What Bible Translation Should I Use?

 This is one of the most asked questions in my 23 years serving as a pastor. I’m going to attempt to address that question and it will lead us to discover something very beautiful. You have probably heard or said “your eyes are beautiful”. Our eyes are beautiful because our eyes reveal what is beautiful because we can see what is beautiful with them. Without my eyes I could not see the beauty. Like Scripture, without it I could not see “the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ.”

⁴ In their case ^gthe god of this world ^dhas blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing ^hthe light of ⁱthe gospel of the glory of Christ, ^jwho is the image of God. 2 Cor. 4:4

The Bible has been the source of hope, direction, and consolation from the ancient apostles to modern day seed throwers of the faith. It claims to be not only history of revelation, but the very revelation of God—living revelation.

 

God chose to communicate this revelation to us with words: John 1:1 says

“^aIn the beginning was ^bthe Word, and ^cthe Word was with God, and ^dthe Word was God. ² He was in the beginning with God. ^3 eAll things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. ^4 fIn him was life,¹ and ^gthe life was the light of men.”

The word that also became flesh, spoken of here is Christ Jesus. God’s word no matter the translation is precious. I’d rather someone read any translation than none at all. The beauty of the Living word of God is it has the ability to speak power and life into us in spite of a poor translation or even poor preaching. That is why it is so brilliant.

 

Now, I’m an ardent proponent of learning to read this brilliant “word” this bright “light” that is to be a lamp for our feet before we learn to study it. Reading studying are two different components and I’ll share what they are in a future article, but let me now re-phrase our opening question another way. I want to address today what English Bible is an excellent translation to learn to read and study? We can agree that if you are going to read the Bible it is better to have an excellent translation over another.

 

I grew up with the King James Version, which was produced in the Elizabethan era, and I was memorizing it in Sunday School which was quite a bit after the Elizabethan era. When I went to seminary the New International Version (NIV) and The Revised Standard Version (TRSV) were what I used to do my devotions, preach and study from for the next 18 years. Although the NIV has been used to bring Millions and millions to Jesus Christ the NIV has so much unnecessary rewording and so much interpretation it became more difficult to exegete and respond to questions with strong arguments and explanations.

 

It was on my third church plant when I began to use the English Standard Version (ESV). One primary reason is its translation. For instance, some Bibles are a Dynamic Equivalence Translation (a paraphrase). This means the Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek texts of the original were translated a phrase at a time. Examples of some paraphrased (DET) Bibles are the Amplified, NIV and The Message. The Message is great for devotionals, but not so much for study. One of the fundamental disadvantages of dynamic equivalence translations is that it blurs the line between translation and commentary.

 

There is another type of translation and that is the “word for word translation”. The KJV, NKJV, NAS and ESV are word for word translations. The intent is to maintain as much of the structure of the original text, allowing the reader to discern the distinct styles of the different biblical authors while also retaining maximum clarity. So one of the Strengths of the ESV is that it is a literal translation.  For example, the RSV created some controversy with its “young woman” rendition of Isaiah 7:14, whereas the ESV has it “virgin” — and so Isaiah and Matthew (1:22-23) are in harmony again with a literal translation. Another of the strengths of the ESV is the clarity and accuracy which can be lacking in some other versions. For example “expanse” replaces the ill-rendered “firmament” in Genesis 1. The term “cattle” (a specific term) appears as “livestock” (more generic) in the ESV of Genesis 1. The more unnecessary words and paraphrases provide the translators to be more fallible. Literal Translations limit that. Literal translations also preserve ambiguities that provide for new insights to be found.

 

Unlike many modern paraphrases, which pursue the Dynamic Equivalence (DE) approach, the ESV “seeks as far as possible to capture the precise wording of the original text and personal style of each Bible writer.” The translation team involved more than 100 scholars, the names and credentials of whom  can be found by Googling ESV,  Crossway Bibles. The ESV is recommended by such notable scholars as Robert Mounce, J.I. Packer, R.C. Sproul, Leon Morris, Harold Hoehner, John Piper, and Jack Cottrell.

 

There is no version upon which everyone of us will agree in every particular nuance. We can suggest improvements in a translation, without dismissing or condemning it because of a weakness, or mistranslation. Now the, ESV is not without some weakness, generally speaking, it appears to be an accurate, literal translation, rendered in beautiful English. It is such beauty we should set our eyes on. The ESV is my preference for study and preaching. So, what do you think? Let me know your thoughts? I hope you’ve read some of the books I’ve reviewed here but more importantly, get to reading your Bible. If you would like to learn how to read and study your Bible, come by the missions office or e-mail me and I’ll send you my notes on: You have to know how to read the Bible before you can study it.