorizing, I would recommend a more literal translation. If you are reading large chunks at a time for the purpose of absorbing the story, I would recommend a more readable translation. If you are reading to look at familiar passages from a fresh perspective, I would recommend a more readable translation. If you are preparing for a sermon, use the more literal translation.
I use literal translations (like NASB), interlinear, and parallel Bibles for studying. I typically use NIV or NLT for general reading. And I typically preach from the NLT because I believe it probably comes closest to “sounding” to modern ears like it was intended to “sound” to ancient ears.
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