What bible translation should you read as a Christian?

Michael S Jennings · 2025-06-11T00:00:40+00:00

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I'm wanting to know what each of yours top five Bible translations bar and the reasoning behind each. The reasoning I'm asking this I'm getting ready to make a posting with the video about which ones are the best Bible translation and which ones are the worst. So, if you could give me your top five on each and your top five on the worst, I would greatly appreciate it. And at least three points on each this would help my research.

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Kiyah

I'll give you my top 5. I don't have a 5 worst. I don't believe in the Bible Wars, I think they give people anxiety over choosing the wrong translation to the point that some just don't read the bible at all.

New Revised Standard Version (NRSV): Scholarly, Accurate, Readable, Good for in-depth study, devotional reading, teaching/preaching, public reading in worship. Includes the Apocrypha. My all-purpose Bible. (I have the NRSVue displayed in multi-book view in Logos, but my default is the original NRSV and I check the NRSVue for changes.)
English Standard Version (ESV): Close in structure to the NRSV but more word-for-word, good to compare to NRSV during in-depth study; Extensive/helpful in-text cross references.
New International Version (NIV): Dynamic Equivalent for comparison of meaning to NRSV and ESV. Readable and very popular with everyday lay bible readers. Lots of good Study Bibles are available for the NIV as well.
Common English Bible (CEB): Another Dynamic Equivalent translation. It's great for reading biblical narratives, especially the long, dense, OT narratives. It doesn't use Christian-ese, but translates directly from the original languages into common english that anyone can understand (e.g. 'repentance' is rendered 'a change of heart and life'; 'sacrifice of atonement/propitiation' is rendered 'a place of sacrifice where mercy is found'). Includes the Apocrypha.
New American Standard Bible 1995 (NASB95): Very formal equivalent translation but still readable. I find it helpful for passages like Ephesians 1 or Isaiah 53 because it makes helpful choices that provide clarity. Consistency in rendering of certain words for transparency to the underlying original language word.

You'll notice I have a mixture of Formal and Dynamic equivalent translations. Some also include the Apocrypha for background study of the New Testament. Some are evangelical and some are ecumenical/mainline. Some are good for in-depth study and some are good for simply reading. This gives me a good variety of perspectives for comparison, while still all being very good, accurate translations and good representations of the types of bibles they are. I think these are the best options for what they each claim to do.

The only bible I would tell people not to read that is very popular with Christians right now is the Passion Translation, because it's not a real bible translated from the original language texts performed by a qualified biblical scholar or committee of scholars. The Message Bible is my preferred paraphrase because it doesn't pretend to be something it isn't and was done by a qualified and trusted biblical scholar.

Doc B

Making a post about the "best" bible translation has about seven chances in ten of being harmful.

Unless you are a translator, you should tread lightly here, and if you are mono-lingual, you should probably leave it alone. In any case, you'll be wrong if you call one "best" because best is relative to the application.

I really don't recommend you do this unless you are fluent in Greek and Hebrew, have studied translation philosophy at something above the popular level, and have absolutely no tendencies toward translation tribalism. Otherwise, as I said, you will do harm.

Jerry Bush

I like Kiyah's approach and that is a solid top 5. It's not mine but 4 of the 5 are in mine, in a different order (the NLT being switched for the CEB - but I like that one too for the same reasons Kiyah mentioned).

The point being: Read and study in a variety of translations. There are very few bad ones out there. The Passion translation is an oxymoron, and of course the New World Translation by the JW's needs to be completely avoided for hopefully obvious reasons.

I didn't list my order because I too don't want to enter translation wars. Look at different translations and pick your five. I fiddle with mine from time to time to keep things fresh, but my top translation never changes.

EastTN

I also don't believe in the Bible Wars. I remember reading somewhere that the best translation is the one that you're personally most likely to actually read. I think there's a lot of truth in that.

For myself, I generally use the NASB 95. It seems well suited for careful textual study. When I'm reading the Greek and need some help, when I flip over to the NASB 95 it looks like what a Greek instructor would put up on the board as an illustration of how to parse the text. That just gives me a lot of confidence in it.

I sometimes use the NIV when teaching, because that's what our congregation has for pew bibles. Sometimes it's handy to read from the same text people have in their hands.

I've been favorably impressed by the ESV. The other one I routinely check is the CSB.

None of that is intended to dis the other major translations. Those just happen to be the ones that I'm currently using the most.

Sean

I would advise against making a topic like this on the forum as it most likely violates the rules. I also wouldn't make a video on it without many careful qualifications.

However, the topic interests me as this year, for my daily bible reading, I am reading in parallel 4 English versions which mostly lean in the direction of formal equivalance (NIV2011 being a partial exception), and 3 of which have relatively recently been updated. I'm reading through the NT in all of them because doing this for the whole Bible would be too much, and I'm a lot more proficient in Greek than Hebrew. I read with a Greek NT open to compare the English text with.

I'm in Galatians right now, but it did not take me much time to reach a conclusion: all of them are good on some points, but none of them hit 100%. They all have strengths and weaknesses and biases you need to be aware of while reading, but if you are aware of them, all of them can be used profitably.

I'll not rank them, but my favorite (which I discoverd a few years ago and confirmed through this exercise) would be a suprise to many, including myself: the NASB 2020.

Kiyah

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1371725#Comment_1371725

Mine change in order from time to time as well. My top two (NRSV and ESV) stay the same, but the other three will change in order and occasionally one of them will fall out of the top 5 and be replaced by the CSB. But these have been my most used top 5 over the years so I listed these. I sometimes use the NLT, GNB, and Message for more interpretive comparisons (especially when I'm struggling to understand something) but they're not in my top 5.

MJ. Smith

My top Bibles depend on my purpose - they are different for those to be read aloud versus those used for academic study versus those used for devotional reading versus those for new Christians …

My most commonly used set is:

JPS for the Masoretic text sometimes supplemented by the Samaritan
Antioch Bible for the Targums
NETS or LSB for the LXX
AV for the Textus Receptus
D/R for the Vulgate
Peshitta for the Peshitta
Orthodox for the Patristic text
NRSV, NABRE, NJB, Community Bible (Not in Logos) for critical editions.

i.e. I try to cover every major source text

Keith Pang

The video sounds like clickbait, which makes sense since this is what video content has devolved into. I honestly think this would not be too edifying. Instead, we should praise God there are many good English translations available to read and compare.

Kiyah

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1371761#Comment_1371761

Is the Antioch Bible in Logos?

MJ. Smith

It was. The publisher withdrew it IIRC