Picking a Good Bible



Walk into any book store or go online and shop for a  Bible and you'll be confused within the first 2 minutes. There's so many to choose from. Bibles for women, Bibles for men, for teens, for children, for infants and toddlers, Bibles with maps, notes and coloring pages, Bibles for The Unborn. Okay, that last one isn't real, not yet anyway. To make matters worse there are all of these translations, The Message, The Passion, ESV, NKJV, KJV, NIV,CSB...WHAT IS ALL OF THIS STUFF????

Let me try to simplify this for you. When picking a Bible despite all that's out there you're really dealing with 4 basic types: 1. Word for Word, 2. Thought for Thought, 3. A Paraphrase and 4. A mix of Word for Word and Thought for Thought. These four types will be found in various lifestyle bibles, see the list above. Lifestyle Bibles are good for highlighting portions of scripture that may pertain to a particular stage of life but translation is where you want to give your attention.

Translation is taking the ancient text that was originally written in Greek, Hebrew and Aramaic, and painstakingly staying true to the text. The most common example of this is the word love. We love ice cream, our family, our spouse, and our job but we love them differently and in Greek that one word has four translations. How do you know which version falls under which category. Well, some of them will tell you, for example both The Message and The Passion are paraphrases and while both may be pleasant to read they play fast and loose with the language and cause the text to lose its true meaning. Others you may have to do a little research on but here are a few of my favorites. The ESV (English Standard Version) is a word for word translation and it's not always easy to read because it doesn't flow well BUT it makes for a fabulous study bible. The NIV, (New International Version) is more thought for thought. It takes the big idea and presents it as a whole, while staying true to the text. The NKJV, (New King James Version) is a mix of word for word and thought for thought and makes for a great daily readable bible. This is the one I take everywhere.

In the end the best Bible is the one that's going to make you enjoy reading it but I would also recommend an ESV Study Bible. The Bible doesn't want to be broken up into 365 pithy devotionals. The Bible is God's declared revelation of Himself and that's how we are to approach our reading. We come to know God, to see Christ by the power of The Holy Spirit so that we might be transformed.

Here's a link to Got Questions which is a tremendous resource when you need a quick answer to a hard question or if you're curious about something. I'll talk more about How to Study The Bible next month.
https://www.gotquestions.org/Bible-translations.html

In Christ
Storm

photo courtesy:https://www.pexels.com/photo/pile-of-books-2765617/

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