Meditation Monday - Which Bible Should I Read?
There is a surge of interest in the Bible by young people but we often don’t know how to guide their reading. Have you ever wondered why there are so many Bible translations out there or which one you should read? Making a choice can be overwhelming and our friends don’t always help when they tell us “this is the only accurate version” or “this one is too conservative or too progressive” and we have no idea what they mean.
Lent is coming and this is a season when lots of us get into some serious Bible study, so it is a good time to make sure we have a reliable Bible or 2 in hand before we start. I found this article on the MacGregor EMC website very helpful as a guide.
It explains that the Bible was written in three languages: Biblical Hebrew, Aramaic and Koine Greek. None of these languages are either written in or even spoken today. So, we who don’t want to learn how to read these dead languages ourselves, are left dealing with the imprecise art of translation.
Accurate or Easy to Understand?
Some translations focus on being accurate in bringing across (as best as possible) the actual words used. This sometimes results in language that is wooden or even confusing. Other translations focus on conveying accurately the meaning of the original, often at the expense of accuracy in the words used. Unsurprisingly, these Bibles are typically considered to be more readable. The trade-off is that in order to translate a Bible like this, the translator often needs to make a number of theological and historical decisions as to what they understand the writers of the Bible to actually mean.
Scott McKnight suggests that the Bible we carry is a political statement. Conservatives have one version, progressives another, Catholics and Orthodox Christians yet others. “Each group has its Bible translation, and you declare your allegiance to your tribe by carrying and citing the Bible of your tribe. Show your cards by exposing the Bible you use and you will be telling us which tribe is yours.” I have found this to be incredibly accurate.
Here is his breakdown
The NIV 2011 is the Bible of conservative evangelicals.
The NLT is the Bible of conservative evangelicals.
The TNIV is the Bible of egalitarian evangelicals.
The ESV is the Bible of complementarian conservative evangelicals.
The NASB is the Bible of conservative evangelical serious Bible students.
The NRSV is the Bible of Protestant mainliners.
The RSV is the Bible of aged Protestant mainliners.
The CEB is the Bible of Protestant mainliners.
The KJV … fill in the blank yourself.
These are all good translations composed by well respected theologians and Bible experts, but obviously how a word or a phrase is translated will depend on a person’s theological perspective. NIV and NRSV are both considered to be accurate translations of the original languages. The ESV and King James Version typically opt for masculine instead of neutral pronouns even when neutral would fit what the original languages say better. The NRSV is famous for “inclusive language” and has been unjustly accused of bowing to “political correctness.” Fact is the NRSV language is gender-neutral because the original is gender neutral. The Hebrew adam and the Greek anthropos both mean “human being not specifying gender.” Older translations rendered these words “man.”
The First Nations Version: An Indigenous Bible Translation of The New Testament has become very popular in the last few years. It is an accurate translation that uses word choices that reflect the meaning of the original Greek text. It also incorporates the traditional naming practices of First Nations people and follows the tradition of Native storytellers' oral cultures. For example, Jesus is "Creator Sets Free" and Jerusalem is "Village of Peace".
What About Paraphrases?
Then there are the paraphrase Bibles. These are not translations. They typically retell or paraphrase, other translations trying to capture the tone and style of modern speech to make the Bible read more like a contemporary story than an ancient text. they are the writer’s understanding of what scripture is trying to say. The main paraphrase Bible used today, The Message, was written by Eugene Peterson, a well regarded Protestant pastor and theologian. In spite of that some feel that it is not reliable. Another paraphrase which I love for its poetic language, The Passion Translation, is not considered reliable or accurate to the original text so should not be used as your primary scripture source. However if your goal is to go in-depth with your Bible study, a paraphrase Bible should only be thought of as a starting point, with your search then leading you to a more accurate translation.
How do you choose?
So how do you choose? All of the translations mentioned above are considered reliable. I have a great stack of Bibles on my bookshelves all the way from the King James Version to NIV, ESV and RSV. I also have a good selection of paraphrases including The Message and The Passion Translation which I sometimes like to use in spite of the fact that it is not considered reliably accurate. Its poetic language can be inspirational.
I am currently using the Common English Bible (CEB) Women’s Study Bible which Biblegateway.com describes as “a dynamic yet balanced translation that strives for natural language and broad accessibility to speakers of modern English.” I particularly love the well researched stories of women who appear throughout the Old and New Testament that this Bible highlights. I have learned a lot from these wonderful stories some of them about brave and powerful women, others about abused women whose stories we easily ignore. Unfortunately it seems to have doubled in price since I bought it, though there are still a lot of inexpensive second hand copies out there.
If you already have a Bible and are looking for a different translation to go deeper with your study, then I suggest you find out where your Bible lies on the translation spectrum, and then get another one that is as close to the opposite of it in terms of translation philosophy as possible. Doing that will help get across new meanings and depths that you may not have noticed before. These days it is not hard to find online copies of these translations. Bible Gateway, Bible Hub, and Logos are all great sites that not only provide the translations we are interested in but also allow us to compare different approaches.
The most important decision is to choose a translation of the Bible that you will actually read. If you can’t understand its archaic language, or are put off by the use of, or lack of, inclusive language, then it is probably not the right Bible for you. Whatever you choose, make sure you read it and allow it to enrich your life.
I would also recommend the New English Bible. I regularly use the NRSV, but enjoy the NEB as well. Peace, LaMon
Bible Gateway is a wonderful resource and provides opportunity to access most English Bible translations. But I am disappointed that the list in the article doesn't contain the Message, the NEB nor the Jerusalem Bible. This list is dominated by American translations (apart from the so called KJV). Even the KJV isn't correctly named - the correct name is the Authorised Version (1611) authorised by King James1 - but as I heard an American scholar say "It's called the King James Version here, because 'No-one authorises anything for us!". In my childhood the AV (as we knew it) was the only version until Moffat and J B Phillips arrived. Two extremely important (at least historically) versions are missing from the list provided - the New English Bible (a 1960s version by English scholars in England meant to use 20th C English to 'replace' the AV (KJV) and the Jerusalem Bible translated about the same time for use in Catholic Churches. Personally I've gone back to my teen use of the Good News Bible with the beautifully evocative Annie Vallottin drawings. The version has been updated to the Good News Translation and I went back to using it because it uses truly modern English idiomatic expressions to communicate the simple meaning of the text. In 1974 I heard a talk from the chief translator (Dr Robert Bratcher) who began by presenting a list of English words found in the NEB and asking the assembled students whether they knew the meaning of these words. We did not! Then he noted the origin the GNB lay in the restricted vocabulary of the many new Christians in the Africa and Asia for whom English was not their first language, so the Bible Society decided to create a translation for those with a vocabulary of 300 (to my memory!) English words. That meant they had to adopt a new strategy for translating the many Greek, Hebrew and Aramaic words for which there was no equivalent English word. Bratcher and his colleagues decided to use phrases to translate what are single words in the original languages. The strategy was called 'dynamic equivalence'. For example, 2 Cor 5: 18 "All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation" (NIV) - the GNB couldn't use 'reconciliation' or 'reconciled' so the translators came up with "All this is done by God, who through Christ changed us from enemies into his friends and gave us the task of making others his friends also". I find the phrase 'changing enemies into friends' both accurate and helpful. I encourage folks to go to BibleGateway and read the various English versions for 2Cor 5:18 and judge for yourself. I believe Bratcher's leadership truly created a version for the world, not just the English! In a sad footnote the saintly Bratcher was forced to resign from the American Bible Society because of what he said to the Southern Baptists: "'The Scriptures are fine in their place,' Bratcher told the Dallas meeting, 'but that place isn't on the throne; that place goes to Jesus.' He said those who invest the Bible as error-free and infallible in all matters, including science and history, 'is to idolatrize it, to transform it into a false God.' 'No truth-loving, God-respecting, Christ-honoring believer should be guilty of such heresy,' Bratcher said." (UPI archives)