New Bibles, No Drama

At our church, I've been attempting to provoke sharp (fun) controversy over what our new English translation of the Scriptures would be. The NIV 1984 edition will shortly be out of print. Its replacement, the NIV 2011, won't suit our needs as a church, so we have been plunged into the morass of competing translations of God's Word. You can hear the clashing of swords, the gasp of the shocked, the shriek of the terrified. Actually, nothing of the sort whatsoever. It's not even generated enough energy for a child's yawn. People just want to know and get on with things. "Just tell us Pastor John." A few hundred years ago people were literally burned at the stake for daring to translate the Bible into their own language. Now we're bored (and a little confused) in the section of the book store where we have dozens of competing Bible translation product lines to choose from. We're bored at the store rather than burned at the stake.

OK, I'm putting you to sleep just making you read about it. We picked the ESV (2007 text edition). It was a close contest between it and the NASB95. Both are essentially literal as opposed to dynamic equivalent translations. They are word-for-word instead of thought-for-thought translations. For the best Bible study support get both, keeping a King James handy for tradition's sake and maybe an old copy of the NIV 1984 for what probably was the best translation of its kind from the last century.