Bible Translation

Which bible translation is the most reliable?

And are there any bad ones? Like ones that change the whole wording to make it something else? I heard the NIV is wrong, and the KJV is the best, is this true?

By Faith has answered you very well.

I LOVE my KJVAV, but I’m not dogmatic about it. My wife likes her Harper Study Bible that she has had since her college days (it’s kinda worn, but thanks to Ebay, I’ve bought her about 4 more lesser used copies), and my teenaged son prefers his NIV.

There are many people who prefer the KJV over a lot of other translations BECAUSE the KJV was translated using the Byzantine Text known as the Majority Text, modern translations mainly use Eclectic editions that conform more often to the Alexandrian text-type.

I really detest Wikipedia because of its inaccuracies, nevertheless, I think they have the basic facts correct here, and you may find this page interesting about the Byzantine Text: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byzantine_text-type

The NIV and a lot of modern translations were done using Alexandrian Text types: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexandrian_text-type which many scholars feel are not as acccurate as the Byzantine Text.

My totally uneducated opinion is that you need a version that You Are comfortable reading, and AFTER you’ve read it through a few times, you will grow spiritually where you want to study more in depth, and THEN you’ll need a good Hebrew-Greek dictionary such as a Strong’s, a commentary or two, and some manuscript evidence.

Here are a few websites which offer a number of different translations that You Can read for free online:

http://www.e-sword.net/index.html

http://www.blueletterbible.org/

http://www.bible-explorer.com/

http://www.biblekeeper.com/

http://www.biblegateway.com/

http://www.carm.org/

http://www.crosswalk.com/

http://bible.oneplace.com/

http://net.bible.org/bible.php

I use E-Sword, which can be downloaded for free, and then there are a number of different versions which can be added on, if you wish….Som of them have a nominal cost due to copyright laws…I currently have I think about 41 biblical versions on my laptop…Including several versions from both the Byzantine and Alexandrian Texts.

I’m NEVER on Yahoo without my E-sword open in another window…It also has word AND phrase search capabilities, so I can search 41 bible versions in about the same amount of time you can type G-O-O-G-L-E.

In Christ,
John the Baptist

Are Modern Bible Translations Trustworthy? Part 1