I stood in the aisle of the local bookstore as my eyes scanned the line of Bibles. Three shelves stacked with different Bibles. Hard cover, soft cover, floral prints, large print, slim format, NIV, ESV, KJV, NLT, Women’s Bibles, Study Bibles, Amplified Bibles and Catholic Bibles. My mind raced and anxiety mounted. All I wanted was a new Bible for the new women’s Bible study group I was going to start attending. What if I buy the wrong Bible? Why do Catholics have a different Bible? I had grown up in church. How was it possible that I didn’t know what kind of Bible to buy for myself?
If you’ve ever wondered about all the different types and translations of the Bible, rest assured, you are not alone. Take a deep breath and relax. Bible translations are important, but they’re not the most important. The most important issue is we are reading the Bible. As my seminary professor said when we studied the nuances of translations and theology, “The best Bible translation you can buy is the one you’ll actually read.”
So, let’s start at the beginning. The original language of Scripture is Hebrew in the Old Testament and Aramaic or Greek for the New Testament. As Christians, when we speak about the Bible being the “inerrant Word of God” what we mean is the original writing of Scripture is without error, inspired by God and written by the hands of human writers as commanded by God.
Bible translations come into play through the centuries as the Scriptures are copied and dispersed among the people. Language translators take the original language of Hebrew and then translate the words into the language it’s to be read in.
The first translation of Scripture is called the Septuagint which is the Hebrew Old Testament translated into Greek. This was established by the second century BC.
Jerome, in the 5th Century AD, translated the Hebrew and Greek into Latin which became the Latin Vulgate (the official Bible of the Roman Catholic Church). This Bible contains 7 extra books that are not included in the Protestant Bible and called Apocryphal Books––these books tell of historical events that happened in the 400 years of silence from God to the prophets, so they are considered “ecclesiastical” (good for the church) but not inspired by God.
As kingdoms shifted and the language of the people shifted from one language to another, it became evident to leaders in the church that the people needed the Word of God, but the only copies of it were in languages the people didn’t speak. During the Reformation, some, such as Martin Luther, translated portions of Scripture into German for the people, and Wycliff translated the Bible into English in 1400 but it contained errors. Tyndale came along with a desire to provide an English translation for the people as well, and completed the work of Wycliff to correct errors in translation, and get the Word of God into the hands of people in the language they spoke.
Which gets us to the English version of Scripture that we have in our hands today. The Bible in your home, it’s a transliteration. That means that it was taken from the original language and translated into English, but because not everything one language has an equal translation in another language, the words are transliterated to convey the accurate meaning in the language in which it’s being read. Which is how we get to so many different versions of Bible translations on the shelves of our bookstores today.
Because languages differ and not everything translates from one language to another, translators are faced with the task of getting the original meaning of the original text conveyed into the new language. So our Bibles today are translated in a word-for-word translation, or a thought-for-thought translation, or a paraphrase translation––hence all our versions.
Word for Word Translations: in these Bible translations the theologians and linguistic scholars are looking to find the exact English word that best matches the original Hebrew or Greek word in the original text. These translations include the King James Version, New King James Version, New American Standard Bible and English Standard Version.
Thought for Thought Translations: in these Bible translations the scholars take the original text in the original language and break down the thoughts being conveyed and then translate those phrases of text into the English language to convey the idea while not worrying about the exact word that matches it in the new language. Think of how one would translate an idiom, or regional saying, from English into Spanish. The word-to-word translation may not make sense to the speaker of Spanish, so the translator may take the general idea from the phrase in English and translate into Spanish so the hearer can understand the meaning and not just the word. These translations include the New International Version, New Living Translation, and Christian Standard Bible.
Paraphrase Translations: in these Bible translations scholars take the stories of Scripture and retell them in very conversational or narrative form to break down the meaning in simplistic terms of the most common form of the language. They can be great to help give idea of the meaning but are less accurate in regard to the original form of the text because they are being retold in modern language rather than simply translating a word from one language to another. These versions are popular for younger readers or new readers to Scripture. This category of translations include: The Message, New International Readers Version, and Contemporary English Version.
At the end of the day, the best Bible to buy is the one you are going to read. So pick a translation you are comfortable with. It’s also okay to use different translations when you study Scripture. The differences in words or thought comparisons can help you gain a deeper understanding of a text, so don’t be afraid to use different translations. I’m a big fan of the ESV and NASB translations, but have yet to let go of my old NIV Bible. 🙂
The goal of all reading when we come to Scripture is to learn about God and be transformed by His Word.
Interested in the podcast episode about this topic? You can listen to the episode here.