Which version of the bible should I read?

johnl10 · Post by **johnl10** » Wed Feb 04, 2009 6:01 am

Hello, I just joined this forum.
I grew up in a family that was catholic and attended church regularly but never really read the bible much.
I now have decided to learn the bible and am looking for a local non denominational church but also have begun watching Joel Osteen on TV.
What I'd like to know is which version of the bible should I read? I have seen King James, American Standard Version, and New International Version.

Post by **otseng** » Wed Feb 04, 2009 6:18 am

Welcome to the forum.

Any of the versions you mentioned would be good. But, if I were to pick one, it'd be NAS. The Amplified Bible is also a good one (which is what I'm using now).

I'm also now listening to Andy Stanley podcasts, which I would recommend to anybody.

JoeyKnothead · Post by **JoeyKnothead** » Wed Feb 04, 2009 10:14 am

Welcome to the forums John. Here's a link to a (computer) bible study program that I use for looking up passages and phrases. It can be loaded with several different bible versions (I have KJV and WEB). I'm not affiliated with it in any way, I just recommend it for ease of use.

Xiphos formerly gnomesword homepage

Xiphos formerly gnomesword download page

OnceConvinced · Post by **OnceConvinced** » Wed Feb 04, 2009 3:17 pm

According to Wikepedia there are over 450 English translations alone, all translated by fallible human beings. Nobody can seem to agree on what is the best translation all though Otseng here does point you to some of the more popular translations. However there is no guarantee you are going to get the correct meanings of the original Hebrew texts. And the way Christians continual refer to the original words and reinterpret them would suggest that no English translation can really be relied upon.

The best thing to do is to learn the original languages. Hebrew in particular must be learnt thoroughly, because it is one of the most difficult languages to learn and it's very easy to mistranslate. It could take you several years to master the language to be able to correctly translate God's word.

Of course you then have to prove that the original texts are indeed God's word and not just the ramblings of fallible man.

Good luck!

McCulloch · Post by **McCulloch** » Wed Feb 04, 2009 4:41 pm

I read the NASB when I was a Christian. It is considered a conservative, if somewhat literal, translation. I am no longer a Christian, so you might not want to take my recommendation.

OnceConvinced · Post by **OnceConvinced** » Wed Feb 04, 2009 5:37 pm

McCulloch wrote:I read the NASB when I was a Christian. It is considered a conservative, if somewhat literal, translation. I am no longer a Christian, so you might not want to take my recommendation.

Actually that's the version I've got now, the very same bible I got for Christmas when I was 16 years old. It's very well worn with plenty of tidy markings and underlinings. In recent times I've added a lot of circles to note the attrocities and absurdities and written in scrawls next to them.

BTW John, welcome to the forum. I hope you find a bible that suits you. Don't mind me, I'm just in one of those moods where I'm enjoying being a complete b'stard. Otseng is a good guy, he can be trusted and wouldn't deliberately put you crook.

cnorman18 · Post by **cnorman18** » Wed Feb 04, 2009 6:04 pm

Welcome to the forum, John. I'm the resident liberal Jew, formerly a Methodist minister.

Learning the original languages is of course the ideal, but mastering Koine Greek and paricularly Biblical Hebrew is realistically the work of decades, not years. I have studied both, and they are even more challenging than they look. I don't know if the increase in understanding would really be worth the effort.

There are other alternatives. Personally, I think the version that one uses is less important than whether or not it is a good study Bible that contains marginal notes, cross-references, alternate readings and commentary. Any major publisher can provide such a Bible - Collins, Zondervan, Cokesbury, InterVarsity - and I particularly recommend the Oxford.

You can get multivolume commentaries on the separate books, too, and general one-volume "Introductions" to both Old and New Testaments. For the Jewish point of view, the Jewish Publication Society's Jewish Study Bible is worth having for reference, too. I would (and have, and do) own several different study Bibles and commentaries and work with all of them.

No matter what version you read - and you should have several - commentary and notes are vitally important. You can find them from both liberal and conservative points of view, and from neutral stances that give both and everything in between. If you're serious about Bible study, you need a bookshelf, not just one book.

Zzyzx · Post by **Zzyzx** » Thu Feb 05, 2009 8:54 pm

.
Hi John,

Welcome to the forum. You are getting advice above from some of the most respected members of the forum. I cannot add anything to what they say.

johnl10 · Post by **johnl10** » Fri Feb 06, 2009 2:13 am

Thank you for all of the above advice. It definitely will help me a lot. I am looking at options for online bibles and even a bible I can download for the iPod touch. Most of them have different versions so I should be able to use that for my bible reading. Thank you again.

Nilloc James · Post by **Nilloc James** » Sat Feb 07, 2009 11:42 pm

And remember, just because a bible looks old does not mean it was acuurately translated. Some of the newer ones are better/ more accurate.

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Which version of the bible should I read?

Which version of the bible should I read?

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