Selecting a Bible Version
The writings of the Bible were originally written in Aramaic, Hebrew, and Greek. There are many different English translations available today which allow us to read these writings in our own language. The intent of this post is to provide you with some information that may help you decide which version of the Bible to use for your daily readings.
There are two main philosophies that translators use. The first philosophy is to select English words that most closely represent the words in the original language, and to capture the precise wording of the original text. This is called a "word-for-word" or "essentially literal" translation. The second philosophy is to give more significance to the thought patterns and contextual meanings of words to try to capture the original thoughts and intentions of the author. This is called a "thought-for-thought" or "dynamic equivalence" translation.
There are pros and cons to each translation philosophy. In a "word-for-word" translation, the sentence structure in English can be difficult. Also, obvious thoughts of the author can be left untranslated due to the lack of sufficient words in the English language to accurately replace the original words. In a "thought-for-thought" translation, it is impossible for the translator's interpretations and cultural influences to be left out of the final translation. Many times the reader is left with the translator's interpretation of the author's thoughts, which could differ significantly from the reader's own interpretation had the passage been translated word-for-word. While most translations will lean heavily toward one or the other philosophy, it is impossible to produce a good translation without using elements from both philosophies at times. The main difference between most translations is in how they find a balance between the two philosophies of translation.
This link will provide you with a graph of most common English translations, showing which are word-for-word translations and which are thought-for-thought. Even the strictest word-for-word translation (New American Standard Bible) has many verses where the translators had to use a thought-for-thought translation to accurately reflect the original writing and for the sentence to make sense in the English language. As you look further to the right of the graph, you will see versions that increasingly use the thought-for-thought translation style. The NIV is right in the middle of the graph, which means that it claims to have an equal balance between using the word-for-word and thought-for-thought styles. The further right you move past the middle of the scale, the more you will see the translators' interpretations and paraphrases included in the version.
My personal opinion is that you should try to pick a translation from the left side of the graph if you are very serious about studying to come to your own conclusions concerning the original intents and thoughts of the writers. If you are struggling to understand verses or much of what you read, then you may wish to select a version that lies to the right of your current version as listed on the chart. Please note that your reading level should also be considered when selecting a version, and the linked webpage also provides the reading levels of each version.
If you would like to know even more about translation philosophies and about why there are so many different versions, then you may wish to read the article "Comparing Translations: Textual Criticism and Interpretation" (
HTML format or
PDF format). Be forewarned, this is some pretty heavy reading, so give yourself at least one hour (or two) to spend reading it in a quiet place.
Links to this post:
Create a Link