This is incredibly valuable. I’m relatively new to my faith and have been confused by all the various versions. I have some of the versions you describe but not the NSRVue. I’m going to order a copy right now. Thank you!
This makes my day! Welcome to the journey. I’m so glad this was helpful. The NRSVue is a great choice, and having multiple translations to compare is never a bad idea either.
Don’t hesitate to reach out if you have questions along the way. Thanks for being here and for engaging so thoughtfully!
You might consider looking into the Olive Tree Bible Study app. The app is free and comes with some basic bible translations and resources. You pay varying amounts for each additional version. Then you can view on your phone, tablet, or pc— copy and paste text at will. Very helpful. They also have The Bible Project videos available— very beneficial.
Love this thought provoking article! I have always used multiple versions of the text when studying or just trying to get a better understanding of the text itself; but I don't think I ever thought of it from the theological perspective your article invites us to think about. I've always trusted the Bible to be the inspired word of God - but we must take into consideration the translator and their theology or motives (for lack of a better word). Thanks Beau for this "Tuesday Thinker"!
Thank you so much! I love that you’re already using multiple translations, that’s such a smart practice. And you’re exactly right: the translators’ choices matter more than we often realize. It doesn’t mean we can’t trust scripture, but it does mean we should pay attention to who’s doing the translating and why.
I really appreciate you taking the time to read and engage. Thanks for being here!
I tend to avoid the ESV simply because of the translation committee’s complementarian bias. I use the NIV, NET and The Message in my reading of the Psalms as a devotional practice. I have occasionally referenced the NRSV, but I will incorporate the ue version now. Thanks for sharing your experience, knowledge and wisdom with us fellow sojourners. We need all the guidance a seasoned veteran can offer.
It is wild to know we are the first humans on the planet who can access all of these different translations over the years instantly, simultaneously, and for free.
This is such a good point! We really are living in an unprecedented moment for scripture access. What used to require a seminary library or a small fortune in books, we can now do on our phones in seconds. It’s a gift, and it does fundamentally change how we engage with the text.
This is a great article. I’ll give a plug for what I use: The Olive Tree Bible Study app. It has several free versions, commentaries, and resources available right from the start. Additionally, for (usually) $10/ version you can purchase and download multiple translations of the Bible. I have purchased NRSVue, NIV, The Message, Net Bible with Full Notes, Lutheran Study Bible, First Nations New Testament, NKJV, and the Complete Jewish Study Bible. This has provided so many resources all on my phone, tablet, and laptop. You can also get the entire Bible Project videos for free— a fantastic resource to use.
Thank you for this, Beau. My first Bible was KJV, given to me by my grandfather. But I used KJV verses in my book of devotional poetry for a modern, practical reason: copyright.
What a meaningful gift from your grandfather! And that’s such a practical point about copyright…the KJV being in the public domain makes it incredibly useful for publishing. It’s a good reminder that there are lots of valid reasons for choosing different translations beyond just theology or readability.
Thanks for sharing this, and for being part of the conversation!
I love this article! Thank you, Beau. I read a book years ago, called, I Suffer Not A Woman. In it, the author argues that I Timothy 2:12 and the surrounding context is actually talking about not allowing Gnosticism to infiltrate the church. They looked at authentein, which had a definition of "to murder" and how it was tied back to Gnostic beliefs. Anyways, it was worth a read if you come across it. Thanks again!
Thank you for this recommendation! I haven’t read that book, but the authentein discussion is so fascinating, it really does change everything depending on how you translate that word. The Gnostic context theory is compelling, especially given how much of the Pastoral Epistles seem to be addressing specific local heresies rather than universal church practices.
I’ll definitely add it to my reading list. Thanks for sharing and for engaging with the article!
Beau, if Sandra Glahn’s book Nobody’s Mother isn’t among your 1 Timothy 2: 11 - 12 resources I highly recommend it. Glahn examines the history of the cult of Artemis and its possible influence on Paul’s counsel to Timothy.
That’s such a meaningful goal! There’s something special about reading all the way through, and even more special about a Bible you’re investing in enough to rebind. I hope the journey through it is rich. Thanks for sharing!
Nice analysis here. The NRSV was hot off the press when I went to seminary, and was the standard for our academic work at the time. I only heard about the updated edition recently, and find it to be very well done. As an aside, I also enjoy the Jerusalem Bible if I'm looking for something with a more poetic feel. Thanks for your good work!
You might consider giving a review of study bibles. I prefer hard copy study bibles as it’s easier to look at maps and tables, etc. in my library I have the Oxford Annotated NRSV Study Bible with Apocrypha (replacing the RSV I had throughout college in early 1970s), the Cultural Expressions NRSV, the Master Builders NIV Study Bible for Men (Lutheran Men in Mission version), The Jewish Annotated New Testament by Amy Jill Levine (includes great articles), and The Hebrew Bible (3 volumes), by Robert Alter. (I participate in Torah Study held by our local Jewish community.)
I love reading multiple translations, typically ESV 2016 and NASB 2020 supplemented by NIV and NLT, and sometimes NKJV. Have personal size ESV, NASB (95 and 2020), NIV, and NKJV bibles, and read in them all a little, but often it's the ESV 2016 or NASB 2020 along with Logos text comparison with those and NET as well. Have the NET full notes edition as well, which I find very helpful. May have to think about adding the NRSVue to my collection. As for the gender in the translation, I think some people get too riled up when a translations attempts to reflect the gender or genders that the original text actually meant (e.g. brothers and sisters when original text said brothers but meant both genders), but I'm also fine reading a translation that just says brothers and understanding when it means more than men.
You’ve got a really solid study setup! The combination of formal translations plus Logos for comparison is excellent, and the NET notes edition is such a helpful resource. It sounds like you’re already doing exactly what I’d recommend…reading across translations to see where they differ and why.
I appreciate your balanced take on the gender language question too. You’re right that it shouldn’t be controversial when translations are just trying to accurately reflect what the original meant. And if you ever do add the NRSVue to your collection, I think you’d find it fits well with the approach you’re already taking.
Thanks for sharing your study approach!
Great article! When I was a kid, we used the KJV in my fundamentalist elementary school, so I still have a lot of verses memorized in that version. In high school, though, my parents got me an NIV version, which was my go-to until recently. Nowadays, I like the NRSVUE, although I tend to use Bible Gateway, so I can use lots of versions. It's kind of crazy to think that in my lifetime, I've gone from only able to use one or two bibles at a time be being able to access so many because of the internet. Thank you for helping us understand the differences among all these translations and paraphrases.
Thank you so much! I love hearing about your journey through different translations, it really shows how our relationship with scripture can evolve over time. And you’re so right about the technology piece. Bible Gateway and similar tools have completely changed access in ways previous generations couldn’t have imagined.
I’m really glad the article was helpful. Thanks for taking the time to share your story!
Just looked up Romans 16:7, and remembered that I have a tendency to gloss over the footnotes for the sake of expediency. Every jot and tittle has the potential to make a big difference.
Yes! The footnotes are where so much of the good stuff lives. It’s easy to skip them, but you’re right…those little details can completely shift how we understand a passage. I’m glad this prompted you to look more closely!
Thanks for engaging so thoughtfully with the article.
The ESV is the most male-dominated, misogynistic translation available. Zero women translators, zero women on the board, zero women on the review team, and zero women scholars used for the study notes in the study Bible. There is a reason misogynistic pastors like Mark Driscoll use it.
The NRSVUE committee has non-white members and multiple women - a first for an English Bible translation. They made 12,000 changes from the NRSV Bible. The leaders of the NRSVUE project talk about translation, reception, and what Bibles are for:
I think the NRSVUE is the best and most accurate English language version of the Bible available. The NRSVUE Study Bible edited by the Society of Biblical Literature (of which I am a member) is really great
There are wonderful notes in this Bible and web links to the SBL website for further study. You can subscribe to emails which have articles on NRSVUE Bible texts:
Anyone can join the Society of Biblical Literature which was founded in 1880 and I really enjoy interacting with other members of the Society worldwide. https://www.sbl-site.org/
The NIV and ESV render the Greek words ἀρσενοκοῖται μαλακοὶ and πορνεία as “homosexual” which reflects a homophobic bias and inaccurate translation - a mistake first made by the RSV committee in 1946 which they corrected in the 1977 RSV to read “sexual immorality.”
This is the subject of the documentary "1946 | The Mistranslation that Shifted a Culture"
arsenokoitai was a neologism coined by Paul which means something like "men a bed.” The word “homosexual" was first used in the 19th century by Karl Maria Kertbeny in the 19th century. There is no ancient Greek word for homosexual. There was no idea of sexual orientation until around 1870. All people were assumed to be heterosexual and same-sex-sexual behavior was seen as someone who was inherently heterosexual going against their “natural” heterosexual inclination. People focused entirely on sexual behavior and had no sense that a person could be born gay, lesbian or bisexual.
The ESV created by a team of more than 100 evangelical scholars and pastors. This Bible reflects an Evangelical and fundamentalist interpretation of Scripture. For example, ESV committee member C. John Collins, Wayne A. Grudem, William Mounce, J I Packer and Vern Sheridan Poythress believe that God created the world in six literal days, Adam and Eve were real people, and are young earth creationists who believe earth is 6,000 years old. This Bible is poorly translated and written and in some places is more difficult more modern readers to understand than the King James Bible. This Bible is based on the RSV and doesn’t translate ἀδελφοὶ correctly, but uses the words “brothers” or “brethren.”
Interestingly enough, most of the American ESV committee members are outspoken Trump supporters. The NRSVUE committee has Jews, Protestants from many denominations, Roman Catholics and Orthodox scholars. When translating the Bible, it's best to have people from different churches and to have Jewish scholars assist with the Hebrew texts.
The lesser known (British) Revised English Bible is excellent, published in 1989 as a revision of the New English Bible. When the committee made this translation, they practiced reading it aloud to create a Bible that would be good for public, liturgical reading in churches. I have a REB New Testament that I really enjoy and keep in my backpack and in my car when I have a few spare minutes to read and pray.
I sometimes still enjoy reading the Authorized Version of 1611 (King James Bible) which is based mostly on the Textus Receptus from around the 16th century. The RSV Bible was the first Bible to use the Dead Sea scrolls which were discovered in the 1940s and contain the oldest known text of Isaiah. I like the poetry and language of the King James Bible, but it's not a great Bible for serious study, the meaning of many of the English words has evolved or changed in 400 years, and it’s difficult for young people and people who speak English as a second language to understand. The RSV is still an accurate and good translation but it uses some archaic language and sexist-default language.
The RSV, NRSV, REB, and NRSVUE committees had access to more recently discovered and much older Hebrew and Greek texts that weren’t available to the King James translators. So these three Bibles use older source documents than the KJV. I've studied the fifth century, Latin-Greek Codex Bezae at Cambridge University in the UK and was particularly interested in some of renderings in Mark's Gospel. This Codex was used in the four, more recent Bible translations I mentioned.
I have some photos I took of the Codex Bezae at Cambridge. If you send me a private message me I can show you pages from Mark in Latin and Greek. There are no spaces between words in this text, no punctuation and no paragraph breaks — all the letters run together and it is challenging to read. But it was so cool for me being able to see and handle this ancient text which is around 1,600 years old.
If you read Greek and Latin, I recommend the Novum Testamentum Graece Et Latine (a 29th edition was delayed due to the pandemic). This Latin-Greek New Testament uses the 2012, 28th edition of the Nestle-Aland Greek text and the Latin Nova Vulgate of 1985. This is an excellent New Testament which I use for sermon preparation and Bible study. I deeply admired Carlo Martini, an Italian, Roman Catholic Bible scholar (now deceased) who worked with Protestants on this New Testamant..
I read and speak French. I love the La Bible Traduction Oecuménique which we call “Le TOB” here in France. It is a Catholic and Protestant Bible from 1976 which has been tweaked a little as new editions have been printed. The Louis Segond 1910 Bible is still very popular among many French Protestants.
Also, the Spanish La Biblia Latinoamericana is excellent, but I don’t speak great Spanish. I’m still learning, but I really love this Bible translation.
I speak German. The old, German Lutherbibel is great. I really love the Psalms in this Bible. And Luther wasn’t afraid to use the word “kot” which can mean “shit” in German, which I think is very funny.
He renders Philippians 3:8 in German : "Ja, ich achte es noch alles für Schaden gegen die überschwengliche Erkenntnis Christi Jesu, meines HERRN, um welches willen ich alles habe für Schaden gerechnet, und achte es für Kot, auf daß ich Christum gewinne”
"Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but shit, that I may win Christ.”
I really think that's funny !
The only Bibles I consider bad or corrupt translations are the NIV and the ESV. I don’t even own either of these Bibles. They are the products of fundamentalists who are not very good Bible scholars, and the translators (all white men for the ESV, and only one woman for the NIV) seem to have a homophobic bias and retrograde ideas about the role of women.
This is incredibly valuable. I’m relatively new to my faith and have been confused by all the various versions. I have some of the versions you describe but not the NSRVue. I’m going to order a copy right now. Thank you!
This makes my day! Welcome to the journey. I’m so glad this was helpful. The NRSVue is a great choice, and having multiple translations to compare is never a bad idea either.
Don’t hesitate to reach out if you have questions along the way. Thanks for being here and for engaging so thoughtfully!
You might consider looking into the Olive Tree Bible Study app. The app is free and comes with some basic bible translations and resources. You pay varying amounts for each additional version. Then you can view on your phone, tablet, or pc— copy and paste text at will. Very helpful. They also have The Bible Project videos available— very beneficial.
I can vouch! Been using Olive Tree for about 20 yrs now….since I had a Palm Pilot LOL
Thank you! I will check this out.
Love this thought provoking article! I have always used multiple versions of the text when studying or just trying to get a better understanding of the text itself; but I don't think I ever thought of it from the theological perspective your article invites us to think about. I've always trusted the Bible to be the inspired word of God - but we must take into consideration the translator and their theology or motives (for lack of a better word). Thanks Beau for this "Tuesday Thinker"!
Thank you so much! I love that you’re already using multiple translations, that’s such a smart practice. And you’re exactly right: the translators’ choices matter more than we often realize. It doesn’t mean we can’t trust scripture, but it does mean we should pay attention to who’s doing the translating and why.
I really appreciate you taking the time to read and engage. Thanks for being here!
I tend to avoid the ESV simply because of the translation committee’s complementarian bias. I use the NIV, NET and The Message in my reading of the Psalms as a devotional practice. I have occasionally referenced the NRSV, but I will incorporate the ue version now. Thanks for sharing your experience, knowledge and wisdom with us fellow sojourners. We need all the guidance a seasoned veteran can offer.
It is wild to know we are the first humans on the planet who can access all of these different translations over the years instantly, simultaneously, and for free.
Truly THAT changes how the Bible is read.
This is such a good point! We really are living in an unprecedented moment for scripture access. What used to require a seminary library or a small fortune in books, we can now do on our phones in seconds. It’s a gift, and it does fundamentally change how we engage with the text.
Thanks for this perspective!
This is a great article. I’ll give a plug for what I use: The Olive Tree Bible Study app. It has several free versions, commentaries, and resources available right from the start. Additionally, for (usually) $10/ version you can purchase and download multiple translations of the Bible. I have purchased NRSVue, NIV, The Message, Net Bible with Full Notes, Lutheran Study Bible, First Nations New Testament, NKJV, and the Complete Jewish Study Bible. This has provided so many resources all on my phone, tablet, and laptop. You can also get the entire Bible Project videos for free— a fantastic resource to use.
Thank you for this, Beau. My first Bible was KJV, given to me by my grandfather. But I used KJV verses in my book of devotional poetry for a modern, practical reason: copyright.
What a meaningful gift from your grandfather! And that’s such a practical point about copyright…the KJV being in the public domain makes it incredibly useful for publishing. It’s a good reminder that there are lots of valid reasons for choosing different translations beyond just theology or readability.
Thanks for sharing this, and for being part of the conversation!
I love this article! Thank you, Beau. I read a book years ago, called, I Suffer Not A Woman. In it, the author argues that I Timothy 2:12 and the surrounding context is actually talking about not allowing Gnosticism to infiltrate the church. They looked at authentein, which had a definition of "to murder" and how it was tied back to Gnostic beliefs. Anyways, it was worth a read if you come across it. Thanks again!
Thank you for this recommendation! I haven’t read that book, but the authentein discussion is so fascinating, it really does change everything depending on how you translate that word. The Gnostic context theory is compelling, especially given how much of the Pastoral Epistles seem to be addressing specific local heresies rather than universal church practices.
I’ll definitely add it to my reading list. Thanks for sharing and for engaging with the article!
Beau, if Sandra Glahn’s book Nobody’s Mother isn’t among your 1 Timothy 2: 11 - 12 resources I highly recommend it. Glahn examines the history of the cult of Artemis and its possible influence on Paul’s counsel to Timothy.
NKJV? (not that I don’t have one of each, and a Greek NT too - and parallels from Hebrew to English too, nerd that I am)
It was difficult deciding which translations to include here! Glad you mentioned the NKJV!
My current goal is to finish reading cover to cover through my 1982 NKJV before I send it to be rebound!
That’s such a meaningful goal! There’s something special about reading all the way through, and even more special about a Bible you’re investing in enough to rebind. I hope the journey through it is rich. Thanks for sharing!
My 1982 NASB is rebound in duct tape, and it’s still falling apart. 😄
This one just happens to be held together by a worn, quilted cover I made at the same time - so in the same shape as yours!
Nice analysis here. The NRSV was hot off the press when I went to seminary, and was the standard for our academic work at the time. I only heard about the updated edition recently, and find it to be very well done. As an aside, I also enjoy the Jerusalem Bible if I'm looking for something with a more poetic feel. Thanks for your good work!
You might consider giving a review of study bibles. I prefer hard copy study bibles as it’s easier to look at maps and tables, etc. in my library I have the Oxford Annotated NRSV Study Bible with Apocrypha (replacing the RSV I had throughout college in early 1970s), the Cultural Expressions NRSV, the Master Builders NIV Study Bible for Men (Lutheran Men in Mission version), The Jewish Annotated New Testament by Amy Jill Levine (includes great articles), and The Hebrew Bible (3 volumes), by Robert Alter. (I participate in Torah Study held by our local Jewish community.)
I love reading multiple translations, typically ESV 2016 and NASB 2020 supplemented by NIV and NLT, and sometimes NKJV. Have personal size ESV, NASB (95 and 2020), NIV, and NKJV bibles, and read in them all a little, but often it's the ESV 2016 or NASB 2020 along with Logos text comparison with those and NET as well. Have the NET full notes edition as well, which I find very helpful. May have to think about adding the NRSVue to my collection. As for the gender in the translation, I think some people get too riled up when a translations attempts to reflect the gender or genders that the original text actually meant (e.g. brothers and sisters when original text said brothers but meant both genders), but I'm also fine reading a translation that just says brothers and understanding when it means more than men.
You’ve got a really solid study setup! The combination of formal translations plus Logos for comparison is excellent, and the NET notes edition is such a helpful resource. It sounds like you’re already doing exactly what I’d recommend…reading across translations to see where they differ and why.
I appreciate your balanced take on the gender language question too. You’re right that it shouldn’t be controversial when translations are just trying to accurately reflect what the original meant. And if you ever do add the NRSVue to your collection, I think you’d find it fits well with the approach you’re already taking.
Thanks for sharing your study approach!
Great article! When I was a kid, we used the KJV in my fundamentalist elementary school, so I still have a lot of verses memorized in that version. In high school, though, my parents got me an NIV version, which was my go-to until recently. Nowadays, I like the NRSVUE, although I tend to use Bible Gateway, so I can use lots of versions. It's kind of crazy to think that in my lifetime, I've gone from only able to use one or two bibles at a time be being able to access so many because of the internet. Thank you for helping us understand the differences among all these translations and paraphrases.
Thank you so much! I love hearing about your journey through different translations, it really shows how our relationship with scripture can evolve over time. And you’re so right about the technology piece. Bible Gateway and similar tools have completely changed access in ways previous generations couldn’t have imagined.
I’m really glad the article was helpful. Thanks for taking the time to share your story!
Just looked up Romans 16:7, and remembered that I have a tendency to gloss over the footnotes for the sake of expediency. Every jot and tittle has the potential to make a big difference.
Yes! The footnotes are where so much of the good stuff lives. It’s easy to skip them, but you’re right…those little details can completely shift how we understand a passage. I’m glad this prompted you to look more closely!
Thanks for engaging so thoughtfully with the article.
NRSV and NASB all the way 🤘🏼
Love it! Both solid choices for study. Miss ya Calico Curt!!! 🤪
The ESV is the most male-dominated, misogynistic translation available. Zero women translators, zero women on the board, zero women on the review team, and zero women scholars used for the study notes in the study Bible. There is a reason misogynistic pastors like Mark Driscoll use it.
The NRSVUE committee has non-white members and multiple women - a first for an English Bible translation. They made 12,000 changes from the NRSV Bible. The leaders of the NRSVUE project talk about translation, reception, and what Bibles are for:
https://www.christiancentury.org/article/interview/even-better-bible
I think the NRSVUE is the best and most accurate English language version of the Bible available. The NRSVUE Study Bible edited by the Society of Biblical Literature (of which I am a member) is really great
https://www.christianbook.com/nrsv-sbl-study-bible-soft-cover/9780062969422/pd/969422
There are wonderful notes in this Bible and web links to the SBL website for further study. You can subscribe to emails which have articles on NRSVUE Bible texts:
https://www.bibleodyssey.org/
Anyone can join the Society of Biblical Literature which was founded in 1880 and I really enjoy interacting with other members of the Society worldwide. https://www.sbl-site.org/
The NIV and ESV render the Greek words ἀρσενοκοῖται μαλακοὶ and πορνεία as “homosexual” which reflects a homophobic bias and inaccurate translation - a mistake first made by the RSV committee in 1946 which they corrected in the 1977 RSV to read “sexual immorality.”
This is the subject of the documentary "1946 | The Mistranslation that Shifted a Culture"
https://www.1946themovie.com/
arsenokoitai was a neologism coined by Paul which means something like "men a bed.” The word “homosexual" was first used in the 19th century by Karl Maria Kertbeny in the 19th century. There is no ancient Greek word for homosexual. There was no idea of sexual orientation until around 1870. All people were assumed to be heterosexual and same-sex-sexual behavior was seen as someone who was inherently heterosexual going against their “natural” heterosexual inclination. People focused entirely on sexual behavior and had no sense that a person could be born gay, lesbian or bisexual.
The ESV created by a team of more than 100 evangelical scholars and pastors. This Bible reflects an Evangelical and fundamentalist interpretation of Scripture. For example, ESV committee member C. John Collins, Wayne A. Grudem, William Mounce, J I Packer and Vern Sheridan Poythress believe that God created the world in six literal days, Adam and Eve were real people, and are young earth creationists who believe earth is 6,000 years old. This Bible is poorly translated and written and in some places is more difficult more modern readers to understand than the King James Bible. This Bible is based on the RSV and doesn’t translate ἀδελφοὶ correctly, but uses the words “brothers” or “brethren.”
Interestingly enough, most of the American ESV committee members are outspoken Trump supporters. The NRSVUE committee has Jews, Protestants from many denominations, Roman Catholics and Orthodox scholars. When translating the Bible, it's best to have people from different churches and to have Jewish scholars assist with the Hebrew texts.
The lesser known (British) Revised English Bible is excellent, published in 1989 as a revision of the New English Bible. When the committee made this translation, they practiced reading it aloud to create a Bible that would be good for public, liturgical reading in churches. I have a REB New Testament that I really enjoy and keep in my backpack and in my car when I have a few spare minutes to read and pray.
I sometimes still enjoy reading the Authorized Version of 1611 (King James Bible) which is based mostly on the Textus Receptus from around the 16th century. The RSV Bible was the first Bible to use the Dead Sea scrolls which were discovered in the 1940s and contain the oldest known text of Isaiah. I like the poetry and language of the King James Bible, but it's not a great Bible for serious study, the meaning of many of the English words has evolved or changed in 400 years, and it’s difficult for young people and people who speak English as a second language to understand. The RSV is still an accurate and good translation but it uses some archaic language and sexist-default language.
The RSV, NRSV, REB, and NRSVUE committees had access to more recently discovered and much older Hebrew and Greek texts that weren’t available to the King James translators. So these three Bibles use older source documents than the KJV. I've studied the fifth century, Latin-Greek Codex Bezae at Cambridge University in the UK and was particularly interested in some of renderings in Mark's Gospel. This Codex was used in the four, more recent Bible translations I mentioned.
I have some photos I took of the Codex Bezae at Cambridge. If you send me a private message me I can show you pages from Mark in Latin and Greek. There are no spaces between words in this text, no punctuation and no paragraph breaks — all the letters run together and it is challenging to read. But it was so cool for me being able to see and handle this ancient text which is around 1,600 years old.
If you read Greek and Latin, I recommend the Novum Testamentum Graece Et Latine (a 29th edition was delayed due to the pandemic). This Latin-Greek New Testament uses the 2012, 28th edition of the Nestle-Aland Greek text and the Latin Nova Vulgate of 1985. This is an excellent New Testament which I use for sermon preparation and Bible study. I deeply admired Carlo Martini, an Italian, Roman Catholic Bible scholar (now deceased) who worked with Protestants on this New Testamant..
I read and speak French. I love the La Bible Traduction Oecuménique which we call “Le TOB” here in France. It is a Catholic and Protestant Bible from 1976 which has been tweaked a little as new editions have been printed. The Louis Segond 1910 Bible is still very popular among many French Protestants.
Also, the Spanish La Biblia Latinoamericana is excellent, but I don’t speak great Spanish. I’m still learning, but I really love this Bible translation.
I speak German. The old, German Lutherbibel is great. I really love the Psalms in this Bible. And Luther wasn’t afraid to use the word “kot” which can mean “shit” in German, which I think is very funny.
He renders Philippians 3:8 in German : "Ja, ich achte es noch alles für Schaden gegen die überschwengliche Erkenntnis Christi Jesu, meines HERRN, um welches willen ich alles habe für Schaden gerechnet, und achte es für Kot, auf daß ich Christum gewinne”
"Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but shit, that I may win Christ.”
I really think that's funny !
The only Bibles I consider bad or corrupt translations are the NIV and the ESV. I don’t even own either of these Bibles. They are the products of fundamentalists who are not very good Bible scholars, and the translators (all white men for the ESV, and only one woman for the NIV) seem to have a homophobic bias and retrograde ideas about the role of women.
I’ve been reading the DBH New Testament and enjoying it but I grew up on the NIV and the NKJV