I've heard the KJV is a bad translation and many others. Which version of the Bible do you read and what is your reason for that version?
I was raised catholic and lost my faith the older I got, but I've always been spiritual and I know there is a God. (Just look around and you can see Lucifer in pretty much everything)
Lately I've been seeing how our world has progressed into what the book of revelations tells us, and now I'm really starting to gain my faith back.
Any help on this is greatly appreciated.
God bless you all! Wwg1wga
All of them. Read each one once and then you can choose which is best. Just kidding. However, Pat Boone has read the Bible all the way through every year for the last 40 years or so. I started with the English Standard Version as the King James was a little too hard to interpret. So I read it through with highlights. Now I am reading the King James Version and am on Psalm 50 at this moment. Good luck and may God be with you on your journey through his word no matter which version you choose.
You're welcome.
Young's Literal Translation is a good reference. Not as much "interpretations" as all the other "versions".
Lexham English Bible (word for word translation) and International Standard Version (thought for thought translation). Both versions more accurately translate the supernatural references that were lost or edited out as Christianity lost the worldview of the ancient near East cultures and Jewish thought concerning God, the rebellious angels, the Nephilim, and the true identities of the pagan gods of the surrounding nations.
Any Old Testament translated from the Septuagint and not the Masoretic texts is good. The Masoretic text dememphasized much of the supernatural worldview, especially as it relates to scriptures foretelling Jesus as the Messiah.
A good primer for understanding this is Dr. Michael S. Heiser’s book The Unseen Realm.
I just ordered one. Thank you.
NET, NASB, NIV... Most any in plain English. Even the NKJV is descent. The Holy Spirit can overcome weaknesses in translations. Best to compare versions as you go.
Only a cultist will defend one translation over all others. Any one who claims translators were inerrant are denying man's fallen state.
Great point on "only a cultist will defend one translation"
KJV is a perfectly good place to start, but make some searches of any particular paragraph that puzzles, and find other translations, including orthodox versions and scholarly interpretations. Sometimes the wording boils down to the change of one word. Methodist or Evangelist versions often try to simplify or modernize -still fine for establishing the main concepts. How do Huguenot or Protestant versions change it? Their intention was to root out the corruption that had manifested through secrecy. What is the symbolism, especially, when a different word is introduced - and yet they become very strict. What was the condition of the translators at the time? Persecution.
King James had a pure desire to gift the bible to the common Englishman. He hired intellectuals and Scholars of Ancient Greek and Roman to do it. The agenda was pure IMO. However, the Roman Catholics may disagree - the question then is why? To me, this becomes an issue of decentralisation by offering translation for those who want to read the bible in their native tongue. For the Catholics in the 17th C, this meant that Latin was the lingua franca, which had a centralising order. However, this sort of thing has issues, just as any Order has (Think New World vs Old World) and English was the natural step to secularizing. When there exists a power struggle, and there is an executive quibbling about which language a book should be written in, one must question the symbolism AND the propaganda. In this context, the KJV is villified, IMO.
God bless you. Thank you very much for the response. Everyone here is so helpful, I love it
The Holy Spirit would not lead you astray. It has nothing to do with weakness.
https://youtu.be/8DA8DK0u0Tw
I was being polite in calling bad translations "weakness"
The Spirit can overcome what ever you want to call it.
At least listen to the video I posted with my reply.
KJV is not infallible. yes, the RSV, NIV, etc. have "weaknesses." But both use the Masoretic Text for the OT. Weak foundation... weak translation. Further, The English language has changed dramatically since 1611. Some words mean completely different things now. And our understanding of ancient languages has increased dramatically as well.
refer back to my statement about the Holy Spirit.
That is a very difficult question with a complex answer. There are primarily 2 approaches used in translating scripture in the various manuscripts (such as the Textus Receptus and Alexandrian texts) into Bible translations. The first approach is to translate from the original Hebrew/Aramaic/Greek as literally as possible, word for word. This is not always possible as there are words in one language that have no real/direct equivalent in another language. Translators do the best they can in those instances where this occurs. Translations that use a literal word for word approach include: NASB, ESV, and the Amplified versions.
The other approach is the dynamic equivalent approach. This method of translation attempts to translate from the original languages on a thought for thought basis rather than on a word for word basis. In other words, this translation method is more focused on what the original writers intended to say, the thought they wanted to convey, rather than a literal word for word translation. Some versions that use the dynamic equivalent method are: NKJV, CSB, NRSV, and NIV.
Understand also, that you need to think of the different translations as being on a continuum, from extreme literal word for word on one end of the continuum, to extreme dynamic equivalent on the other end of the continuum. The various translations fall at different points along the continuum rather than being simply one or the other.
I should mention that there is a 3rd approach called the paraphrase method. This method simply attempts to phrase the original languages from the various texts in contemporary speech/usage of language. I personally don't care for these translations and this method of translation.
I think the question, "Which version is best" (And I know that is not the exact question you asked) is the wrong question. Each translation method has it's own challenges, strengths, and weaknesses. My suggestion is that you read from several translations and compare them to one another so that you get a more complete picture of what is being said. For example, read from the NASB and ESV, as well as the NKJV and NIV translations.
It's kind of like putting together a 1,000 piece puzzle, the more pieces you have the more complete your understanding of the overall picture will be.
Hope this helps.
This is an interesting question.
It is interesting because I have 5 different suggestions on 7 replies. It would be great to have a poll on this
make sure to read the book of enoch. The book of jubilees. and the oldest non king james bible you can find. as in . (The Geneva Bible) king james didn't like that bible so he changed it... I preferr the oldest translations and anything "taken out" by modern leaders
The Ethiopian Orthodox is the oldest and most complete Book of Enoch.
yes truth!!
fun fact they go off the gregorian calendar and are years behind us theirs started the day jesus was born? or died? i forget....
our calendar is wrong... sept = 7 oct =8 Dec = 10
interesting how the bible says in end times our calendar will be totally out of wack.
Are you just wanting to read it or also study/research? My primary bible is KJV. The older, the better. Preferably by Cambridge (printer). In addition to that an Amplified Bible. There are more study/research tools for KJV (if you like to dig properly) than any other English translation. I have many different ones but those I recommended are my favorites. God Bless!!
This is not a Bible but an excellent start (especially with a view towards studying) is "How to Enjoy Reading the Bible" by E.W. Bullinger
I don't know the answer, but I can bet that the bible you are looking far is hidden away in an underground bunker below the Vatican, and nobody can see it.
The best Bible is the one you will actually read. Go to the bookstore and read through the various versions. Find one you're comfortable with and start reading.
This isn't an either/or choice. You can always switch to another version later.
u/thepowerofprayer
There's a couple of them out there. The best thing to do is pick a verse and use something like biblehub eg: https://biblehub.com/daniel/12-5.htm then find out which version is easiest for you to understand
have you watched the series the chosen? its a remarkable visual of jesus miracles and stories of his disciples. It is very powerful
that was just to help you find which version might be easier to read. All the versions are listed above their verse.
In my ESV, Matthew 17:21 is completely missing, COMPLETELY!
This particular verse tells the reader how to defeat Satan, through prayer and fasting.
Interesting that this verse has been deleted. I guess the Devil infiltrated the publisher and it was "mistakenly" left out. Sure.
This is the fear I have with all Bilbes published after 1960. There have been so many versions, how does a layman know which version is "correct"?
King James. Alway had the others but after listening to a researcher/pastor explain that the NWO had infiltrated the newer versions and he explains that they have removed and added words that wasn’t in the first translations, I ONLY use the King James now.
https://youtu.be/8DA8DK0u0Tw
research The Geneva Bible it pre-dates king james
Another vote for the Geneva Bible.
a vote from me too^ especially since the Geneva Bible includes margin notes/which King James didn't approve of.
Douay-Rheims
https://drbo.org/drl/
For the New Testament, I highly, highly recommend Kenneth Wuest's "Expanded Translation of the New Testament." He went through the original Greek and used all the English words necessary to convey the nuances of the Greek language and grammar. It's excellent.
The Newbury Englishman's Bible - this highlights all the words that could be interpreted in alternative ways, and gives you those as margin notes, as well as the hebrew and greek as footnotes. I like it as a hardcopy, but I also like biblehub where you can read several translations verse by verse, allowing you to learn which is the most comprehensible, also allows you to understand the KJV language (which is very very hard to understand without the help of a literal translation alongside)
for the purpose of understanding the Q drops, I've found this helpful-Thomas Jefferson's translation. he focuses on the words of Jesus; which is very close to the Q-Source (if you're familiar with it; common material between Matthew and Luke)
Jefferson Bible- https://youtu.be/yMZNeQxm4GE
Read the Summerian cuneiform tablets to see where the Bible got its stories.
King James only.