Bible Translations

[sucramdw]

Hey guys, I just sent an email off to some friends about some information I have learned in one of my classes, so I thought I would share.

<u>Bible Translations</u>

I keep hearing that if you are to have 1 bible, that the NASB study bible or just NASB would be best! For figuring out the difference between Bible translations you need to rate them on a scale of formal equivalence to functional equivalence.

The Major goal of Bible study should be to figure out the authors intended meaning and of course connect with God on a personal level while you read.

Formal equivalence tries to interpret the scripture more word for word from the greek and hebrew (source language), so it will be a more literal translation. The downside is that you might be confused on the meaning of the text because it loses some of the natural expression through the target language (english). The most common Formal equivalence Bibles are: KJV, NASB, and ESV.

Functional equivalence is less and less of a translation and more of an interpretation (thought for thought). The goal is to find the meaning and express that meaning best in our language and idioms while still trying to keep a similar sentence structure . The downside is that we may not know the meaning of the author for sure, so when reading a functional bible such as the NLT, we may totally miss out on the actual translation of a certain word, therefore the meaning expressed may be totally wrong. A functional bible is really a translation + commentary.

Paraphrase Bible completely disregards sentence structure and the original form of the source language. Instead the authors change the readability of the text to match our culture and express the meaning as best they can. It is much more readable but much less accurate! I would also compare this to an amplified bible, because when the author puts a synonym of the word in parentheses it is implied that the meaning of each of those words is also correct which is false. Here is an example.

John 3:16

NIV - For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

Amplified - For God so greatly loved and dearly prized the world that He [even] gave up His only-begotten (unique) Son, so that whoever believes in (trusts, clings to, relies on) Him shall not perish -- come to destruction, be lost - but have eternal (everlasting) life.

Clinging, trusting, or even relying on Jesus would probably give a different meaning then believing that Jesus is God's only son.


I think the reason the NIV is so popular is because it is a middle ground between formal and functional, so the spectrum would look something like this from most formal to most functional:

Formal Equivalent:
NASB,ESV,KJV,NKJV,NRSV

Functional Equivalent:
NIV,TNIV,NCV,NLT,CEV,GNB

Paraphrase:
TLB,TM,TSB

Most online sources put NASB at the far left however Mark Strauss puts the NASB right after NKJV and he puts the ASV (American Standard Version) as the most Formal. So this isn't an exact table, just roughly where each would be. It is more important to just note which Bible is formal and which is a functional equivalent translation. The NIV would be a mediating middle between formal and functional but leaning more towards functional.

Key of Abbreviations:
NASB—New American Standard Bible
ESV—English Standard Version
NKJV—New King James Version
KJV—King James Version
NRSV—New Revised Standard Version
NIV—New International Version
TNIV—Today’s New International Version
NCV - New Century Version
NLT—New Living Translation
CEV—Contemporary English Version
GNB—Good News Bible
TLB—The Living Bible
TM—The Message
TSB—The Street Bible


If you believe that the Bible is God's inspired word, as the Bible itself says (2 timothy 3:16), then you should probably try to read as close as you can to what the exact words were. If your primary Bible is a functional Bible then you are less likely to even be reading God's inspired word, but instead what someone else thinks his inspired words mean within a sentence (syntax). For me, I think I would rather do Bible study with the most formal(word for word), and use a functional translation as a help Bible. I personally think the NIV is still a great primary bible because it is a mediating middle, however even with this one you would probably want to still reference with a more Formal equivalent translation.

[ma5heen]

Great post Marcus. [img]/forum/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

I have a GNB [img]/forum/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

I need a more formal bible it seems...

EDIT: I found my dad's 'Holy Bible' printed in Cambridge with a letter to Prince James in the front. It seems to be formal, although old (my dad got it when he was a kid). I'm not sure of its exact type or year of publication. NKJV would be my guess.

[sucramdw]

NKJV is an awesome Bible! There are a lot of awesome Bibles out there though. The GNB is alright to use, I was just warning about using it as a primary Bible.

I just bought Today's Parallel Bible - http://www.amazon.com/Todays-Parallel-Bi...9903&amp;sr=8-1

I also bought an NASB study Bible.

When I go to school or church, I take my smaller NIV and NLT Bibles.

Bible study is so much fun man, let me know if get another Bible.

[MorThanAConqeror]

Sucramdw, What type of bible do you read?

[sucramdw]

[ QUOTE ]
Sucramdw, What type of bible do you read?

[/ QUOTE ]

Well I just posted the Bibles I read in the above post actually.

*KJV
*NASB study Bible
*NIV
*NLT

[MorThanAConqeror]

My bad, didn't catch it

[sucramdw]

[ QUOTE ]
My bad, didn't catch it

[/ QUOTE ]
No worries brother!

What kind of Bible do you read?

[ma5heen]

Wow that's a lot of Bibles!

Do you find they compliment each other? Like, is there any value in a NIV AND a NLT, since they are both functional equivalents?

I would love to go hunting for a study Bible. Or a book I can read in conjunction with the Bible to enrich my learning.

[MorThanAConqeror]

Well my school requires Niv, but I prefer Nkjv, but I may start trying the kjv.

[sucramdw]

[ QUOTE ]
Wow that's a lot of Bibles!

Do you find they compliment each other? Like, is there any value in a NIV AND a NLT, since they are both functional equivalents?

I would love to go hunting for a study Bible. Or a book I can read in conjunction with the Bible to enrich my learning.

[/ QUOTE ]

Well one good method for Bible Study is simply to read the scriptures over and over. So to make this experience even more effective, you can re-read the scriptures in different ways, such as: Out loud, listening to scripture on tape, reading different translations, etc.

So my point is that when I read a scripture in the NIV, and then maybe just read that chapter over again in the NLT, God may hit me with the meaning of the verse based on just changing the mental processing of the scripture a tad. However I get your point with, "why read two functional Bible's?" So I think this point/question is valid, and yes it would be more effective to supplement a formal equivalent Bible with a functional one, however if you already have two functional Bibles then why not just read them both.


If you want a study Bible, I really recommend both the NASB and NIV study Bibles, and of course you could even go with newer TNIV study Bible with is supposed to be more exegetical. Check out this video on the TNIV, which actually is a good video to just learn about Bible translation as well!! - TNIV Video


Here are two good Books to read along with your Bible!!

* Reading the Bible for All its Worth

* Living By the Book