Differences Between Bible Versions

DIFFERENCES BETWEEN BIBLE VERSIONS

First a disclaimer. I truly believe that reading any Bible translation is better than reading none at all.

That being said, however, there are some translations more worthy than others, more accurate, closer to the originals. I’ve also found the more you delve into the Bible, the more you tend to want to use the most accurate version you can get.

I’ve been researching this topic for 3 years now. I’ve tried pretty much every major version out there including the KJV, NKJV, NASB, ESV, NIV, TNIV, NLT, HCSB, God’s Word, Message, Amplified, and most recently the KJer (more on this latest discovery below). I go through a cycle with every new translation I try. First comes the true love phase. Usually after a while I find a passage whose translation I liked better in a previous version and I end up going back to that version until something else comes along. Talk about fickle!

Truth is, every translation has advantages and drawbacks, both serious and merely esthetic.

My translation of the moment is one I recently stumbled across while reading DIFFERENCES BETWEEN BIBLE VERSIONS by Greg Zeolla. Zeolla not only convinced me that the most literal translation is the best, he also explained how the manuscript text used for that translation makes a stunning amount of difference. In case you didn’t know, the KJV and NKJV versions of the Bible use the Textus Receptus while all the more modern versions use the Critical Text which according to Zeolla and other scholars seems to have been tampered with by the early gnostics. Zeolla figures if God put a word in there, it should be translated and not just the gist of the thought behind it which is what the NIV and NLT versions do.

Anyway, my new Bible love, the KJer is the venerable King James Version with a difference. For starters, every thee, thou, ye, thy, and all the rest of the archaic second person pronouns have been changed to their modern equivalents (you, your, etc.). If the original ‘you’ was a plural pronoun meant to indicate a group of people, there’s a small p next to the word for plural.

Also the old style verb endings est and eth have been removed (doth, seemeth, commandest, etc). But it’s exactly the same KJV in every other way including the order of the words. I was never a big KJV fan -- it always felt like a struggle to get through it. The amazing thing is how easy it is to understand with these few simple changes.

Another cool feature -- archaic words are underlined and there’s a definition provided at the end of the verse in which they’re located. Any confusion is instantly put to rest and I can relax knowing ‘herein’ means ‘on this condition’, ‘ephod’ is a priestly garment, ‘is privy to’ means ‘knows’ and a ‘charger’ is a platter (on which John the Baptist’s head was presented).

Another cool feature is this version shows which Hebrew term is actually being translated for God or Lord also located at the end of each verse (such as Elohim, Jehovah, Adonai, etc.) And here’s something I’ve never seen before -- BOTH the words of God in the Old Testament and the words of Jesus in the New are in red.

Will this be my final version of choice? My heart says yes, but the voice of experience tells me it’s highly unlikely. The Bible says that in the latter days knowledge (of the Bible and its translations as well as everything else) will increase. Well, it’s done so exponentially and I wouldn’t have it any other way.