-Jay-

Folks -

As part of an ongoing side project of mine, I need to get my hands on the most accurate modern translation of the Bible, and I would like the opinions of the IIDB community on what that might be. (I currently refer to the Oxford NRSV, with Apocrypha, and the corresponding Oxford Commentary for the most part. Those, IMO, are good resources, but my gut tells me there are better ones.)

"Most accurate" in this sense means "that which best translates the languages of the source material into modern English." In other words, I'm not particularly interested in versions which attempt to reframe the words of the Bible into a modern context - if the original specified "men", I want to seen "men" in the translation, not "men and women" or "people" or "mandkind".

Some considerations:

1) Separate translations of the Hebrew Scriptures and the New Testament are OK - I'm not hung up on having everything in one volume. Accuracy of translation is more important than saving shelf space.

2) I would like the translations to be in parallel with the original written languages, if possible. My Hebrew and Greek are essentially non-existant, but I'd like to learn to recognize at least some key terms.

3) A translation of the NT that is also in parallel with the KJV would be useful and convenient, but isn't essential.

4) In-volume commentary isn't a discriminator.

5) The NT should contain the Catholic Apocrypha, but I'd be willing to give that up in deference to a better translation. The overall goal of this little excursion involves comparing the KJV, as it is used in modern nondenominational churches to the other translations, so the apocryphal books aren't absolutely essential.

Thanks in advance for your thoughts and comments.

regards,

NinJay

Malachi151

Regardless of what you get, I recommend that you also refer to the New English Translation of the Septuagint for "Old Testament" scritpures:

http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/nets/edition/

Loomis

There are no good bible translations. And if you want to understand the New Testament then that means you will want to understand the Septuagint even though it is not necessarily a good bible translation. That’s because the story of Jesus was written around the Septuagint – and not the earlier Hebrew.

With that said …

Here’s an online interlinear translation of the Old Testament:

http://www.scripture4all.org/OnlineI...brew_Index.htm

And here’s the New Testament:

http://www.scripture4all.org/OnlineI...reek_Index.htm

Note that these are PDFs, and the text on the right is the King James translation – so just ignore it.

Also fwiw …

I think the NetBible™ is a good general-purpose starting point:

http://www.bible.org/netbible/

The footnotes for the Old Testament can be useful sometimes, whereas the footnotes for the New Testament tend to be complete spiritual bullshit.

Btw, I’ve got 46 bookmarks in my “C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Favorites\On-Line Bibles” folder.

DCHindley

Depends whether you want a literal translation, a dynamic equivalent translation, or a paraphrase.

Literal (attempts to keep the exact words and phrases of the original. It is faithful to the original text, but sometimes hard to understand):

Word for Word King James (KJV)
New King James (NKJV)
English Standard (ESV)
New American Standard NASB)

Dynamic Equivalent (attempts to keep a constant historical distance with regard to history and facts, but updates the writing style and grammar):

Revised Standard (RSV)
New Revised Standard (NRSV)
Updated NASB
Amplified Bible
New American Bible
New International (NIV)
New English Bible

Free translation/paraphrase (translates the ideas from the original text but without being constrained by the original words or language. Seeks to eliminate historical distance. Readable, but not always exact because interpretation depends upon the translators):

Thought for Thought Good News Bible
Phillips Modern English
Living Bible (LB)
New Living Bible (NLT)
Jerusalem Bible
Modern Language
Contemporary English (CEV, "The Promise")
Today's English
Worldwide English
"The Message"

Source: http://www.swapmeetdave.com/Bible/BibleType.htm

I think you can get parallel translations with 2 to 8 translations side by side, if you look hard enough, but I have never owned (or remember even seeing) one.

I personally like Literal translations that preserve the original wording and phrases. Others like DE because they are better for worship and devotional study. I used to like Paraphrases, but that was when I was still a new Christian (many many years ago).

DCH

Loomis

Most of those translations are based on the Masoretic Text.

Right?

They tend to ignore information that is available from the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Septuagint.

Right?

Most of them substitute “the LORD” for Yahweh.

Right?

Most of them substitute “God” for El and Elohim.

Right?

Some of them substitute “angel” for messenger.

Right?

Some of them substitute “angel” for gods.

Right?

Xianthe

I don't have anything to contribute to this discussion other than my appreciation for the references. I've bookmarked this thread and its a definite keeper.

mountainman

In the anticipation of your research finally taking the turn
towards the field of ancient history, you may want to take
the time to review the three most ancient greek codices of
the bible in existence on the planet: the Vaticanus, the
Alexandrinus and the Sainaticus.

These are variously dated to (at the earliest) the late
fourth century. Scholarship is split on the issue as to
whether one of these is one of, or is in fact a (very
bad) copy of one of the original Constantine Bibles,
published sometime around the year 331 CE.


Best wishes,


Pete Brown

-Jay-

Many thanks to those who have responded thus far.

This looks to be an excellent reference. It is now bookmarked.

Loomis - you (and Malachi151 right above you) make a very valid point for the importance of the Septuagint. My omission from my original post was an oversight on my part - the Septuagint has a role in my project, or more specifically the differences between the Hebrew and the LXX.

As an aside, I'd be very interested in seeing those 46 bookmarks...

Literal is what I'm mainly looking for. I personally don't have much use for the free translation/paraphrase works - I'm familiar with a couple of them - "The Message", mainly, and I find that they tend to make an already tedious interpretive process worse.

Thanks, Pete. These may have a place in a later stage. At this point, I've got to try to keep myself on a narrow focus (else I'll spin off on half a dozen tangents - I tend to do that).

Again, thanks to all. I appreciate the input a great deal.

regards,

NinJay

hatsoff

I like the NET Bible for its extensive textual notes, and the KJV or NKJV for ordinary reading. For understanding the original Greek/Hebrew/Aramaic the parallel KJV at searchgodsword.org is very helpful. As others have pointed out, it would be a good idea to have a translation of the LXX handy, too, but I wouldn't know which to suggest.

GakuseiDon

There's also the Aussie Bible, written in modern Aussie Lingo for some of you no-good no-God drongos:
http://www.theaussiebible.com.au

Luke 3:1 This brings us to some 15 years after Tiberius Caesar took over running the whole Roman Mob. A bloke named Pontius Pilate had the franchise for Judea, while Herod ran Galilee shire, his brother Phil ran the Iturea and Trachonitis branch, and Lysanias controlled Abilene. Two blokes named Annas and Caiaphas ran things at the Temple.

God gave the whisper to John (the son of Zeck) in his desert humpy. So John went all over the Jordan water catchment area calling on everyone to turn back to God to get their slate wiped clean. This is what old Isaiah said yonks ago: 'a voice, shouting from the bush, 'Prepare a track for the Lord to travel on. Widen the track, spread out the gravel, cut down the bumps, fill up the dips, straighten the curves, smooth out the ruts'and everyone'll see the arrival of God's Rescue Mission to Planet Earth.'

Also:

Luke 1:26 When Libby was six months gone, God sent the same angel 'this Gabriel bloke' to a backblocks town called Nazareth, in the Galilee shire, to a nice young girl who was engaged to the local carpenter, Joe Davidson. Her name was Mary.

The angel said to her, 'G'day Mary. You are a pretty special sheila. God has his eye on you.'

Mary went weak at the knees, and wondered what was going on.

But the angel said to her, 'Don't panic, don't chuck a wobbly. God thinks you're okay. You're about to become pregnant, and you'll have a son, and you're to call him Jesus. He will be a very big wheel, and will be called the Son of God Most High. God will give him the throne of his father, your ancestor, King David, and he will be in charge of the whole show forever.'

'But how'? said Mary. 'Joe and I have done the right thing, we've never' well, you know. I mean to say, I'm still a virgin.'

The angel answered, 'Leave the mechanics up to God.'