This is part 3 of my Exploring the Bible Series.
In choosing what Bibles to study, we must be aware that some of the modern Bibles loosely paraphrase the scriptures as well as add to or take away from the scriptures. Since the Bible continues to be the highest selling book in history, it is a big business. There are hundreds of different translations and takes on the Bible with more coming out all the time. To avoid copyright issues, these Bibles must change around the wording. To be able to differentiate a new Bible from the hundreds of modern Bibles out there, it must change up the wording by at least 10%. In order to achieve this, many of these Bibles paraphrase the scriptures from the manuscripts or other Bibles before them.
You will want to pick Bibles that are considered a word-for-word translation of the ancient manuscripts. These Bibles try to stick as close to the original Hebrew and Greek writings as possible while also presenting it in understandable modern English. The word-for-word translation method is known as “formal equivalence”. Most modern Bible translations use either a thought-for-thought translation method known as “dynamic equivalence” or a full paraphrase method.
Thought-for-thought Bible translations seek to express the meaning of each verse, sentence, or paragraph from the original language in simple up-to-date English without being tied to translating every word exactly. Bible translations that use the paraphrase method try to convey the Bible in a simple, easy-to-understand language without regard to word-for-word or even thought-for-thought expressions of the original languages.
The main problem with thought-for-thought or paraphrased translations is that the authors often exercise poetic license, leaving great room for personal interpretation and religious ideas. Thought-for-thought translations sacrifice grammatical accuracy for readability and comprehension, and like paraphrases, the thoughts presented in the translation are dependent on the theology of the translator rather than strictly the text.
Adding a few words here and there can dramatically change the intended meaning of the scripture, and some of these changes have been known to seriously affect the interpretation of core doctrines if read out of context. Not any of the Bibles in history have been perfect, even the word-for-word translations. Every Bible has at least a few verses that were biasedly interpreted by the sect or denomination of the person or the group supervising the translation.
Top 10 Bibles based on market share as reported by Circana BookScan
Rankings as of March 2022:
- NIV – New International Version – thought-for-thought
- NLT – New Living Translation – thought-for-thought
- ESV – English Standard Version – word-for-word
- KJV – King James Version – word-for-word
- CSB – Christian Standard Bible – thought-for-thought
- NKJV – New King James Version – word-for-word
- RVR – Reina-Valera Revised (Spanish) – word-for-word
- NIrV – New International Reader’s Version – paraphrased
- MSG – The Message – paraphrased
- NASB – New American Standard Bible – word-for-word
There are two other Bible versions I recommend that are also becoming popular.Legacy Standard Bible (LSB) – released in 2021, it is an update to the New American Standard Bible Updated Edition (NASB 1995), with permission from the Lockman Foundation. One of the significant changes from the NASB is the rendering of the tetragrammaton YHWH (rendered as “Jehovah” in the original ASV). The NASB rendered it as “LORD” or “GOD” in all capitals, but the LSB renders it as “Yahweh” or “Yah” depending on the original, underlying Hebrew usage. The LSB has preserved the decision to capitalize the pronouns “He” and “Him” that refer to God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit.The Scriptures 2009 (TS20009) – The Scriptures is a word-for-word translation that transliterates the names of the cities and places in the Bible with their original Hebrew or Greek spellings and pronunciations. For example: Israel (Yisraʾel) or Jericho (Ye’richo). The names of people in the Bible are translated to the Hebrew or Greek as they would have heard their name in the Bible. For example: Jacob (Yaʿaqōv) or Elijah (Ēlīyyāhū) in Hebrew or Peter (Pétros) or Matthew (Matthaios) in Greek. For the name of our Father, The Scriptures 2009 uses the tetragrammitron “YHWH” that represents the four ancient Hebrew letters that represented the name of God. In ancient Hebrew vowels were not used, and the pronunciation of God’s real name is believed by many to be lost. Early English Bibles used the pronunciation Yehovah and the pronunciation of Yahweh is used by the Jewish community in modern times. Beginning with The King James Version, the over 6800 occurrences of YHWH in the Hebrew manuscripts, were replaced with the word “LORD”. In the New Testament of The Scriptures 2009, the name Jesus is replaced by his Hebrew name Yeshua (pronounced YEH-shoo-ah) that people in His day would call him. The meaning of Yeshua’s Hebrew name is “God’s salvation”. Researching the Hebrew meaning behind important people’s names in the Bible can sometimes show a prophetic picture of their lives and purpose.
I strongly suggest studying from word-for-word Bibles only. The four Bibles that I use and recommend are NASB, LSB, ESV, and KJV. Paraphrase Bibles such as The Message should be avoided entirely when during serious study. Of the scriptures. Even the author of The Message states that his book is a storytelling of the Bible and should not be taken as scripture.
An Introduction to Bible Study Tools
Because we are now in the information age where knowledge is increasing as stated in Daniel 12:4, we are fortunate to be able to access these Bibles and other study tools online or with an application for free. It’s hard to imagine living in a time when a Bible was too expensive to own, or the fact that people were once hunted down and killed for possessing a Bible or even reading one on their own.
There are many great applications for your smartphone and tablet to help you study the Bible and many of them are free. My favorite app is the Blue Letter Bible. One of its great features is the ability to place two Bible versions side by side. While reading one Bible, you can glance over to view another translation of the scripture. For example, two of the Bibles that I read, NASB and ESV, use the Novum Testamentum Graece translation of the New Testament, and the other two, KJV and NKJV, use the Textus Receptus. By placing a Bible of each type side by side in the Blue Letter Bible app, you can easily compare scriptures where people tend to have different interpretation and see which fits better in the overall context of the chapter or book. Other apps and websites also offer this feature.
There are a few other tools that are crucial when researching and studying the Bible. When selecting a printed Bible or searching online for Bible study websites or apps, look for these important tools:
Interlinear Bibles – These allow you to compare the actual Hebrew and Greek texts with the translated English texts.
Bible Concordance – This is an index of every word in the Bible. Each original Hebrew and Greek word are given a number. It lets the reader directly compare how the same word may be used elsewhere in the Bible. It provides an independent check against translations, and offers an opportunity for greater, and more technically accurate understanding of text. Strong’s Concordance is the most widely used and is included in various online tools and applications.
Bible Lexicon and Dictionary – A Biblical lexicon is a reference tool that provides meanings, semantic ranges, and significant uses of Biblical words in their original language. Bible dictionaries contain encyclopedic entries related to the Bible, typically concerning people, places, customs, and doctrine.
Translation Comparison – This is a tool that is included in some study applications online or via mobile device. It allows you to compare a verse among many Bible translations.
Cross Reference – Many study Bibles include cross reference verses to the verse that you are studying that contain a similar meaning, topic, or theme. Some of the online tools and mobile applications include an extensive number of cross references. Cross references are crucial when studying the Bible as they help you discover where scripture interprets scripture.
Bible Enhancements – Look for study Bibles and software applications that include the following enhancements: actual words spoken by the Messiah in red letters, quotes from the Old Testament inside the New Testament placed in quotations, italics, or capital letters, and words added by the translators that were not in the original Hebrew or Greek manuscripts placed in italics or parentheses.
Recommended Apps and Online Sites for Bibles and Study Tools
The below applications and websites have many of the tools and Bible translation versions mentioned above.
Apps
Blue Letter Bible – mobile
Bible Hub – mobile
eSword – PC, Mac, mobile
Sites
BibleHub.com
BibleGateway.com
BlueLetterBible.org
BibleStudyTools.com
Read Part 2 of my Exploring the Bible Series: “The History of English Bible Translations”