I got bored last week and started reading the Bible in a hotel room. Now I’m wanting to continue reading. Is there a definitive ebook version? Ideally free.
Don’t know which version is ‘definitive’, but Bible hub has most of the major versions like NIV and the KJV, you can flick through the various books using the arrows at the top.
Which version is “definitive” is the subject of literal holy wars. Which Bible version is the “best” depends on why you’re reading it. The King James Version, for instance, is widely accepted as having the most beautiful language, but it’s nearly as widely accepted (at least, among actual scholars) as not being nearly as close to the original texts as some more modern translations. On the other hand, the KJV also has the advantage of being in the public domain, and most of the versions which are closest to the original text are not, so it’s going to be a lot easier to find the KJV in ebook form than one of them.
There are also disputes about just what is included in the Bible. There are a few books, and portions of others, that are accepted by Catholics as being part of holy scripture, with the same status as all the rest, but which most Protestants regard as being inspirational but non-inspired reading, at best. Any Bible published by Catholics will, of course, include these books, but those published by Protestants will generally either omit those books entirely, or include them in a sort of appendix.
Well, the reason I’m reading it is partly because I suspect it contains some good stories and I wish to be entertained. Also, as an athiest, I’m interested in reading the book(s) that have inspired millions to believe in a particular version of god.
With that in mind, the King James version and a more modern more accurate version would be just as interesting to me but for different reasons. I don’t mind paying for an electronic version, just don’t want to pay if there is a free one that is just as good.
Which English version is generally accepted as being closest to the original texts?
I had started reading from page one, which was fine, but I assume that because it is a collection of books written by various people, it is not necessary to read it in order, front to back. Are there particular books that should be read in order, or can you generally dive in anywhere? I’m inclined to read from front to back anyway, just so I don’t miss anything, and because I assume it was printed in that order for a reason.
Edit: I should probably have started a general bible thread as I found I had about as many questions reading it as I do I reading something by Stephen Hawking.
That’s a fairly…big question. Wikipedia is a good starting point on how the Bible was put together, as well as info on the books that didn’t make the cut.
Many people consider the New American Standard Bible (NASB) as the modern-language equivalent of the KJV.
http://lwelliott.com/Documents/Translations_Summary.pdf
If you want to compare versions side-by-side, Bible Gateway is an excellent site.
Not all parts of the Bible are narrative (i.e. stories).
The first book, Genesis, contains many of the most famous stories; and the bulk of the book (from about Chapter 12 onward) reads much like a multigenerational family saga,
If you keep reading, the next book, Exodus, contains the famous story (dramatized in movies like The Ten Commandments and Prince of Egypt) of the Israelits’ escape from Egypt; but about halfway through, narrative gives way to law, and from there until the end of Deuteronomy, it’s rough going: there are a few stories here and there, but much of the text is relatively boring laws and regulations. Feel free to skip or skim.
The next books are Joshua and Judges, which have a few interesting (and perhaps more obscure and/or disturbing) stories.
A lot of the rest of the Old Testament is poetry and “wisdom” and prophecy rather than narrative, but there are good and/or famous stories in I & II Samuel (the story of Israel in the King David era), Jonah, Ruth, Esther, and the first half of Daniel.
As for the New Testament, make sure you read at least one of the gospels, both for the story of Jesus himself and for the stories Jesus told (parables). (There’s considerable overlap, especially among the first three (Matthew, Mark, and Luke), but they make different choices about what to include (or had different material available to them). Then there’s Acts, a sequel to the gospel of Luke that tells the story of the early Church immediately after Jesus’s life. Then that’s pretty much the end of the stories, though there’s weird apocalyptic imagery in Revelation.
Amazon has a bible available for Kindle devices; IIRC it’s free.
The English Standard Version (ESV) is a pretty close translation to the King James Version, and is easier to understand. It does not have all the “thous” and so forth that the KJV has. Here is a link to Bible Gateway https://www.biblegateway.com You can read the entire Bible in any version you wish.
To start with, are you sure you want one closest to the original texts?
**Chronos ** hints at some of the issues here, but just to underscore, there is no ‘best’ version of the Bible to read, because it really depends on what you’re looking for, and on what you define as the best. There are several issues involved here, in terms of deciding what makes a good translation.
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Language style. Do you want a version in modern, colloquial English that’s easy to understand, or do you want one in an archaic, formal register? Something like the New International Version gives you the former (Revised Standard is in modern but ‘scholarly’ English), whereas the King James gives you the latter. You can make arguments either way (the arguments in favour of not rendering the Bible into colloquial vernacular speech would be that it’s inappropriate to sacred material to render it into the common everyday language that we would use at a baseball game or a Taylor Swift concert, and that most cultures historically and today do maintain a distinction between sacred language and secular language). My preferred version is something called the 21st Century KJV, which is a mildly edited King James Version which changes some of the obsolete words.
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Formal vs. dynamic equivalence. Do you want a version that translates (as far as possible) word for word from Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek or Latin, or do you want a version that translates meaning for meaning? We all are familiar with idioms that, humorously, don’t translate well from one language to another. Translating ‘meaning for meaning’ can sometimes get you a deeper understanding of what the text might have meant to its original readers.
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Manuscript selection. Do you want the version that’s closest to the original texts, or do you want a version that’s closest to the Bible that was read by most Christians for most of Christian history? And do you accept historical-critical scholarship about what the original text was likely to be, or do you reject it? This is probably where Chronos and I are going to disagree most. The King James Bible and those versions based off of it (including my favourite KJ21) were based off the Hebrew Old Testament accepted as definitive as Jewish scholars (the ‘Masoretic’ text) and off of the “Received Text” of the NT, i.e. the Greek manuscripts of the New Testament that were most widely used by Greek-speaking churches by the 15th century (in other words, on the Greek version that had become most widely used in the church over the century). Modern day Eastern Orthodox Bibles use the Received Text for the New Testament, but rely on the Septuagint (Greek Old Testament) rather than the Hebrew Old Testament. Modern-day Protestant translations generally rely on texts that are older than the Received Text (the Codex Sinaiticus and Vaticanus).
Chronos suggests that this makes them ‘more accurate’, but without getting too polemical, this relies on two assumptions: that the oldest texts in our possession are likely to reflect the oldest texts that ever existed, and that the ‘original’ text is likely to be the correct one. There are those who would subscribe to a different theory of inspiration (I’d put myself in that group) and would argue that if God inspired the original authors of the New Testament, he could equally well have inspired subsequent scribes, glossators, editors, copyists, and so forth, and that the definitive version of the New Testament should be taken as that version which came to be used and accepted by the church. If you subscribe to that perspective, the Textus Receptus is a ‘better’ Bible than the older manuscripts.
(None of this makes a huge difference, but there are significant passages that are in the Textus Receptus but not in older manuscripts. Jesus sweating blood in the Garden of Gethsemane is one, the angel of healing at the Pool of Bethesda is another, and then of course there’s the Pericope Adulterae).
- There’s also the question of which books to include. Orthodox Christians have generally not differed too much about what books to include in the New Testament (the Christian gnostics and other heresies had entirely different canonized books), although there was dispute about some like the Apocalypse of Peter. The canons of the Old Testament can differ quite a bit though: the Ethiopian Orthodox have the biggest Old Testament Canon, Jews and most Protestants have the smallest, and the Roman Catholics and Eastern Orthodox are in between.
Paraphrased versions (eg “The Message”) might be easier to read if you are looking to become familiar with the overall narrative and themes, but are less interested in theological study. Word-for-word translations are more accurate to the original language, but a lot of meaning can be lost in the literal translation. I second the recommendation of the Bible Gateway website - it’s my go-to site for comparing various translations and it will help you decide which one you may want to read in full.
New International Version (NIV) tends to be most common with contemporary Evangelicals. My church usually uses the New American Standard (NAS). For casual use, you should use whatever version makes for most comfortable reading.
As far as what order to read, it’s not bad to start with Genesis and Exodus up to the, uh, exodus. You probably want to skid Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy for now. There are a lot of good and well-known stories in the other historical books (Joshua, Judges, Ruth, Kings, Chronicles, etc) but a lot of filler as well - don’t be afraid to skip sections that get boring.
As for the prophets, Job is worth skimming (kinda long). The first half of Daniel is interesting.
As for essential New Testament books I would suggest Matthew or Luke, and Acts. I like the epistles to the Galatians and I John. But there’s not much storytelling once you are done with the gospels and Acts.
There is a free app called YouVersion that has hundreds of versions of the bible in lots of languages. I would say that the ESV is the version that is closest to the KJV while avoiding most of the really archaic language, and the NLT is the easiest to read for modern readers. Both of these, and many more, are available free on YouVersion.
Since the OP specifically asked about ebooks, I notice there’s a free Kindle version of the ESV on Amazon.
As you’ve probably noticed by now this is a thorny question. My church uses the NRSV, which I find to be a very good modern language (though scholarly, as **
Hector_St_Clare** pointed out) formal equivalence gender-equivalent (basically trading out traditional masculine pronouns if the text says ‘people’ - at the time of writing, they would have understood as males only, but it’s meant for modern folks, so they figured why not make it gender-neutral) translation. It’s considered a more liberal church translation as it is more fine with historical critical analysis and translates on that basis.
The ESV is a more conservative translation (no gender equivalence and less ok with historical critical analysis), but relatively close to the NRSV.
The NIV is a pretty readable translation and easily findable.
The Message is a paraphrase (but really good one) and very easy to read - almost more novelistic rather than scholarly.
The big advantage of the purchased e-book versions, though, is that when God issues revisions and corrections, the text can be automatically updated.
You can get the KJV in umpteen formats at the Gutenberg project. The Bible, King James Version, Complete - Free Ebook
I use https://www.biblegateway.com/ at the computer and Download The Bible App Now - 100% Free on the smart phone. The app let’s you download versions to your phone so you don’t need an active connection to read. (I see they’ve both been mentioned already, but they really are great resources, no matter what your denomination.)
I prefer the New English Translation (NET). It doesn’t use many archaic phrases, but doesn’t overly paraphrase either. And it has copious notes that explain translation choices, which is my favorite part.
For simple reading (for kids, for example), I like the Common English Bible (CEB).
Thanks to all. Some great ideas here. I had a vague idea that there wasn’t just one version of the bible, but didn’t realize there were so many versions in use. The one I found myself reading recently was placed by the Gideons.
I’m liking the idea of the bible app, the online version doesn’t work so well for me as Id like to read it when I’m disconnetted.
The one you found was almost certain KJV, and there’s a lot to be said for it both for the beauty of the language, and because it’s the one that influenced English-speaking Christian culture for the longest. To the point that some people think it’s the “only” version, even though new scholarship has revealed inaccuracies, and some of the archaic language can lead you to think it’s saying one thing when it says another.
One thing I think is awesome is that, when the KJV authors didn’t know what creature was being referenced, they replaced it with a creature from mythology. Hence the dragons.
It all sounds very interesting. I’ve thought in the past that I wouldn’t mind doing some kind of university course on the bible and the history of religion/s.
I will definitely try and get a version of the bible that has notes.
Edit: I hadn’t got to any dragon bits.