What Bible Translation(s) Do You Use?

I’ve been using ESV (through the Reformation Study Bible) for a year now.

I grew up on KJV. Nothing else sounds “right” to me. In the interest of disclosure, I’m an atheist and don’t actively read any of them anymore.

I’m waiting for the movie

King James Bible because it is one of the most beautiful uses of the English language ever created

King James Version is beautiful poetry.

New International Version is easier to understand, but not pretty to read.

Revised Standard Version is a reasonable compromise.

I use the New Revised Standard version. When studying OT books, I use, for the sake of comparison, the Tanakh publish by the Jewish Publication Society.

But I still think in KJV when reading the second chapter of Luke.

I use the Hebrew for Old Testament, so edition doesn’t really matter much. For English translation, I prefer the Jewish Publication Society (JPS), but I like Fox’s attempt at a more literal translation. (E.g., ancient Hebrew often doubles a word for emphasis. KJV tends to use “verily” rather than repeat the adjective, where Fox uses “mighty, yes, mighty” to be more true to the original.)

I start with the New American Standard Bible (1995). I usually compare it with the New Revised Standard Version, the New International Version and the New Jerusalem Bible. If I’m doing Bible study, I use the Nestle-Aland 27th Edition of the Greek NT, and the Masoretic Text of the Hebrew OT.

The King James is used in my church’s services and I read from it quite often. I’d go as far as calling it my favorite.

For reading through and for any more scholarly study I’ve been using the New Revised Standard (Oxford Annotated edition).

I own and dip into a number of other translations, but those are the main two for me.

With Bible websites and apps it’s become easy to compare a passage in seven or eight versions very quickly. I love technology!

Other than the family Bible my mother kept in her bedroom, I think the only one I have in the house is the Oxford annotated. I couldn’t tell you offhand which revision that is.

I grew up with the King James version and it seems fine for my mundane purposes. I’m not a biblical scholar, but I’m aware that some theological questions might need consultation with a Hebrew version or another translation. Anytime someone says, “The Bible says…”, we need to consider which bible we are talking about before getting in too deep.

So I don’t treat the KJV as gospel. :slight_smile:

Missed the edit window. I should have looked at the immediately prior post: the Oxford is NRS. I find it useful as a center-weighted, neutral take on many of the disputed passages, which is often my interest.

I for many years wanted a multi-version electronic Bible with the deep linguistic references and such, and by the time they became as comprehensive and useful as I wanted, I no longer had any compelling need or interest. That’s progress fer ya.

The New American Standard. I like the way it handles translation ambiguities.

LOLCat

I still use the New American Bible that was my high school freshman theology “textbook” back in 1975.

I may never stop laughing again. Thank you.

I have a few versions at home, but I prefer the NIV and the NRSV. The NRSV is also used at my church (though that’s not why I originally picked it - I think I picked it due to it being an Oxford Annotated Version). I also do like what N.T. Wright has done in his Kingdom Translation.

The RSV. KJV is exquisitely written, but the dialect interferes with comprehension. (Plus we know a lot more about Hebrew and Greek than we did then.) And “new” translations like NIV and so on seem to be dumbing down the language for the sake of readability. I don’t need a translation written at the sixth-grade level of comprehension, especially the poetic passages.

Much of it is familiarity, of course - I grew up on the RSV. But back when I read Koine Greek, it was (in my limited experience) the best word-for-word-or-close-to-it translation I found.

Regards,
Shodan

This chart shows most of the major translations, and how they stand as literal (word-for-word) vs. paraphrastic (thought-for-thought)/

I use the Good News Translation (the one with the little stick people) and the KJV.