Secular Pinoy

Which version of the bible has the best translation from the earliest and most reliable texts? I currently have the KJV, The Good News Bible, NIV and Catholic New American Bible. I hear that the RSV is the one favored by certain scholars, though not all. And what's the difference between the NRSV from the RSV? NKJV and KJV?

And one website recommended an NT-only version by Richard Lattimore. Is it any good?

Kama

Any bible with honest commentary and OT apocryphon. Also dont forget to read the NT apocryphon here
http://gnosis.org/
and
The works of the early fathers vs arianism vs Godzilla etc
http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/

not a theist

NRSV uses more gender-neutral language than the RSV. I like the RSV better.

NKJV modernizes the English of the KJV but still uses the same poor manuscripts for translation that the KJV used.

Secular Pinoy

Which bible with "honest commentary" would you recommend? The only bible I have with commentary is the NIV (my copy is a Student Study NIV, gift from my sunday-school tutor,with dedication and a prayer written in the first page, back in my churchin' days) with Evangelical Christian commentary. It has nice color maps and a few explanations about biblical terms. All my other bibles have concordances and simple "reflections" at the back. BTW, I personally disliked the Skeptic's Annotated Bible (using the KJV). It's lacking of real substance for understanding the bible. It just highlights bible difficulties.

So the translation isn't really that important? I read Asimov's Guide to the Bible and he seems to be wary of some of the KJV's translations. So I would prefer a more accurate version.

CX

No single bible version is "the best" or the "most reliable". You have to compare different versions to arrive at a reasonable conclusion. Even then you are limited if you are working strictly from the English translations. The ability to consult a critical Greek text like NA27/UBS4 is very helpful. Ultimately, in addition to NA27, I use NKJV, RSV, NIV and NASB in combination (Though I rely mostly on RSV) as well as a Greek Interlinear, a couple lexicons (one NT one straight Greek) and a concordance. It would be really nice if someone did a scholarly English translation, but as my Greek professor told me "scholars don't read English translations primarily and the rank & file 'pewwarmer' isn't interested so who would you sell it to?"

-DM-

In terms of the question asked by Secular Pinoy . . .

If I had to pick one and only one version to use exclusively, I would go with "The New Oxford Annotated Bible with Apocrypha," which is essentially the NRSV with scholarly notes.

If I had to pick a few of the "worst" versions to cull from my collection of two dozen different versions, I would dispense with the NKJV, NIV, and TLB.

-Don-

CX

Ah, but, those are THE preferred translations of most evangelicals and fundamentalists. You have to have them in order to compare the differences with more accurate translations.

Amos

The NAB is by far the most poetic and therefore the least misleading.

Butters

Of course, if you only want to look up quotes, it's great to go to an on line bible, and get a quick look at several different versions, alot quicker than searching several different books.

spurly

In my humble opinion, the best English translation is The New American Standard.

Beware of The Message and The Living Bible and other paraphrases. They come with too much of the paraphrasers own leanings.

Kevin