A most asked question: What is the best Bible translation?

Added: 2026-05-05

[00:00:00]My dear ones, here is a rule for you.

[00:00:03]Never in learning, in reading, in preaching, in Bible study, never, never, never say this sentence. I hear this sentence so frequently. I really like the way the fill-in-theblank translation puts this, and then you read that and you riff on it. Why? Because what is the basis for you liking it? Is your reason grounded in pretty much mastery of the language, deep study? If not then what exactly is it are that you like that you are saying you like that you wish the text read like this or you just like I don't know what that means okay don't say that um rather make the time do the work use a translation that makes sense in the setting that you're in and does not distract people with with with silly things do the interpretation yourself and tell people about that interpretation all translation is an act of interpretation Um, so if you can use the language, use the language. And if you can't, you can't you're not allowed to say that you like a translation. Okay, that's a mean rule. That's a hot take. I'm just offering it to you. Um, here's here's a thought. Uh, I get asked probably as a biblical studies scholar by students and by people in churches a lot um whenever I talk about language this question.

[00:01:15]What's the best translation? What's the best translation? That's a question I should be able to answer as a biblical scholar and yet I have a kind of a frustrating answer to it. I hope it's an encouraging answer, though, but it's one that can set you on a good path. I've always had a basically pastoral take on this. Namely, the best translation is the translation that you read and use and stick with. Here's a rule. If you're in a more conservative setting, if you're in a traditional setting, use a Bible that makes sense in that setting.

[00:01:43]Maybe the ESV, English Standard Version, or the NIV. Yes, here I am a biblical scholar recommending the NIV and the ESV. It's fine. I like this idea of of of being kind of like a missionary in whatever setting you're in or being being flexible. Okay. If you're in a secular setting or a scholarly setting and you need to use a translation, use the NRSV.

[00:02:05]If you're in a Jewish setting, use the NJPS or the Jewish Study Bible. Okay?

[00:02:09]These are all good. And if there are problems with these translations and you're in that you're using which there are all of them tons of problems fun problems interesting problems enraging problems I have a video on the most enraging translation issues link below um if you see those problems just gently point them out only if applicable though remind people of of the work that they can do and that you would do. So as smart readers and maybe beginning language learners in some cases I have an idea for you. You can though look at the landscape of translations under this rubric. The three basic types. These break down. There are intermediary types. Probably people in the comments can get sad and mad that I didn't mention your favorite one or or the complications. Please do make that comment below. I will read it and try to respond. Um, but here are the three basic types of translations that a lot of uh a lot of smart readers can identify. I'm going to use my own words for these. I'm going to call these uh I'm going to call these the words, the phrases, and the paraphrases. Okay?

[00:03:11]The words, the phrases, and the paraphrases. Just my way of saying the literal translations, equivalency style translations, which are the paraphrases uh um um or or I'm sorry, the phrases, and then paraphrases, which are sometimes very wild and creative and really interesting projects. Okay, let me give you some examples um of how these work and of translations that work in these traditions. In the literal traditions, we're trying to follow the Hebrew or Greek or Aramaic for a few verses more or less word for word with an equivalent word if possible. Not always possible. And these so-called literal translations never actually just go literally word for word unless you're using an interlinear with the English word right below the Greek or Hebrew word. Okay. Um, usually these these translations will try to reproduce idioms as they are in the original language, but it can get weird and they usually actually don't for most of them.

[00:04:04]Take like a very common Hebrew idiom for anger. The the Hebrew phrase um has to do with your off your nose getting enraged or getting hot. Your nose your nostrils burn hot is really the Hebrew phrase for for getting angry. I don't see too many translations saying and the Lord's nostrils grew hot. There might be a few. Maybe the Old King James does this. I can't remember. But um you don't really see that so often. So even the literal ones don't do this kind of thing. Or names is the other big one. I mean, think about your favorite prophet.

[00:04:35]Yahu, Jeremiah, uh Nakam, Nahm. Um you know, there's really no there really few or no translations that do that kind of thing. Okay. Um, these translations though in going roughly word for word are great for language learning because you can read in Hebrew or Greek and then you can look over and you can do a lot of, you know, kind of comparison and at least find your way. Um, they're sometimes bad for smooth English though, sometimes bad. And it raises the problem of if if you're rendering it woodenly or awkwardly in English, word for word. But if the language itself in the original was not wooden or awkward, how are you making a faithful translation? So the literal the literal fan girls and fanboys might be like, "No, this is the way, but you're missing something." If something's beautifully poetic in the original and you know it so well to know that in the original, but then in your translation it sounds dumb. How are you faithfully like you? Do you hear what I'm saying?

[00:05:31]How is that a faithful interpretation of what's happening? You might be conveying the words, but you're not conveying the beauty or this other kind of sense. So you have to start to ask yourself deep questions right away about about linguistic philosophy. Where is meaning?

[00:05:44]Is meaning in an individual word? I think most people would say no meanings occur in phrases or in bigger contexts in terms of a bigger story. And indeed the Bible is a bigger story. We don't have any biblical books that are just like the word mountain, just one word, right? That's not it's a sentence. The mountain of the Lord. It's a psalm. It's it's a bigger thing, right? So this is where I think the literal translations or a literal translation philosophy can fall short. What are the best examples of these? I mean the classic examples would be um the RSV 1952 or the NRSV 1989 last updated as the NRSVE. Hate that acronym. Wish they would have found a better one. Updated uh edition in 2022. It's an ecumenical project.

[00:06:28]Conservatives got very upset about the RSV tradition because they were the first mainstream big translation to translate uh the word uh alma in Isaiah 7:14 not as virgin which the word doesn't mean virgin there's another word for that batula etc. um but rather as young woman and of course um in the Christian theology uh and Matthew and so on this is the virgin the virgin birth has near universal acclaim by scholars though and in classroom settings and in non- sectarian settings and so you see it but you know potentially triggering um for some audiences and it has a history of that. My favorite one in this category really as a as a literal translation is the NASB, New American Standard Bible 1971 but it was last updated in 2020 which I didn't even know about. How did I miss that? I just had an old Bible, you know, an old NASB laying around. It's a conservative evangelical project. I think you can read it to see kind of more or less what the Hebrew or Greek words say, even if it sounds weird in English, which it sometimes does. Next on the list would be um the English Standard Version, ESV, 2001. Updates here and there. They did some recent updates. I did a video on on some updates they did in in the book of Genesis, chapter 3, that had enraged people and then they changed it back.

[00:07:37]See link below.

[00:07:39]um um a kind of conservative evangelical response to the NRSV tradition. Kind of like evangelicals response to the NRSV.

[00:07:46]Okay. They tried to unwind general inclusive language. Okay. Go back to the actual words. So this was a place where the NRSV wasn't wasn't at all literal.

[00:07:54]They would change him or he to them or their or things like that or he and she.

[00:07:59]Many people do see the ESV as biased and weird. So there is that. Um there is that uh the NE might fall into this category. New English translation 1996 to 2005 done in in parts. Academics and humanities types love it for having I guess I haven't like checked this but I guess over 60,000 translators notes. I have not used this one much. It's free online. I do actually have a paperbound version of it in in in like four volumes in my other office or somewhere. I should have brought it to hold up because it's huge. Um but worth checking out if you're into that that tradition.

[00:08:32]Those are the translations where you get the words. Okay, let's now go to the phrases. the so-called equivalence translations. You go literal if you can, but that works. But, you know, otherwise you go to phrases or concepts. This has, you know, some pros and cons that are contrasted then to the literal translations. Sometimes these translations will smooth over difficulties or not represent the words very faithfully. Sometimes these translations have tended tended in the case of the NIV NIV alert to smooth over difficulties that readers should have to encounter that maybe we'd want readers to encounter or we ourselves would want to encounter. Yes, the NIV, the New International Version is is really the most popular Bible here. Indeed, it's the most popular Bible in the world. The NIV outsells, I believe this is true, outsells all other Bibles combined.

[00:09:21]1978 was its its inaugural year, but there was a major revision in 2011 and that you know various other points.

[00:09:27]They've they've tinkered with it. The story of the NIV is a fascinating one.

[00:09:30]Okay. Um in my video on on theologically biased translations that will enrage you. I take the NIV to task on several of these. You can see that link below.

[00:09:39]CEB, the Common English Bible. It's a mainline Protestant thing. It was pitched at a seventh grade reading level. So that's interesting. So you see the market niches of Bibles. You have Bibles for conservative people, Bibles for progressive people, Bibles for Bibles for academic people. I almost said Bibles for smart people. That's kind of mean. Um, but you know what I mean. Okay. NLT, the New Living Translation, first came out in 1996, but there was an update made in 2015. It's been praised for its readability by some. CSB, the Christian Standard Bible, 2017. It's a niche Southern Baptist thing. I think it's marketed as more literal than the NIV, which is supposed to be good, but more readable than the ESV, which is then supposed to be good.

[00:10:18]Um, I've seen online that some people think this Bible is gaining in popularity. I'm not sure if that's true.

[00:10:22]Tell me if you think that's true. Um, so there couple examples right there of the most popular types in this category.

[00:10:30]Now, the paraphrases, these are the ones that are the most bonkers, the most interesting to people. There are so many of these and probably lots of people have their favorites. And I've put together my own little eclectic list here. So, here it is. And I'll end with this. These translations are sometimes barely translations. They lean heavily into interpretation, conveying meaning in whatever way seems to work. The most famous of these, uh, the best example, I think, is Eugene Peterson's 2002, The Message. Now, Eugene Peterson explicitly had told audiences, don't use this as your only Bible. But it's a kind of folksy animated take on the Bible, you could say. And so for that, a lot of people really like the message. And this is the message is the Bible people use where they'll they'll use that dreaded phrase I mentioned at the top. I really like the way the message puts this. I would not use that as as your primary access to scripture either theologically or otherwise. Um, but it's certainly it's certainly a fascinating piece of spiritual interpretation of the Bible and I recommend it for that. Another one is the Living Bible 1971, Kenneth Taylor. um the project of a of a single person. I believe it's that project then that was that was revised into the NLT the new living translation and and Kenneth Taylor in fact did support that um had a lot of idiosyncrasies in it um reflected his particular theology on various things. The most hated translation. Maybe maybe our nominee for the most hated translation uh 2017 to 2020 um is called the passion translation. Person named Brian Simmons giving all Brian's a bad name. Okay.

[00:12:00]Adds content out of nowhere. Not in the any of the original texts. Has a heavy prosperity charismatic frame. Not here to critique that spiritual view, but just like when you just put that in the words of the Bible, there's something that feels to a lot of people dishonest about that. Uh uh pro here's an example.

[00:12:17]Proverbs 29:18 in the King James. Where there is no vision, the people perish.

[00:12:22]Beautiful. Take that leaders. Uh the Passion translation. Where there is no clear prophetic vision, people quickly wander astray. So adding words here to kind of boost this idea that churches should have some kind of ongoing contemporary prophetic voice. Maybe that's true, maybe that's not. But that's an interpretation you can make as a Christian. You don't need to put that in there. So anyway, the passion um um that those are a couple in in in in those categories. Let me mention some more oddities. You're like, Brian, why haven't you mentioned the King James version or the New King James Version?

[00:12:55]Okay, it's kind of in its own category.

[00:12:57]I mentioned the King James version in the category of oddities. It's more like in the literal translation strategy. I mean, just gorgeous. I love it. I have a small King James version on my desk in my my my university my professor office and I refer to it when I just want to stop and just read a psalm. So I love it. It's based on bad textual traditions. Arasmus' 11th century text is receptus for the New Testament. None of the early papyrie. No Dead Sea Scrolls. And so you know you if you care about textual criticism or getting back to the text but if you care about a lovely thing the KJV is great. The NKJV kept I think they kept the text as receptus. Why exactly? It's basically for people who couldn't let go of the King James version but wanted an update and for that I recommend it but you know if you're going, you know, so I I leave that alone. The King James community is fierce but I just I acknowledge it as a category of its own. Okay. Um not even to be mentioned with the others. Another one of these oddities or honorable mentions are is a translation called the scriptures institute for scripture research 1998.

[00:13:58]Um a sacred name movement translation.

[00:14:02]There are other Bibles like this too.

[00:14:03]Uses the name the word Yahweh for God's name, not just Lord. Okay. Uses Yesua for Jesus, claiming Jesus is a pagan corruption and so on. Um and removing other pagan words like God. Apparently, the word God is a pagan word. Um um and and and uses master for lord instead of lod and so on. I've never understood these sacred name movements. They've never appealed to me. Um, I did do another video about this idea of of magic and magic names and maybe I can link that below too, but you know what can I say? There's a progressive Catholic group actually uh called Priests for Equality that's produced various translation or tweaks. I believe these are the ones I'm mentioning are from around 2007, but I'm not sure. They have one called the inclusive Bible um which among other things has no gendered pronouns for God. So God is never referred to with a masculine gendered pronoun as God almost always is in the natural original language traditions.

[00:14:57]There are a couple of feminine images for God too that are wonderful and should be preserved, but they're like, "No, we're not doing that." They have an they have a Bible called the Inclusive New Testament. It's an LGBTQ affirming translation, and they actually just changed famous terms in some of the verses that have been debated. 1 Corinthians 6:9, for example. um instead of the the traditional understanding of these terms as sexualized terms, they they they move them into some kind of moral exploitation and away from the realm of sexuality. And I believe these are both online, so you can you can find them. Um there was a conservative Bible project called Conservipedia.

[00:15:31]Um I believe it started in 2009, but it has basically fizzled out, but you can find the website. They tried to emit liberal bias from Bible translations. It was crowdsourced. It's been widely mocked. It is now largely abandoned, but I mention it as one of these idiosyncratic interesting projects.

[00:15:48]There's a translation called The Voice in 2012 produced by scholars and writers in which it's basically the Bible with stage directions in italics all over the place. Um, which is kind of an interesting in take on it. Tries to get you into the action of the text. Um, this one maybe is my favorite in some ways because I just I just learned about it. Um, it's called Good as New, a radical retelling. John Henson, 2004, a retired British minister doing a kind of single personal project paraphrase. He attempted a radical cultural translation. It was too radical and weird for people in general. Um, there's a Bible called the Cotton Patch Gospel that I think is reminds me of the style of this in some ways, the way it tried to go with informalities. Um, in in this in this good is new translation, Mary Magdalene becomes Maggie. So, you know, do you want to call her Maggie? I don't know. Um, the disciples are just called Jesus's friends. Not so radical. There was one example that I that I found online that I don't know why this just got this just got to my funny bone. This just got to me. It's not the most radical example. Maybe some of you will resonate with it. Here's the translation um of the Lord's supper in one of the gospels. After the meal, Jesus took a piece of bread and broke it. This is me, he said.

[00:17:02]I don't know why I like that. I just do.

[00:17:04]you know, the traditional translation, this is my body, you know, this is me.

[00:17:08]It's kind of cool, actually. I don't know. I have to think about it. But that translation also removes supernatural elements in favor of psychological or social readings. And you can kind of look into those, you know, mental illness and things like that. Very fascinating. And finally, by way of these one-person efforts, I want to mention as one of my favorite Bibles, and this is a recommendation I will give for the Old Testament only. And this would be for for for secular readers, for Jews, for Christians especially though I'll mention just for my people, for Christians. Robert Alter's oneman translation of the Hebrew Bible. I think he began it in 1996. It's gone through 2019. It's a masterpiece. You could just pick up the book of Genesis in his translation. Um, it's just really good.

[00:17:46]It's expensive in the full multi-volume thing, but it's a new way to encounter the Old Testament. And I think for Christians, you know, just reading the Bible over and over and over again in the same translation, the words just sort of leave our minds. And what we really need to do with ourselves is slow ourselves down, get back into the language and hear a fresh and responsible voice. I believe that Robert Alter provides a voice like this. um it might not be your only Bible and you might not trust a one-person translation as opposed to these others, the NIV, the NRSV, which are like committees. But if you want to try a new thing that is responsible and done by somebody with extraordinary sensitivity to language and just a lot of faithfulness there, I believe Robert Alter's um translation of the Hebrew Bible is a good one to check out.