Tuesday, February 21, 2006

Bible translations

My favorites are:

#1) RSV - Revised Standard Version (1972 edition)
#2) ESV - English Standard Version (sometimes my #1...sometimes a bit too "wooden" for me)
#3) HCSB - Holman Christian Standard Bible (surprisingly good)
#4) NRSV - New Revised Standard Version (the academic Bible of choice today...sometimes just a bit overboard in the inclusive language department, obscuring the" poetic flow")
#5) NKJV - New King James Version (enough like the KJV to sound "Biblical", modern enough to be readable)
#6) NIV - New International Version (just a bit too paraphrastic for me in places)
#7) TNIV - Today's New International Version (in spite of all the fuss, it's fine)
#8) KJV - (beautiful, but written in essentially a foreign language)

My favorite Study Bibles are:

#1) Reflecting God Study Bible - NIV (a Wesleyan revision of the NIV Study Bible)
#2) Wesley Bible - NKJV (from a Holiness perspective...out of print & hard to find)
#3) Renovare Spiritual Formation Bible - NRSV
#4) Oxford Annotated Bible - RSV or NRSV (I prefer the first two editions to the third)
#5) New Interpreter's Study Bible - NRSV
#6) Spiritual Formation Bible - NRSV or NIV
#7) NIV Study Bible - NIV
#8) Life Application Study Bible - NIV or NLT or NASB or KJV

2 comments:

Prettybird said...

Wasn't this countdown on Letterman last week?

Unknown said...

Hi Keith, I just finished my 3 blog series on Why the Message is not a Transltion. I know you had some comments on my first post that you would hold off most comment until the series was done, so here is the final blog in the series. I hope I was able to effectively answer your original questions. I look forward to reading your thoughts.

PS
I like the translations you posted, with the exception that I do not use the ASV.. no problems with it, I just have not used it much.