5 Bible Translations I Use 

I grew up in the Methodist church using the KJV for many years. Now I prefer the NIV and will take my Bible to church and follow along with the Bible verses that are read from the pulpit which are very similar to my version but a bit different too. I’m not sure which version is being used in my church. There are certain verses that I still prefer from the KJV such as Psalm 23 and John 3:16.

"Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth." SAINT JOHN 17:17.

I've found myself looking more and more at the NRSV myself. I've got all the translations but this one has intrigued me lately too just because it doesn't get all the attention the others do. I find it reads smoothly and easy to comprehend. I remember I grew up Methodist and our church always used the NRSV.

Nice discussion of the five Bibles. I agree with your assessment of both the REB and the NRSV. If you appreciate ecumenical Bibles you might check out the JPS Bible (Hebrew Bible only, of course) and the NABRE (New American Bible Revised Edition). The JPS and the NABRE often deal with "problem" passages differently than the NRSV or NRSVUE resolve them, but both are every bit as ecumenical as the NRSV. A good reading Bible, I find, is the Jerusalem Bible. I read the original 1966 version in French, but the English translation is almost as good. If you like the NABRE, you might consider the Catholic Study Bible (NABRE), which has plentiful notes and cross-references and also 400+ pages of commentary ("Reading Guide"), which I find very useful. There's hardly anything in the NABRE that is uniquely Catholic, even in the notes and commentary. It's just a solid academic Bible. If you speak French, the best ecumenical Bible by far is the Traduction Oecumenique de la Bible (TOB), a kind of scholarly, ecumenical revision of La Bible de Jerusalem. My favorite Spanish language Bible is the Biblia Latinoamerica (NOT La Biblia Latinoamericana, which is La Biblia de Jerusalen), which is very easy to read but decidedly Roman Catholic in flavor. A solid Bible with a wide range of mostly conservative notes is the NET Bible. The NET isn't really for reading, but is an excellent resource for broadly conservative commentary. I find myself using it more than the ESV Study Bible. PM 2024

I just found your channel I love it ! I love to read old Bibles

I enjoyed this video. I don't own many Bibles; the ones I use most are (1) RSV (2) GNT (3) NEB (4) KJV (5) Revised Berkeley Version (the last two I have in New Testament form only). I contemplated advancing to a "current" version from the RSV; while the NRSV or ESV would be the obvious choices, for various reasons I am somewhat distrustful of both. So I continue along with the RSV. Some good news; Thomas Nelson is coming out with a new printing of the RSV in August.

I just found your channel. Thank you for this great video on your Bible translation hunt. I'm always hunting Bibles in thrift stores, and have several of those you mentioned, most of which were a dollar or two. Awesome info!

Always enjoy your videos! I have a fondness for the NEB/REB translations. They're quirky and kind of sadly forgotten about. I prefer the RSV to either the NRSV or the ESV, probably just because I'm so used to the RSV2CE at this point. Anything else sounds off. Very subjective, I know, but that's how it goes.

Those are beautiful Bibles! I love that REB! Nice cover!

My preference tends to shift. I even use Catholic bibles for the apocrypha (studying Frye's The Great Code)

Have you ever seen the Mark Ward videos? He has a lot of information on the KJV compared to the other more modern versions. 😊

More thoughts... I like how you think in terms of using positives and negatives about each translation to deepen your understanding. I found the same to be true for myself. I grew up in a church that was King James only, but into my young adulthood I came to terms with how the KJV verbiage was tricky and difficult for my understanding. So in my 20s, alongside the KJV I read the paraphrased New Living Translation for better understanding. Then I bought the NIV and NKJV and liked them too, but NLT has a very good way of explaining scriptures in Thought-For-Thought modern English. My more recent Bible versions have been mostly thrifted copies because I wanted to see them for myself instead of just reading about them online. Once I read through some of them I bought a few of them new after I researched those translations more thoroughly. I currently have and regularly read these Bibles: -The NIV (Classic and current editions; liked for readability, comparable to NLT which is in plain English, however I like that NIV is not a paraphrased translation like NLT is) -NLT updated girl's Study Bible (new but damaged cover, cheap; paraphrased version that's easy to read in plain English) -The HCSB (former pew Bible, thrifted for $1; I like HCSB very much and this was my first experience with this translation since when I bought it about 4 months ago; it is tied with AMP updated edition as my #2 top favorite Bible translations) -The CSB 2020 (not really an improvement over the HCSB, imho, but a solid Word for Word translation) -The NRSV (w/o Apocrypha; former pew Bible, thrifted for 50 cents; I like it for the newness of translations to me; my first exposure to it, but I'm kind of undecided if I like it well enough to read it regularly, since I have researched it further and found out more about its origins) -AMP Study Bible (current version; had the original AMP-Classic years ago, and this current edition is a great improvement; I like how AMP expounds the language meanings within the verses; tied with HCSB and CSB for #2 favorite translations) -NKJV updated (giant print lap Bible; bought new for taking to church because our pastor preaches from KJV; not super literal but moreso than KJV) -And my latest Bible was a splurge for myself, the NASB Study Bible (1995 version; I researched and found out this translation is more literal than KJV or CSB; my number one favorite translation, hands down). Blessings to you in your journeys

I like your picks, sir! Although, I have not yet read the CSB or the NLT, which is a quite popular translation. Of course, we are big NRSV fans at this house. Zohara prefers it (her translation of choice), so we use it for homeschool. Our church (English district Lutheran) also uses the NRSV. It’s not my top favorite, but one that I will use consistently forever. Like Mrs. TSB, I am a NKJV lover. But, I do like to use the NEB along side it for comparison. In fact, the NEB has become a favorite for my inter-denominational home Bible study group: everyone always wants me to check it and read aloud verses for comparison.

My wife and I read together daily. We recently got into the habit of reading the same 1-3 chapters for a week, each day in a different translation. We typically use NIV, ESV, NASB, KJV, NET, Jerusalem, and New Testament for Everyone. We check the original languages (or for MS variants) when we see major discrepancies.

Thanks for sharing, are there any RU-vidrs you follow for Bible study? Looking for suggestions.

I have some overlap with you: 1. NRSV. I see it as the most official and authoritative modern translation in the Tyndale-Coverdale lineage, and while there are things I would prefer to be done differently, I appreciate that it makes a serious effort to say up-to-date both with scholarship and with English usage. That being said, if I want a somewhat more traditional take on certain passages, there's always the . . . 2. ESV. I find it a bit strange that someone could love one of these RSV updates and hate the other. Most of the time, they're the exact same text! The nice thing about using them together is that they rein each other in. When one goes too far, the other one gets it right. And while the ESV is a tad more difficult to read, it is at times more beautiful, especially when it echoes the . . . 3. KJV. Admittedly, I am sometimes hard on this venerable version simply because its fan club overstates the case and treats the thing as if it's completely comprehensible and infallible in its interpretations. But there's no getting around it: this is *the* English Bible, to the degree that one can say that there is one. My top two picks are its greatest descendants, even if they lack that special bit of British literary magic that can be found in its spiritual successor, the . . . 4. REB. Out of all the so-called functional or dynamic translations, this one is my favorite by far. (Honorable mention goes to the Good News Bible, which I prefer over the New Living Translation for a borderline-paraphrase translation.) Translated in some of the same locations as the KJV and building off the cutting-edge scholarship of the NEB while rolling back some of its excesses, the REB stands out for doing loose translation right: using it to provide the most euphonic English prose rather than simply flattening out the text as the NIV does. But if I want a version that really captures what the NIV should have been, I'll actually look to something more current, the . . . 5. CSB. If someone asks me to recommend a translation to them, this is my go-to. While I obviously prefer a translation written in a higher register, and while I tend to like more formally equivalent options (even the sometimes inelegant NASB, which deserves an honorable mention for being the second translation I ever used, following the KJV), I must praise the CSB for being exactly as literal as needed for most occasions. It manages to be far less interpretive than others within its general range, but it knows when to keep and idiom and when to drop it. In addition to the two I mentioned already, I'll also give honorable mentions to the NKJV (which I could live with if I had no other options in the Tyndale-KJV family), Jerusalem Bible (another nice-sounding British translation, though not quite on the REB's level), CEB (which is often quite good in Paul's letters, though it leaves much to be desired at other times), NABRE (which, despite not always being the most pleasant to read, has a standard set of notes that are pretty decent, if not conservative), and NET (another translation where the notes are the star).

14:55 NRSV?! Are you wearing Birkenstocks right now? Why don't you sew some leather elbow patches on your corduroy jacket? Why don't you eat some granola? I liked this, brother. There's more than one translation in this list that i have on my shelf, but which i haven't given a fair shake. I should rectify that. I may have to make a response with my own list. It's challenging to pick a favorite five.

Last year I read the ESV from Genesis through Revelation. I really don't like that translation. My favorite bibles are the KJV, NKJV, CSB, and the 1977 version of the NASB. I've read the 1995 version, but didn't greatly like it. This is the first time you've appeared in my stream. Looking forward to seeing more of your videos!

Hay your qualifications are your a Bible loving Christian,!🙃

I found the CSB a pleasantly surprising translation having grown up on the pre-2011 NIV and not finding the modern NIV comfortable given my experiences. It's also a really easy recommendation because it has a lot of good budget-friendly configurations. I give away Everyday Study Bibles every once in a while (they're a lot better than any equivalent in the portable study Bible space, and a tad cheaper too). I've never really understood the hate for the NRSV. The NRSVue has some concerns, but the old NRSV is good. I don't care for it myself, but I just don't think it reads well. One thing that I have definitely noticed is that low-end NRSVs are much more expensive than any other translation.

One thing to note about the NLT is that it has Kenneth Taylor's Living Bible, a paraphrase, as part of its heritage. I'm not saying that the Living Bible is necessarily bad, there are worse paraphrases out there. There are, however, some turns of phrase in early copies of the NLT that might be of concern to some, e.g. Genesis 3:4 has '"You won't die!" the serpent hissed.'

I donlike and enjoy reading the REB. But i agree with you, it does exert too many liberties on many occasions. However the psalms and poetry are beautiful to read. Its a translation where i enjoyed singing the Psalms in. The CSB is definitely in my top 5 though, along with the NET, and NKJV.

@7:41 that is not an original 1611 KJV it has been updated to 1900s. The original is much thicker and has the Apocrypha and charts and art.

The Penguin paragraph Bible you mentioned is good value in the U.S., but here in the U.K. is more expensive than the Cambridge hardback edition. I'm not sure if Penguin is an American company, that could be why.

I'm a bit of an oddball. I go with - KJV, NASB95, Challoner, RSV and... NBLA?! (I sometimes want to force myself out of my comfort zone and read the Bible in Spanish instead of English.)

But you're really going to have a mysterious 3.5" disc there in center frame, and not even mention it? Cryptic.

If, "every one" approves, is that the wide or narrow path? If a Bible is copyright, is it God's Word? Do you believe as we get closer to end times, are people going to trust seminary academics more than taking the effort to understand a more accurate version of the Bible while powered by the Holy Spirit? Is the easier Bible also part of the easier wider path

The Bible is a Catholic book ❤️