Which is the best Bible translation?

I can only tell you what I believe to be the relative accuracy of several translations. Others not mentioned are in my opinion virtually man's estimation of what God said. The better translations are, from most accurate to least accurate, the New Translation by J.N. Darby (JND), the New American Standard Bible (NASB), the New King James Version (NKJV), the King James Version of the Scofield Study Bible III—what the New Scofield was called after 2002—the English Standard Version (ESV), and the New International Version (NIV). I will be using either the JND for needed clarity, or the NKJV in this book (with permission). I like the NKJV because it is relatively accurate, it reads in modern language, yet it reads close enough to the KJV that it doesn't offend most KJV readers. For those who prefer the KJV, I recommend the Scofield version because most marginal corrections have been brought into the text and other words have been updated for clarity.

If, in the translation, minor inaccuracies have occurred, these may be generally found and corrected by honest study. Of course, it is important that one should have a reliable translation, and we may be deeply thankful that the King James Version has been for centuries most prominent in English speaking countries, for in the main it is an excellent translation. A very few others will be helpful however, in giving a more correct rendering in certain passages, and this is advisable for study purposes. But many of the modern translations, and all paraphrased versions, should be avoided. For careful study, the New Translation by J.N. Darby is highly recommended.

The "Douay" or Roman Catholic version is by no means a poor one, and can be added to the stock of translations, both for whatever of suggestiveness it may offer, as well as to enable us to meet the Romanist with his own version of the Scriptures in our hand. Not to confuse the average student, we recur again to our recommendation, if but one additional version is used, let it be Mr. Darby's, or that of the Numerical Bible; and our last word, best of all for the average reader is the Authorized Version.

What we do maintain is as follows: — That the Scriptures, as written in their original tongues, were given by inspiration of God, that inspiration extending to the words employed. That by means of the large number of ancient manuscript copies of the Scriptures preserved to us in the providence of God, we possess a very accurate knowledge of the Scriptures as originally written, the words or passages as to which any doubt exists being very few and unimportant. That the Authorized translation is on the whole very good and faithful in its rendering of the inspired original, but that it may be usefully compared with the Revised Version, and more especially with the New Translation by the late Mr. J. N. Darby, to ensure even greater accuracy. Substantially, however, it gives us the inspired Word of God in trustworthy form.

I beg my reader who may not know Greek not to suppose that I have any thought of unsettling his mind as to the plain English words in scripture. My object is just the contrary. In the English Bible, there are no doubt defects, as in every human work. I have found passages which I think might be more exactly translated, and have taken the pains to translate for myself the whole of the New Testament, save a few chapters. But I am sure of this, that the more intimately a person is acquainted with the idiom of the language — the more he is familiar with what the learned call the usus loquendi (that is, the customary forms of speech) — the more he will see how thoroughly well acquainted the translators were with the language they were dealing with. I can confidently affirm this to be the case in the New Testament; and as far as I can pretend to judge of the Old, I can bear the same testimony: so that, on the whole, while admitting some human defects, the reader who knows neither Hebrew nor Greek may be assured he has the sense of the original. Taken as a whole, it is the most perfect translation of any book I have ever read. I am told the Dutch translation is very good: I cannot compare them, but of those which I can, the English Bible is by far the best. Forty-six or forty-eight of the most learned and capable men were long engaged in it — divided into classes of six, who did the part they were most competent for; and then it was passed to the others, and revised by all, and compared with translations in other languages. My object then is, not to lead you away from your English Bible, but back to it with confidence. When persons object to a doctrine, that the original word has not the force ascribed to it in English, one is obliged to enquire what is its force in the original: but my object in this is that the humble English reader may be assured he has God's mind in what he reads. I add the Greek quotations, that those who know that language may see all is well founded and fair.

The measures adopted to secure a new version of the Holy Scriptures were of the most complete and satisfactory kind, and the result has been an edition of the Word of God unrivalled for its simplicity, for its force and vigour of language, a compendium of literary excellencies, and, what is still better, a faithful and accurate translation of the very words of the Holy Ghost. It is not a faultless version, far from it. Whatever critical helps we use in our private study of the Word of God, we ever and again turn to the authorised version for communion with God.

It is interesting and confirmatory of our own attitude in this matter that our Lord Himself used a translation of the Holy Scriptures, the Septuagint. This is known not to be too accurate a translation. Yet He quoted it as the Word of God, and appealed to it as final.

We too have to use translations. Our English translations are admirable and very accurate. Here and there other translations may throw fuller light upon this passage or that, and whilst we avail ourselves of these helps, we regard the Bible we hold in our hands as the Word of God, authoritative and final. For this we cannot sufficiently thank God.

This is important. I would say even to any Roman Catholic Christian that these languages are to anyone difficult now, because they are dead languages. But through grace, translations have been made. When Latin was used, a Latin version was needed. But Latin was not one of the languages in which the word was first given. To translate out of one tongue that is not generally understood into another that is just as difficult for the ordinary reader is no help; it only hides the communications of God instead of passing them on into the ordinary speech of the common people (Rom. 10:8). The validity of a translation is measured by its fidelity to the original word, and the value of it is commensurate with its use of words understood by ordinary people.

Note: Quotations from the Bible have been taken from the J N Darby translation of 1889. This translation has been chosen for reasons of accuracy in the reproduction of the original Hebrew and Greek texts. Readers who are not familiar with this translation are encouraged to consult the translation of the Bible with which they are familiar simultaneously in order to compare the two versions.

The Holy Ghost Himself calls our attention to the necessity of understanding the divine will as a means of safety in the last days; and regard for the holy scriptures is in these days a proof that God is honoured. The efforts of the enemy also are chiefly directed against His word. Now whilst the learned can examine the original text, this privilege is out of the reach of the unlearned, and of those unacquainted with that text. It has therefore been our endeavour and object to give a helping hand to the latter class, and to furnish them at a small cost with as faithful and exact a representation as possible of the divine word in their own language. Undoubtedly every translation must be more or less defective, and we by no means value our work so highly as that we would set aside one more perfectly executed by another hand. How great the difficulties are of conveying the expressions of one language, especially of the rich Greek, in another, those alone can tell who have tried to make a translation. We can nevertheless maintain with good conscience, that we have devoted the utmost care to the work of presenting the word of God as faithfully as possible, and we therefore cherish the hope that even the most unpractised reader will find our translation simple and comprehensive. We might indeed have clothed many passages in more elegant German, but, without being in bondage to words, we have been governed throughout by the thought that the faithful rendering of the original text outweighs every other consideration; and the more so because we believe with the very fullest conviction the divine inspiration of the holy scriptures as the revelation of the infinite wisdom of God, and the expression of His gracious character in Jesus Christ. But since no one is able to grasp the whole expanse of this revelation, and often a meaning beyond the comprehension of the translator lies hidden in a sentence, which would be lost in a free translation but may be found in a more literal one, through deeper teaching of the Holy Spirit — it is evidently necessary to reproduce the original text as in a mirror. Yet of course the limits of this literalness or exactitude must not be drawn so close as to render the sentence translated into another language altogether incomprehensible, and to remain consequently destitute of meaning.

Another ground for making the translation as literal as possible was the conviction that it would not be without profit to a reader unacquainted with the original to learn something of the style, the customs, the thoughts and the manners of the writers of the Gospels. For since the heart, as well as the mind, finds food in the word of God, the forms of expression chosen by the writers are not without importance; and by changing them, even if the meaning of the sentence remains unchanged, the sensibilities of the heart's feelings may often be lost. Above all we have been throughout influenced by the deep sense that it was the word of God which occupied us, and we have therefore striven to accomplish our work as intelligibly, and at the same time as literally, as was at all possible, submitting it to the judgment of thoughtful critics.