The Best Bible November 10, 2019 I want to start by reading an excerpt from a book by Richard Lederer. * English is a crazy language. Why do we park on a driveway and drive on a parkway? If the plural of goose is geese, why isn't the plural of moose meese? Yes, English is a strange language. But so are other languages. Even old languages, like Greek and Hebrew, have words with multiple meanings. They use idioms, metaphors, rhymes, figures of speech, and plays on words that can be hard to understand and hard to translate into English. Every so often someone asks which is the best Bible translation. The answer depends on what you want to use it for. If you want to just read the Bible to get a general idea of what it says, you might pick one type of translation. If you want to do your own, in-depth study of the Bible, you might pick a different type of translation. There is no perfect translation of the Bible into English. There have been well over 100 translations of the complete Bible into English, as well as several dozen additional translations of the New Testament. Several dozen of these can still be purchased as a book. Many more can be found free online. Determining which is best depends on what YOU want in a translation. There are different types of translations. I'm going to give you some help in choosing what type you want. Every English Bible version involves both translation and interpretation . Translation is concerned with making sure the words of the original Hebrew Old Testament and Greek New Testament are translated word-for-word into English. Interpretation is concerned with making sure the ideas of the original are clearly communicated in English. While all English versions involve both translation and interpretation, most tend to focus more on one than the other. Now you might be thinking, "What's the big deal? Figure out the English equivalent for each of the Hebrew or Greek words and there you have it." But it isn't that simple. Let's look at a few familiar passages. Here is a literal, word-for-word translation of Psalm 23, verse 1. Psalm 23:1 "Yahweh one being shepherd of me not I shall lack..." It sounds funny because the Hebrew word order is different than how we speak in English. The Greek word order is also different from English. Look at this literal, word- for-word translation of John 3:16. John 3:16 "Thus for loved the God the world that the son the unique one he gave that everyone the believing in him not may perish but have life eternal." 1 Even if you can come up with English equivalents for each Bible word, the word order still needs to be adjusted so it makes good sense in English. And doing this involves interpretation. However, we can't always make a word-for-word translation. When William Tyndale was working on the first English translation, he came upon words in Hebrew or Greek for which there was no English equivalent. For example, when he came to the book of Exodus, chapter 12, he came to this Hebrew word in verse 21. pehsakh (peh'-sock) There was no corresponding English word for this. So Tyndale made up one. He made up the English word, Passover. There were other words and phrases that Tyndale made up that are pretty well standard in the Bibles available to us today. So differing word order is one problem. No corresponding words is another problem. A third problem is grammar differences between Greek and English. Because of grammar differences some phrases, translated word-for-word, come out ambiguous in English. Look at Colossians 3:16. Colossians 3:16 (NIV) Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly... The phrase "word of Christ" is ambiguous in English. It could mean the word or teachings that Christ taught. Or it could mean the word or teachings taught about Christ. So the interpreter has to make a choice. And he has three choices. He can leave it ambiguous, "the word of Christ". He, or she, can make an interpretation and write it either as "the word from Christ", or "the word about Christ." Some versions use the one, some use the other, and some leave it ambiguous. I have shown you three difficulties in translating the Bible. Other difficulties include cultural differences, figures of speech, metaphors, idioms, a play on words, rhetorical questions, differing use of pronouns, and many more. There are thousands of such decisions that need to be made in translating the Bible into English. And many of these involve interpretation in addition to translation. If you are interested in reading more about these difficulties I highly recommend the book listed at the end of your outline. Let me give you another example of one of these decisions. A few weeks ago, my Bible Study group came upon a figure of speech we had not noticed before. In Numbers 16, some men are complaining to Moses. Numbers 16:14 (NIV) "... you haven't brought us into a land flowing with milk and honey or given us an inheritance of fields and vineyards." We, and possibly you, are familiar with the figure of speech, "a land flowing with milk and honey." This phrase meant a land that would produce abundant crops, flowers, cattle and bees who would produce abundant milk and honey. It was the next sentence we had trouble with. Numbers 16:14 (NIV) "Will you gouge out the eyes of these men?" Why are they talking about Moses gouging out someone's eyes? They were using an ancient Hebrew figure of speech. They were accusing Moses of being a conman, of 2 trying to trick the Israelites. You might be able to figure that out from the context, but maybe not. So the translator might leave it like it appears in the NIV or might give an interpretation of its meaning, as in the New Living Translation as follows. Numbers 16:14 (NLT2) "Are you trying to fool these men?” This example reveals the two different approaches to Bible translation work. One end of the spectrum of English Bible versions focus on Formal Equivalence. These try for a literal word-for-word translation with as little interpretation as possible . Examples include: New American Standard Bible (NASB, NASU) King James Version (KJV, NKJV) Revised Standard Version (RSV, NRSV) English Standard Version (ESV) The other end of the spectrum of English Bible versions focus on Functional Equivalence (also called Dynamic Equivalence). These focus more on translating idea-for-idea or thought-for-thought. Examples include: New Living Translation (NLT, NLT2) New Century Version (NCV) Good News Bible (GNB) The Good News Translation (GNT) Today's English Version (TEV) God's Word (GW) Contemporary English Version (CEV) Then there some English Bible versions that try for a balance between the two. Examples include: New International Version (NIV) Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB) Christian Standard Bible (CSB) (Note: The Publishers of the HCSB & CSB title their approach "optimal equivalence) Another part of choosing a version for yourself is the reading level of each version. The King James and Revised Standard Versions are rated to be a twelfth-grade reading level. That means people who don't have at least eleven years of education would find them hard to understand. Some English versions are written at a third-grade level and are written for children in mind. And most other English versions fall in-between 3 and 12. There is a chart at the end of your outline that will help with that choice. The best Bible version for you depends on what you are looking for in a Bible. I use the 1984 edition of the NIV. But I do not think it to be a perfect version. There are things I like and things I dislike about all the Bible versions I have used. One thing I want in a Bible is a neutral version. There are some versions that are purposely slanted in their translation and interpretation. These have been written to reflect a particular theology. For example, there are three versions that were written to 3 reflect Roman Catholic theology. These are The Jerusalem Bible (JB), the New Jerusalem Bible (NJB), and the New American Bible (NAB). Another slanted version is the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures (NWT) published by the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society. This is the translation that Jehovah's Witnesses use. They do not believe that Jesus is divine and so their founder rewrote the Bible to reflect that belief. There are other Bibles that are not slanted on purpose, but which probably reflect some bias. These are translations that are made by only one person or a few persons. The God's Word Bible, the Living Bible, and The Message are some of these. Better translations are produced by groups. Look for a versions that was produced by several dozen people from various denominational backgrounds. I hope you can see why it is impossible to say which English Bible is the best. There is no best English Bible for everyone. However, there is, I believe, a good answer to the question, "Which is the best English translation of the Bible?" Here is the answer. The best English translation of the Bible is the one you read and respond to . One of my first days in seminary I was in a large class of about a hundred students.