Frequently Asked Questions
Q. Which Bible Translation is Correct ?
A. “The accepted versions of the Bible are all substantially correct.”
Wiliam B. Riley
There are many different translations of scripture and unfortunately its easy to sometimes get lost in the shuffle. It is important when one is considering a bible to make sure that it is translated directly from the Hebrew and Greek texts, as the Greek and Hebrew were the first languages that the scriptures were written in, making them the closest thing we have to the original written text. The reason for so many different versions of scripture is because written language is much like spoken language, over time words, phrases and meanings change. In the various versions of scripture it may seem that they do not agree or they in fact have the appearance of a contradiction, again that is because language changes, both versions have the same meaning just a different way of saying the same thing. For example the Authorized King James Version was written in England in 1611, so the language used is Old English, but it has some of the most beautiful written language in existence, the NIV (New International Version) was written in the twentieth century so much of the eloquence of the KJV is lost because it is far closer to the language we use everyday which makes it a far easier read than four hundred year old English. Both Versions were put together by men who loved God and wanted to serve Him. Their goal was to translate the scripture in such a way that everyone could read it with ease and be able to relate to and apply what the bible said.
There are, however, versions of the bible that are not recognized as inspired scripture by the Christian Church, simply because they outright contradict the Hebrew and the Greek manuscripts that we have from the early Christian Church. I would encourage anyone who is interested in which translation is the most literal in respect to the Hebrew and Greek manuscripts to do some research into the creation of the different versions of scripture and find one that suits your reading preference. Some scripture that we would (and do) recommend are the KJV (King James Version), NKJV (The New King James Version (updated KJV), NIV (New International Version), NASB (New American Standard Bible), the ASV (American Standard Version) and the NLT (New Living Translation) .
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