CHOOSING A
BIBLE TRANSLATION
Reading,
studying and praying through the Bible are an essential part of the Christian
faith. The Bible teaches us about who God is; the purpose of human life; and
how we should live in relation to God, to other people and to the created
world. But more than just a source of information, beliefs, and practices, when
we read the Bible with faith it becomes one of the key places where we
encounter God. Indeed, when we pray for God’s Spirit to bring the ancient words
alive, we are promised an encounter with God’s living Word – Jesus himself.
All
of this makes choosing which Bible translation to use an important decision.
The two main things that go into this decision is how faithful it is to the
original Hebrew and Greek Biblical manuscripts (so it will communicate what the
Bible really says), and whether it’s easy to understand and enjoyable to read
(so that you’ll actually want to read it). Picking a good translation means
balancing the two – some translations focus on being as literal as possible
(word-for-word), while others focus on taking the ideas spoken in the ancient
languages and putting them into easily understandable modern English
(thought-for-thought). Below I’ve listed four translations which are among the
most common ones used today.
NIV (New
International Version)
The
NIV is the most popular English Bible Translation in use today (it also happens
to be the Bible found in our church pews). It generally favours the
thought-for- thought translation approach and tends to be an easy Bible to read
(thought in some places it’s actually quite word-for-word). But because of this
thought-for-thought approach the translators had to do more interpretation when
translating. For this reason it tends to reflect the Protestant and moderately
conservative outlook of its translators. There are also times where the attempt
to make it easy to read in English actually changes the meaning of the original
languages. The Letters of Paul (Romans to Philemon in the New Testament) are
where this most obvious. Despite these shortcomings it’s generally a good
translation, and because it’s easier to read than either the NRSV or ESV it’s
accessible to most people. Also, chances are someone else around the table will
have the same Bible as you.
NRSV (New
Revised Standard Version)
The
NRSV is a mainly word- for-word translation of the Bible that is the most
commonly used translation in university level Biblical studies. One of its
distinctive features are the fact that it was translated by a group of scholars
that included Protestant, Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Christians, which
makes it largely free of bias towards any one Christian tradition. It also
makes use of gender neutral language where the translators felt that the
original text referred to both men and women (ie. when New Testament uses the
word ‘brothers’ as a general term for Christians, the NRSV translates this as
“brothers and sisters”). This can be
a mixed blessing as on the one hand it makes for a Bible that’s more inclusive
for women, but there are times when it can confuse or change the meaning of a
passage. This has been my primary Bible for some time (though for formal study
I usually refer to several different translations including the ESV, NIV and NET).
It’s relatively easy to read, but preserves enough of the distinctive flavour
of Hebrew and Greek to make you pause every now and then to think about what
you just read.
ESV (English
Standard Version)
The
ESV is another good choice for a literal translation of the Bible. If you read
them side by side the ESV and NRSV are quite similar since they’re both based
on an older English translation called the RSV (Revised Standard Version). The
main difference between the two is that the ESV reflects a mainly Protestant
outlook, is generally more conservative in its interpretation and does not use
gender neutral language. For this reason it’s more word-for-word than the NRSV
when it comes to the way the Biblical writers use gendered words (ie. when the
New Testament says ‘brothers,’ the ESV translates it directly as “brothers”).
It’s a more recent translation (2001) but is becoming more common in
universities as an alternative to the NRSV. Choosing between these two literal
translations really comes down to a matter of personal preference. I generally
find the NRSV a bit more of a neutral translation (thought all translations
involve interpretation and reflect the opinions of the translators) but there
are many times when I appreciate the slightly more literal nature of the ESV.
NLT (New
Living Translation)
The
NLT is another common thought-for-thought translation of the Bible, though more
recent and not as popular as the NIV. As Bible translations go it’s one of the
easiest read (other than those like the Good News Bible or Contemporary English
Version which are aimed at people with a basic reading level). However, it’s
the least literal of the four translations I’ve listed and there are times when
it narrowly interprets a Biblical passage in one particular direction. This
means there are many times when what you’re reading is really the
interpretation of the translation team. For this reason I’d mainly suggest it
as a first Bible that’s easier to read than the first three I’ve listed. It’s
no good owning a Bible if you never want to read it, so if the more formal
style of the others puts you off at first the NLT is a good option to get your
started. You may also want to pick up the NLT is as a second Bible if you
already own a more literal translation and want something that’s more casual
for devotional reading.
Others
The
NASB (New American Standard Bible) is another highly literal translation. The
reason I don’t usually recommend it is that in trying to be as literal as
possible the translation is often awkward and difficult to read. At the other
end of the spectrum is The Message, a popular Bible paraphrase written by
Eugene Peterson. It’s a good way to get fresh insight into the Bible or to
start reading for the first time, but because it’s a paraphrase and not a
direct translation I wouldn’t use it without owning a fairly literal Bible
translation to check it against (many of Peterson’s interpretations are unique
to him). Finally there’s the NET (New English Translation), which is one of be
best modern translations I’ve come across. However, it’s quite new and not that
common, so if you’re reading the Bible with others you’ll probably be the only
one who has it. But as I said before one of the main things is to pick a Bible
that will encourage you to read it, so if any of these gets you reading, use
it.
What About
the King James?
The
King James Version (KJV) was the most popular Bible in English for almost four
centuries, but unless you’re reading it for its poetic language (which is quite
beautiful and unmatched in most modern translations) I wouldn’t use it as your
personal Bible. There are two main reasons for this. First, English language
has changed so much that the KJV is now very difficult for most people to
understand (even with the many updates since it was first published there are
still over 300 words in today’s KJV that don’t mean the same thing they did in
1611). The second is that while the KJV was translated from the best ancient
Greek and Hebrew manuscripts available at the time, in the past 400 years a
number of older and more accurate manuscripts have become widely available to
Biblical scholars. Basically this means that most modern English Bibles
(especially the more literal translations) are closer to the original Biblical
writings than the KJV.[1]
If you love the language for personal reading certainly keep a copy and read
it, but I would recommend that you also own a modern literal translation like
the NRSV or ESV.
Reading the
Bible in Community
As much as I’ve talked about the importance of
choosing a good Bible translation, there’s another way to be sure that you’re
reading the Bible regularly and getting a good interpretation of its meaning,
and that’s to get together with other Christians and read it together. When
we’re off on our own it’s easy to get off track and forget to use our Bible.
It’s also easy to misinterpret things when we don’t have anyone else to share
our perspective with. So what’s even more important that choosing a Bible
translation is choosing a church. More than anything else being part of a
Christian community will ensure that the Bible becomes much more than just
words on a page.
[1] For this reason I’d also recommend against the New King James
Version (NKJV), which is just a translation of the KJV into modern English.
Basically you lose the beauty of the King James but get to keep all of the
manuscript issues.
No comments:
Post a Comment