One last look at Bible translations and Witherington's book

Here’s a final look at Ben Witherington’s book The Living Word of God. Let’s finish up on what he had to say about Bible translations.

He had some good general rules when looking for a useful translation of the Bible. First, he says if the translation has to have a lot of notes to explain just the meaning of the words and phrases used, then it’s either too literal or too much of a paraphrase. He also tells the reader to get a Bible that best conveys the meaning of the original inspired text to the particular target audience you have in mind. A third point is to realize a team translation usually will be better than an individual translation.

Witherington may get in trouble when he comments on the weaknesses of the King James Bible translation. There are those who claim to be "King James only" people--they believe this is the true, inspired word of God. I never understood why so many cling to this one dated version of the Bible. I know it’s beautifully written, but the meaning sure gets lost. Witherington says this translation from the early 1600s depended too heavily on outdated manuscripts. We now have far better and earlier manuscripts of both the Hebrew and Greek texts of the Bible than they did four hundred years ago. Someone once said he only used the King James Bible when he was dealing with a 400-year old person. The author says the New King James version does overcome a lot of the archaic language difficulties of the KJV, but it still does not take advantage of the better and earlier manuscripts.

So, what are our best choices? He says Today’s New International Edition, the Jerusalem Bible, or the New Revised Standard Version. I'm planning to read the English Standard Version since it received a book of the year award from World magazine. Then there’s the updated New American Standard Bible—I was never a fan of the older one since I thought it was an awkward translation. But maybe the update is better.

Any thoughts? Your favorites?