As the title states, what is the best version of God's word do we have today? I understand many versions are out there, and I assume many have been edited/altered to fit narratives.
What consensus do we have as the best/absolute version of God's word, directly from him that we know of and can get today?
Me personally, I grew up in a non-religious family. I have always had that voice in my head pushing me to always do good. I have always felt that there is a higher presence watching over us, but never trusted what most were saying.
I say this because I saw the corruption, the money grabbing, the lies...
I didn't trust, and still don't trust, many who try and claim their words as God's words. I'm talking about the Mega Churches where the pastors/evangelists/etc all are hypocrites, easily seen. Many more examples, but this gets my point across.
The last couple of years, I began my own journey finding God. I'm now slowly trying to get my wife on board, especially now...evil is RAMPANT and REAL. If Evil exists, then good exists...God exists, our Father, our Creator.
I want to further my journey down this path, but I want it to be REAL...the TRUTH.
Not lies and deceit.
I make this post not just for myself, but for everyone else who comes here searching for the Truth. The time is right, and the time is now, and I want us all to be freed from Evil's grasp.
Please share your thoughts and choices.
For OT, the New World Translation - as far as I know, it's the only one with all 6,780 uses of the Tetragrammaton translated as an actual name.
For NT, the NRSV is excellent based on my intermediate studies of Koine - the NRSV is extremely faithful to the extant texts.
Research the Nahal Hever fragments - they offer a critical and fascinating look at the early Septuagint.
The closest Bible I can find that meets the first two criteria is an interlinear Bible published by Hendrickson Publishers.
Just as a follow-up, this is an excellent journey to take. And you are correct that edits have been made to the text throughout time (the worst is the result of Jerome not being able to read Hebrew - he could only speak it - when he created the Latin Vulgate.)
In same cases, mistakes were made by illiterate monks (PIPI comes to mind.)