What's your favorite Bible translation, and why?

[Blue Moon]

I actually have three - ESV, NKJV, and NASB (95). However, my regular go-to translation is the ESV. I use the NKJV in church, because that's what my pastor uses. I used the NASB for years, and I just can't let it go.   These are my favorites because I prefer the more literal translations. My personal opinion is that the more you move toward dynamic equivalence, the more subjective the translation becomes regarding interpretation. And I just place more confidence in the word-for-word translation.

[MorningGlory]

 KJV for me; I guess because it's what I grew up with.   The modern translations just don't do it for me. 

[Fez]

I actually have three - ESV, NKJV, and NASB (95). However, my regular go-to translation is the ESV. I use the NKJV in church, because that's what my pastor uses. I used the NASB for years, and I just can't let it go.   These are my favorites because I prefer the more literal translations. My personal opinion is that the more you move toward dynamic equivalence, the more subjective the translation becomes regarding interpretation. And I just place more confidence in the word-for-word translation.

I like the ESV myself, and use it most often.

[Willa]

I agree, Blue Moon. But I am content with NKJV and use Amplified, Wuest's Expanded Translation, ALT3, and NASV as references. I haven't done much with ESV. But I would rather refer to Young's literal translation than KJV.

Wuest, and to some extent ALT3, try to translate Greek verb tenses that do not fully translate directly into English because we have nothing comparable. The latter is based on the Greek Byzantine text as was Textus Receptus. Wuest does not leave out verses, but is based on the ASV before the texts were corrupted by the gnostic influenced Alexandrianus found in Alexandria Egypt (and is called the "oldest and best" by modern scholars). Amp. was the first New Testament I ever read and I still love it. It also does not leave out verses. It's translations are footnoted as from Tyndale, Wycliffe, Vincent's Word Studies, etc. It and ALT3 plainly shows which words are added by translators and which were part of the literal text.

WUEST: 1 John 1:10 ET If we say that we have not sinned and are now in a state where we do not sin, a liar we are making Him, and His word is not in us.---- This shows how well Wuest's ET (expanded translation) handles verb tenses.

This is not meant to bash other transations as much to show why I prefer these. Since you asked.

[missmuffet]

I prefer the NKJV.I am still getting the accuracy,purity of KJV without the Archaic language in the KJV which I do not like.It is also very literal.

[Riverwalker]

New King James has always been my bible, for 30+ years.....its what I am used to,

 

I like the NASB also

 

and the Amplified for study aid

[Keith]

I enjoy the NKJV and ESV the most.  Online I use the Blue Letter Bible website.

[The_Patriot21]

I like the literal translations best, the KJV and the NASB though I've taken a liking to the ESV as of late.

[Keith]

Yup, I should have included the NASB, too. 

 

Personally, I believe that if a person is sincerely seeking God and wanting to learn the Word, that the Holy Spirit is perfectly able to protect and guide them in the truth, no matter which version they use.  I'm not saying that all versions are right and good to use, just that the Holy Spirit is able to expose error and bad translations to a person and cause them to leave it.  He did it with me.

 

I like to remind the version/translation obsessed that all of them are translations and prone to errors.  Even the KJV.  (The "V" stands for "version" not "original.")  The only perfect, infallible, inspired scriptures are the original texts in their original languages.  But, if God was able to protect His words through 1,500+ years and bring it together as one, then He is able to protect us from modern translation errors as we seek and abide in Him.

[B3L13v3R]

KJV my favorite.

 

I came to Christ after reading “The Book” paraphrase Bible from cover to cover. Quickly found it to be very weak in many ways with anything of depth.

 

I went on to purchase other Bibles, and and a Parallel Bible with four Bibles that it contained.

Laying them across the table made it easy to do side by side comparisons. All of them contained a salvation message in Christ, but when it came to anything of depth, this KJV kept coming up with the depth I was searching for.

 

Similar to Butero a bit, in my past, in 1986 I bought a“NIV Study Bible” 1977 edition to add to what I had. Although I knew my Salvation to be fast in Jesus Christ, because of this NIV study Bible, my faith in God's Word was nearly destroyed with their constant grinding of “in the most reliable text, these verses are not found...” I would often close it in sorrow not knowing what to believe. With it's multiple missing verses, (at least 30 verses are missing, completely gone!) footnotes that cast deep doubt on the validity of God's Word, half of many other verses missing, two distinct black lines at Mark 16:8 and John 7:52 casting doubt on many verses following, I could go on...

This being my first “study Bible” I had hoped it would aide me in growing. It did not.

 

Later I would find many other versions did the similar things, but initially were not so obvious as they were not in study Bible form.

 

Went on to learn that same year of the Textus Receptus, verses the Alexandrian,Septuagint, LXX, etc... Most Bibles rely on on either the Textus Receptus, or the others mentioned.

A few that used the Textus Receptus were;  Luther's German Bible, Bishops, Geneva,  Tyndale, and the KJV.

 

The many other less reliable ones used the Alexandrian texts and others.

 

The most unusual one I own is the NKJV, it's the only one that I have that uses text from both sides, Textus Receptus and the other Alexandrian manuscripts.

 

In keeping up with some of the “newer versions” the worst one thus far that I have come across is the messy “Message.” Not recommended, ever. And yet many “preach” from it in our area.

 

A computer Bible program makes comparisons much easier now. (Although they with some frequency have minor typos.)