What Bible Versions Should I Read?

 

The Masoretic Manuscripts were written 6 to 9 centuries (by Jewish Masorete scholars) after the time of Jesus’ ministry, and comprise the Old Testament.  The Masoretes were not creating new texts but meticulously writing them from older manuscripts.  There are thousands of Masoretic text manuscripts.  The Septuagint (translated by Jewish priests from Hebrew to Greek) also includes the Old Testament and was written 100 to 300 years before the time of Jesus’ ministry. There are a little more than 2,000 manuscripts of the Septuagint.  Almost all English translations pull primarily from the Masoretic texts for the Old Testament, with some passages from the Septuagint.  Another modern consideration is that the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in the middle of the 20th Century has resulted in some translations making some minor adjustments to a few passages in the Old Testament.  Though when considering the quotes of the Old Testament (in the New Testament), about two-thirds come from the Septuagint (since that was the prominent Old Testament writings used in that century).  These manuscripts did not include punctuation, which is another important reason to read multiple translations.

 

The Byzantine texts contain, by far, the largest number of manuscripts of the New Testament, numbering about 5,300, as well as about 24,000 fragments.  These groups of manuscripts date as early as the 300s A.D.  The Alexandrian texts are the oldest collection of New Testament manuscripts, dating as early as the 100s and 200s A.D., with a total of approximately 30 manuscripts.  Not only do the New Testament manuscripts not include any punctuation, but also they also don’t include any spacing between words (hopefully, you’re beginning to see the importance of reading multiple translations). Chapters were first introduced in the 13^th century A.D., and verses were introduced in the 16th century.  The Geneva Bible was the first Bible to include both chapters and verses.  With this said, the verses among Bibles are usually consistent in the Old Testament, but in the New Testament, the verses are based on the Byzantine manuscripts.  This means that there will be some verses (over a dozen full verses and some partial verses) that are blank in Bibles based on the Alexandrian manuscripts.

 

So, this is helpful information to understand when choosing a Bible to read since they don’t all pull from the same groups of manuscripts, and we are uncertain as to which manuscripts are the most accurate (scholars continue to vigorously debate this topic).  Thankfully, when it comes to the New Testament, there is 95% commonality between the Byzantine and the Alexandrian manuscripts, and the 5% of differences do not affect any major doctrines.  Still, with the tools and technology available today, it is very helpful to have multiple English translations side by side on your smartphone, tablet, PC, or laptop to get a more thorough perspective (or get a side-by-side Bible translation in print).  In addition, when we note that the manuscripts usually don’t contain punctuation or even spacing between words, it is important to look at how different translations render each passage of scripture (e.g., some may have statements or exclamations vs. a question from another translation).

 

With most English translations primarily including Masoretic texts for the Old Testament, it becomes important to look at different translations for the sake of the New Testament, as well as for the sake of the variety of ways the entire Bible has been translated.  With that in mind, note that the Revised Geneva Translation (RGT) , New King James Version (NKJV), and the original King James Version (KJV) use the Byzantine collection of New Testament Manuscripts, while the English Standard Version (ESV), Legacy Standard Bible (LSB), Christian Standard Bible (CSB), New International Version (NIV), New American Standard Bible (NASB), New Living Translation (NLT), and most other modern translations use the Alexandrian manuscripts of the New Testament (with the LSB and the NASB including a few bracketed passages from the Byzantine texts). 

 

Then there is the style in which the Bible is translated.  For example, the 3 primary stylistic groups of translations include the following, or a combination of the following:

The word-for-word translations will try to render the language as literally as possible to closely preserve the original writing (most often choosing specific English words to replace the Hebrew, Greek, or Aramaic words).  The thought-for-thought or dynamic equivalence versions will try to render the writing as close to what the author intended, often using phrases instead of just one word to convey the meaning of the passage.  This can be helpful in cases when one word may not effectively convey the translation of a specific Hebrew, Greek, or Aramaic word.  Paraphrase translations are often used to help make the passage easier to understand, but can also lend themselves to being a Bible commentary more than a translation (e.g., telling the reader what they think the passage means rather than just allowing the passage to speak for itself).

 

The word-for-word translations (listed in their abbreviated form) that we recommend are as follows: ESV, LSB, NASB, NKJV, UASV (Updated American Standard Version), or WEB (World English Bible).  When reading some of the word-for-word translations, such as the LSB, NASB, or NKJV, they will italicize words that are not in the original language, helping you to better understand the most literal rendering of the text (though we should note that the NKJV also italicizes phrases in the New Testament when they are quoting from the Old Testament).

 

The thought-for-thought or dynamic equivalence translation that we recommend is the NIV.  The versions that are between word-for-word and thought-for-thought translations that we recommend are the CSB, HCSB or NET (New English Translation).  Though we don’t recommend paraphrase versions of the Bible (such as NLT, Living Bible, New Century Translation, or the Message) because they can be too far from the original text, they can be helpful for those who struggle with reading or those who are younger.  In that case, you might try the NLT or the NIrV (the NIrV is usually branded as a thought-for-thought translation, but due to how significantly they amend the text in simple language, as well as break up long sentences, it can be viewed as a paraphrase).