What Bible translation do you use the most, and why? If you are a minister and you use one translation for study and another for public speaking please list them both. I’m just curious to know what others are using.
I primarily use the New American Standard Bible (NASB), but I browse through lots of others when preparing lessons. I’m always on the lookout for something I may like a little better. For now, it is the NASB.
Super G,
Hope you had a great weekend. I’m an NIV man for the most part. I also like the NASV. For daily reading I use the NCV. I like it a lot.
I use the NIV for the most part because I like it and it’s ability to be easy to read. And most of my congregation under the age of 55 use it.
At Crossroads Christian Church here in Lexington, they’ve given everyone a copy of God’s Word translation. Whenever a scripture is read, the book, chapter, and verse are given along with the page number.
Personally, I use the TNIV in my own reading.
Since leaving the pulpit (where the NIV was expected), I’ve been enjoying the NRSV. A few of the introductory comments are on the liberal side, but the translation is music to my ears.
This is a translation comment, not about the various translations versions available but about an interpreting method I’ve discovered that I want to submit for scrutiny.
Here’s a sample of the kind of translation studies I do:
(Genesis) Adam/man (Hebrew-synonyms) = ‘ruddy’, rosy, the flush of red blood
‘man became a ‘living soul’ ‘ (Genesis):
soul (Hebrew & Greek) = animal principle/breathing creature
- does not suggest a ‘human’ being but rather a ‘ruddy’ creature (as coming from the ‘red’ earth -dust/ground-primordial soup)
It very much appears that Adam/man was not initially a ‘human’ being as many believe but rather a ‘ruddy creature of earth’, an animal (which must have been a chimpanzee because of recent human genome DNA mapping).
Religious tendencies are observed strictly in the ‘human’ species. If human beings are in part ‘soul (animal)’ then why aren’t such tendencies evident in other primates? Could it be because we have something the other animals don’t have?
animal = soul
human being = soul + spirit
soul = mortal
spirit = immortal
Prior to being put into the garden, ruddy did not have ’spiritual’ ability, he only gained that in the garden; ‘…and the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had made.’ (Gen. 2:8)
‘One’ primate, ruddy, gained something the other primates (and other animals) didn’t and passed that on.
I have 15 years of research to prove that this anomaly exists but it is so different from what people are used to hearing regardings these writings.