Favorite non-KJV Translation

[GrayMars]

I like the NET Bible, it really comes in handy for on-line links and the notes are helpful.

https://net.bible.org/#!bible/Matthew+1:1

M.

The NET Bible is great if you study on your computer (or other device?). I personally use e-Sword, and have this bible in my collection. I have the free version which comes with some, not all, of the translation notes. I don't know that I would want to rely on them anyways. There's always room for bias, and although I'm extremely biased I like to view things through my own lens.

[caspianrex]

I will second what GrayMars said about the NET Bible.  It is a great version for study, especially as the translation notes always make it quite clear why the translators made a lot of the choices they did.  If you don't have e-Sword or another Bible study program, the NET Bible's official site is an excellent resource (and they've recently revamped it, so it is looking really good).

[Miami]

Can I bring an ESV edition to a Mormon Church or will I be required to use a KJV?

Thanks.

[Vort]

Can I bring an ESV edition to a Mormon Church or will I be required to use a KJV?

Thanks.

 

You can bring any edition of the Bible you want. The Church doesn't check its participants' Bible versions at the door (or anywhere else).

[lonetree]

The modern translation I use most these days is the NASB and I appreciate its literal-ness(though I wish it was more available in paragraph format). When I was a youth it was the RSV, which I've heard is what the ESV is based on.
    

Some modern scholars; ie the NT authority D A Carson seem to really dislike literal translations. It was in Carson that I first read the phrase(not original c. him) 'translation is treason'. If I was 'translation' I would sue,... :)
    

In the 1980s, If someone had asked me what English translation would win over English speakers and readers, I would've pegged the NIV. It seemed to have a groundswell of younger evangelicals and older scholars carrying it above the others. But, it didn't exactly happen that way...
    

Oddly one of the strongest defences of literalness in translation I recall is the late Allan Bloom in his introduction to his translation of Plato's Republic. 
 

Edited November 24, 2015 by lonetree

[LeSellers]

I love the AV (aka KJV) because it's hard to understand.

Its Jacobean cant (as one Protestant once called it) forces me to think about what it's saying, rather than just read it.

I fight the language to get the meaning.

That said, I love e-sword and the dozens of translations/versions it has, the Greek, French, German, Spanish and Italian ones, but particularly the two literal versions.

Lehi

[lonetree]

I love the AV (aka KJV) because it's hard to understand.

Its Jacobean cant (as one Protestant once called it) forces me to think about what it's saying, rather than just read it.

I fight the language to get the meaning....

Lehi

 

YES

[LeSellers]

Can I bring an ESV edition to a Mormon Church or will I be required to use a KJV?

You can bring any edition of the Bible you want. The Church doesn't check its participants' Bible versions at the door (or anywhere else).

Vort is right.

The reasons we use the AV are:

1)It's the one Joseph Smith used when he translated the Book of Mormon (many verses of Isaiah and other biblical passages are in there — his memory surely guided his translation). Methinks 'twould be hard to compare Matt 5 cc with 3 Nephi knowing they were nearly identical, and not seeing the same words when they were, in 1829, the same words.

2) Joseph (and other Apostles) declared it to be the least tainted by creedal doctrine.

3) The Church has spent a lot of resources making the LDS edition of the AV vastly more useful. (Duplicating this effort would be expensive and there are many other things that we must do.)

4) My personal love of the AV is founded in the difficulty of reading a border-line foreign language. Wrestling with the language forces me to wrestle with the meaning: one cannot just read the AV.

There may be others, as well. But, for me at least, these are more than ample reasons to use the AV.

All that said, as long as you're reading it, I believe God is pleased whatever version you might like best.

Lehi

[lonetree]

Vort is right.

The reasons we use the AV are:

1)It's the one Joseph Smith used when he translated the Book of Mormon (many verses of Isaiah and other biblical passages are in there — his memory surely guided his translation). Methinks 'twould be hard to compare Matt 5 cc with 3 Nephi knowing they were nearly identical, and not seeing the same words when they were, in 1829, the same words.

2) Joseph (and other Apostles) declared it to be the least tainted by creedal doctrine.

3) The Church has spent a lot of resources making the LDS edition of the AV vastly more useful. (Duplicating this effort would be expensive and there are many other things that we must do.)

4) My personal love of the AV is founded in the difficulty of reading a border-line foreign language. Wrestling with the language forces me to wrestle with the meaning: one cannot just read the AV.

There may be others, as well. But, for me at least, these are more than ample reasons to use the AV.

All that said, as long as you're reading it, I believe God is pleased whatever version you might like best.

Lehi

Sorry for getting off track, but I believe the twin landmarks of the AV and The Book Of Common Prayer exert enormous influence over centuries of English and American English lit as well.

Edited December 1, 2015 by lonetree

[zil]

4) My personal love of the AV is founded in the difficulty of reading a border-line foreign language. Wrestling with the language forces me to wrestle with the meaning: one cannot just read the AV.

 

Maybe it's because I grew up reading it, or maybe there's something wrong with me, because I've never thought the language of the KJV (or Book of Mormon, Moses and Abraham, which use the same language) was difficult to understand.  I love it.  And I love its difference.  I start reading it and my mind immediately shifts into "scripture mode" - this is no fictional story or instruction manual I'm reading, this is the word of God.

 

I do remember greatly appreciating the scriptures when in high school it was time to study Shakespeare.

 

(For the record, the only other versions I've ever (tried to) read were in Spanish and Russian, and I don't have them anymore, so I couldn't give you details.)

[LeSellers]

Maybe it's because I grew up reading it, or maybe there's something wrong with me, because I've never thought the language of the KJV (or Book of Mormon, Moses and Abraham, which use the same language) was difficult to understand.  I love it.  And I love its difference.  I start reading it and my mind immediately shifts into "scripture mode" - this is no fictional story or instruction manual I'm reading, this is the word of God.

I love the Jacobean cant of the AV, and I am "used to it", but it is not my mother tongue.

One reason (or way) I use it is that there are the italic words indicating that the original Greek or Hebrew did not have those words and the translators felt they needed to add words to make it make sense. There are myriad instances of those words potentially changing the meaning. In many translation, these added words are not identified, so it is difficult to recognize these editorial comments.

Understanding the old language of the AV, regardless of how familiar one is with it, is still open to personal struggle. Modern language variants almost hand one the "one, true" way to understand the passage. I don't like other people telling em what I should know.

Lehi

Edited December 2, 2015 by LeSellers

[Guest]

You can bring any edition of the Bible you want. The Church doesn't check its participants' Bible versions at the door (or anywhere else).

 

Yes.

 

I was once in a Sunday School class with a recent convert who brought a non-KJV Bible with her to class.  She was asked to read the passage of the loaves and the fishes.  Instead of "200 pennyworth..." it said "6 months wages".  While some raised their eyebrows (there is always someone) the teacher noted, "It looks like you've got an alternate translation there.  But I believe it is a helpful one."  So did many in the class.