Equip: Choosing a Bible translation

Christianity Today recently chronicled the controversy surrounding The Passion Translation, a single-author rendering of the Bible whose critics claim is riddled with inaccuracies and plagiarism. I will write more about that later.

Here, though, I want to take a more positive approach. It is a wonderful thing people are hungry for God’s word. But in a world where there are literally dozens of English translations of the Bible clamoring for our attention, how should we go about choosing which translation to read?

Demystifying Bible translation

Bible translation is not a mysterious magic act. When done correctly, it is the result of countless hours of hard work by numerous specialists.

Expertise in the source languages—Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic—must be married with expertise in the target language—English, Spanish, and others—to produce a product that communicates the meaning of Scripture intelligibly and accurately to its modern audience.

There is no universally agreed upon way to bring about such a happy marriage. Different theoretical approaches—such as formal equivalence and dynamic equivalence—have been proposed. Translations adopt and adapt these theoretical approaches with varying levels of consistency and sophistication.

The best way to understand what a translation committee was trying to do is to read the introductory material—such as the preface and introduction—provided at the beginning of a particular version. That way, the reader gets a more comprehensive understanding of what he or she should be looking for than by simply comparing translations of familiar or controversial passages.

Selection criteria

But what criteria should one use when selecting a translation to read? Here are a few suggestions I think will help anyone who wants to read the Bible well.

1. Identify the purpose or purposes for which you want to use the selected translation.

Bible translations have different anticipated audiences, strengths, and uses. For example, some emphasize readability, whereas others focus on linguistic or theological precision. As a result, some translations are good for public reading, while others work best for private study. Select the translation that best fits the use or uses you have in mind.

2. Do not restrict yourself to a single translation.

As No. 1 above implies, there is no reason to restrict yourself to a single translation. Even when performing a single task, like intensive Bible study, reading numerous translations is usually helpful. How much more when moving from one task to another.

3. Emphasize translations over paraphrases, and prefer translations produced by a committee over single-author translations.

Paraphrases like The Message and The Living Bible can illuminate your understanding of a particular text, but they should only be used to supplement your translation diet.

Likewise, there is real danger in basing too much of your study on a single-author translation. Even a translation like N.T. Wright’s New Testament for Everyone will have more blind spots than those produced by a committee, and most single-author translations are not produced by scholars as skilled as Wright, a classicist as well as a New Testament scholar.

4. Regardless of whether you are using a paraphrase, a single-author translation, or a translation created by a committee, make sure the authors/translators have the proper skills and training to do Bible translation work.

The internet is a marvelous thing. Information about authors and translators is as close as your fingertips. So, make sure the people working on a translation or paraphrase have the education and experience necessary to do the tasks they have been assigned.

Also, translations produced by a multidenominational committee are less apt to be tainted by denominational bias. So, if you’re Baptist, don’t be put off by the fact some translators are from outside the Baptist family.

Where to begin

You might be asking yourself, “Why can’t I just use the most accurate translation?”

It is a fair question. The problem is if you put a hundred scholars in a room and asked them which translation was the most accurate, you would almost certainly get several different answers.

I suggest you begin your search with some of the most well-regarded translations and then work your way out from there to some of the lesser-known versions.

The New Revised Standard Version is the most widely used translation among mainline Protestants in the United States, and the New International Version is the most widely used translation among American evangelicals.

If you put the English Standard Version, a very popular translation among conservative evangelicals, alongside the NRSV and NIV, you will have a good foundation from which to work.

As you read these and other well-regarded Bible translations, you will learn to recognize the specific voice of each translation. You will also gain a greater appreciation for the difficulty of rendering biblical concepts in a way modern people can understand.

Most importantly, you will develop a more robust awareness of the riches of God’s word. There is so much treasure to be found in this collection of ancient documents, and even 2,000 years of scholarship, experience, and reflection has not exhausted the wisdom or the love Scripture so beautifully describes.

Wade Berry is pastor of Second Baptist Church in Ranger and has been resident fellow in New Testament and Greek at B.H. Carroll Theological Seminary. The views expressed in this opinion article are those of the author.