Why are There So Many Bible Translations/Which One is Best? (ft. Mark Ward)

what are the best seven Bible translations available today and what makes them so good Our Guest today Dr Mark Ward came on the show a few months ago to discuss seven bad translations and is backed by popular demand to discuss his recommended translations Mark it's great to have you on let me start by asking you this what do we mean by a good translation because I suspect some people might think if it's understandable if it's entertaining but I suspect you mean something a little bit different well when ever do we trust people who do spiritual work for us you know evangelicals don't have a pope with an imprimer who gets to say this is a good translation this is a bad translation we tend to use trusted friends and contacts especially trusted pastors when it comes to this and those pastors themselves are tending to trust individual Scholars through institutions that they trust like our respective Alma moders education institutions that's a very natural thing I think it's important to recognize we don't have from God some kind of list where these are good ones and these are bad ones we don't even have principles really like in the Bible we are just doing our best to translate well looking for trustworthy people and you normally expect those people right to have good training you would hope I would think if you're a thoughtful Christian that it wasn't just one denomination that translated this Bible we're trying to spread out you know the authority here and the trust so I look for what are called committee-based Bible translations done by responsible people who share my basic Evangelical commitments even if they're not you know part of my particular Baptist and conservative tribe uh I want to see that they know have I have good reason to believe they know what they're doing and that they have worked with some checks and balances and when you put all that together you do end up with basically the list that we're going to talk about awesome now we're going to get to those seven I have two more questions for you you chose these seven and I asked you because this is your lane we're going to get to your YouTube channel some of the unique things that you do there but what criteria do you use when you're distinguishing what you consider a good translation from say a bad translation I talked on your channel previously about two bad kinds of Bible translation that would be sectarian ones and crackpot ones so I'm able to set those aside you know I might have some on my shelf for various study purposes but for me personally in my own Bible reading you know I'm just going to admit because I am an evangelic and because you know like all of your viewers and like you I am finite as well as Fallen I can't read every single Bible translation there is I have some translations up on my shelf like one done by the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Senate the Evangelical Heritage Bible I haven't had an opportunity to read through it I haven't yet read through the nasby 2020 I haven't read yet through the Legacy Standard Bible I've done just a little bit of checking so I'm not ready to give an assessment I had to pick some you know set of Bibles that I was going to have time with in the the last 20 years really and so what did I do I stuck with the Evangelical ones that means I really don't know much about the Catholic Bible translations I don't know a whole lot about the mainline Protestant ones that are out there uh so I try to limit my comments about good Bible translation and my own use to the ones that I have reason to trust already and then now have spent a good 20 years with in some cases you're such a good careful scholar I appreciate that you nuanced that the way that you did so one more question what might help folks is maybe make a distinction between what's called a formal and what's called a functional translation then we'll jump into the top seven I've got a number of translations on my desk I'm just going to pull the first one off the top this is the new King James version this is actually a British edition of the new King James that one of my YouTube viewers sent me it's one of the cool things about being a YouTuber people send you stuff uh hopefully not letter bombs but in this case this is a formal translation like the King James before it and like the beautiful beautiful Wellington leather ESV that Crossway just sent me oh man this is just such a beautiful Bible formal translation has nothing to do however with the leather on your Bible although I'm going to show this off because it's just so fun to touch in one second it has to do with how closely does the translation stick to the forms of the Hebrew and the Greek and that in turn means all the things that language is word order word choice uh the number of words in general formal translations tend to aim to have at least one English word for every Greek or Hebrew word and what that ends up with is a Bible that is accurate but that does sometimes tend to be difficult to read and some people say well that's exactly what I want I don't want to dumb down the Bible but it's more complex than that and more dynamic or functional translations like where did my NIV go oh here we go I've got an A a wonderful NIV reader Bible that I love to read from it doesn't have um chapter or verse numbers breaking up the text it's just laid out like a novel which I find to be really helpful for contextual Bible reading the NIV translators take a more functional approach I was just interviewing Mark Strauss about this and his new book 40 questions on Bible translation talks about this in some detail it's really helpful he points out that uh functional translations can actually get the meaning across more effectively in places where a formal translation is actually going to leave a lot of people puzzled or even sometimes misled this has been a big fight in evangelicalism ever since I was a kid I remember this being discussed as a small child in a Bible Church in the northern Virginia area um and I myself thought for a long time oh I'm going to have to choose one way or the other am I going to be a functional you know more interpretive you know thought forth thought Bible user or am I going to be a word for word and it you know it seemed to me at the time it's the conservatives who go word for word and it's those liberals who you know go go the other direction then over the years as I was reading all kinds of these translations all the major modern Evangelical translations from formal to functional the whole Spectrum I realized nobody's putting a gun to my head making me choose one or the other I'm a Bible scholar I'm a Bible teacher and I get to use them all and then secondly I realized I'm never even if I chose one I would never get rid of the others both kinds are useful for me and what I saw was God has arranged language in such a way that no one trans ation really can capture everything so it's helpful to have a complementary set of translations people wonder why there are so many I think that's one of the fundamental reasons why it's useful for our Bible reading to have more formal and more functional translations that's a great way to look at it and helpful as we dive into our top seven now are these seven in any particular order or are they just your top seven as I recall it's been a couple weeks since I sent this to you but I think I went basically from formal to functional let's let's see see how it actually turned out okay fair enough all right so number one is the new King James version tell us why you think that's a good translation I actually want to start not with the English itself because every one of these Bibles is good it's well done it's responsible if it's the only one you ever used I would be okay with that I think it's good to use multiple translations but let me talk not about the English but about the underlying text there is another debate among Bible readers around the world especially those who' studied some Greek among all of the minor differences that occur in the manuscript tradition of the Greek New Testament and of the Hebrew Bible you know we have thousands of manuscripts especially the Greek but there are these minor differences and you can see them for yourself I've translated them into English with a team at KJV parallel bible.org it shouldn't be alarming to you it's the situation God gave us let me give an example did the wise men come and see baby Jesus or did they come and find baby Jesus that's the kind of difference that we're talking about here in the Greek there are some major schools of thought and one of them is that we should go back to the oldest manuscripts that's the school of thought that I adopt and that's what where most evangelicals who can read Greek would go but others say well no we should use the ones that are the majority or the ones that are traditional for our english- speaking culture I'm totally fine with that I don't think that's something Christians should fight or Well's I don't think they should fight over I think I can argue that's totally fine but it shouldn't turn into a conflict or a point of division the new King James version adopts the same traditional Greek and Hebrew texts as the King James this is more important in the New Testament than it is in the Old Testament we're talking about very few differences in the Old Testament but there's a number of minor differences in the New Testament if you grew up with the King James and you kind of like the idea well we should use the majority or we should use the the traditional text of the New Testament fine use the new King James it's translated responsibly into contemporary English and I love the King James and my main translation if you call it that we'll talk about it is the ESV I love using the new King James or ESV because it is more familiar to me that's my uh the first one on the list there okay fair enough all right so that leads us naturally into second on the list which is the ESV yeah the ESV stems from a little bit different uh aspect of the family tree of the King James version effectively every English Bible lives in the wonderful shadow of tindale's translation going way back when into the early 1500 unds but the path that the ESV translators went it actually goes from the King James to the English revised version to the American Standard Version to The revia Standard Version which conservatives tended to be suspicious of because of Isaiah 7:14 and then Crossway back in the late 90s uh bought the rights to the RSV and created the ESV from it and I know many of the translators Vern pyris in particular I run his website where he has a lot of free books by the way really got great godly man he helped produce this ji Packer it's been endorsed by Major names like John Piper Etc it's a more formal translation and it does use the critical text meaning it does depart from the textual basis of the King James version which is what I prefer because I think that is the is more likely to be original but we're not talking about a big deal and you're not hardly ever going to notice it actually though the reason I recommend the ESV so often is that Crossway is second to none and putting out beautiful and useful and numerous Bible editions I love this single column uh Legacy heirloom Bible it's just so Tastefully done but there are journaling Bibles there is this Chronological Bible that they've just put out they have a daily reading Bible now they've just got everything you can imagine and actually the differences among all these translations are to me so minor we love the Bible so we talk about them that it's actually okay to say you know I'm going to choose for my church or for myself a translation on this basis the pragmatic one that there are lots of beautiful additions and that's useful to me that's why the ESV if I had to choose only one would probably be my main translation it's really helpful to hear you say that that we're going to talk about the NIV and the csb and some of these other translations but the big differences when they're all said and done are small so some of these other factors do you find a Bible that you think is beautiful does it fit is it useful is it familiar to you those can be pieces of the decision once you narrow down to a few of these key translations that's really helpful I think to give people permission to do so all right so we've covered the new King James version the ESV the third one on your list is the nasb tell us your thoughts on that one I have a really beautiful edition of the nasb that was also sent to me by Cambridge it's the Clarion reference Edition and if you get a nasby this is definitely the one that I recommend I was the editor of Bible study magazine until it uh closed about a year ago and I did a cover story on the top Bible trans top Bible editions for all the major translations that was so fun to do um the but the nasby as a and that's you know how it's commonly referred to the nasby as a translation it's known for being very literal it's favored by Greek and Hebrew students in seminaries because it tracks more word for word with the original that brings the strengths and the weaknesses that I mentioned earlier that Mark Strauss discusses in his recent book 40 questions on Bible translation it is a strength to be able to match up easily when I'm studying Greek and Hebrew between the English and the original languages it is a little bit of a weakness when it comes to the beauty of the translation I think a lot of people consider the nasby to be a little bit more wooden this is a very minor difference between this and the ESV for example but I would say that's more or less accurate I think there are sometimes when it's so fastidious in its literalness that it gets to the point of not purposeful but sort of accidental Superstition like it has little asterisks next to verbs in the gospels that in the Greek are historical presence like and Jesus goes into the city in English we would say and Jesus went into the city well they got to make sure they let people know with a little asterisk that went is actually goes in the Greek okay you know I'm not sure who really benefits from that um but that that shows the level of fasti fastidiousness that they use um they put in small caps uh quotations of the Old Testament that are in the New Testament I think that tends to stack up the the the number of little conventions that new Bible readers need to master and I think that's presenting an unnecessary difficulty to the Lion Share of Bible readers but for those who understand those conventions and can learn to use them that can be a benefit that's the nasb that's great so when we talk about what a translation is good for it really depends on what we're looking for so for students who are diving into the Greek and the Hebrew the nasby is really helpful because of the careful attention to detail and translation but when I would have my students I still teach a high school Bible class part-time memorize scripture and the nasby is not a good translation to memorize scripture because it's wooden and it doesn't roll off the tongue and it's not as easy to memorize that doesn't mean it's bad it just has a little bit of a different purpose from one versus the other we I was an Evangel used this and I I taught for years in that and and hundreds of kids from the inner city learned Proverbs 321b to 23 keep sound wisdom and discretion so they will be life to your soul and a dormant to your neck then you will walk in your way securely and your foot will not stumble I was the one leader that I know of who repeatedly I mean like every single time asked the kids do you understand what this means and I walked them through it they did not understand what it means and I actually went to the leader of the ministry who is a great great mentor of mine who actually gave me my beautiful ESV I've got somewhere on this desk uh had great respect for him still do and I said why are we bothering can't we use a more uh easy to understand translation and then when I became in charge of another aspect of that Outreach Ministry with his permission I used the new international Readers version that was made for people who couldn't read as well uh to me the whole point is understanding not getting it right I want to get both if I possibly can but is it accurate if people don't understand it does it even count as a translation if it's just going in one ear and out the other if people don't if it's just syllables to them that's great good good stuff let's move to your number four the csb I've got that on my desk somewhere here boy where did I put it I'm just a washt in Bibles oh I've got this this was the free copy that I was given at uh etss back when this one came out I think in 2017 that's the Evangelical theological Society they've come out with a slight update since then I don't think it's a very significant one the csb is a really great mediating translation the Christian Standard Bible was done um by Thomas Shriner and some others in the southern baptist world but they it was a a multi-denominational CO committee that put it together it doesn't have a southern baptist bias and when I see people say that sometimes I never see them point to any particular rendering within the csb as an example they just kind of assume it because it's done by the suthern Baptist ultimately um I have not found that to be the case though it's very well done and what they did was they pretty much nailed the the blend of accuracy and readability that everybody's going for um and those translations that go from more the accuracy side the formal side like the ESV and new King James um they they see the benefits of that and then they see the benefits of the readability the NIV and they worked hard to hit that middle ground and it's been successful for that reason also for what it's worth people love to fight online about all kinds of things this csb is new enough that it doesn't have that many detractors yet and sometimes I like it for just that reason like can I just read the Bible without stumbling into somebody online who tells me it's from Satan the csb is a good choice for that reason so I had a chance to be the editor General editor for the apologetic Study Bible for students and the first version was the hcsb and I think correct me if I'm wrong I think they called it a dynamic equivalent that tried to have the formal and the functional ele ments together how is the csb different and or similar to what was the hcsb if you're familiar with that translation it's you know actually whenever you summarize an entire translation you're actually trying to make an aggregate Judgment of what I like to call 800,000 choices right it's actually more depending on how you count but let's say there's about 800,000 words in the Greek New Testament and Hebrew Bible every one of them requires a choice by translator so how do I sum it all up I mean that's just very difficult I would say the hcsb and csb are similar and there were there were just a few noticeable differences between the two and I'm going to forget some of the precise things here but I believe that the hcsb you might know this better than I do use the word Yahweh to to transliterate actually not translate the Divine name the tetragramaton in the Old Testament and the csb in fact I can see it right here does what most translations do nowadays aside from the Legacy Standard Bible and they used the word Lord in all caps to translate Yahweh that was the one thing that kind of made it onto my radar there um there are numerous other you know minor things but that's probably the major thing that kind of comes up when the hcsb is set into Contra distinction to the csb that makes sense csb strikes me as more readable than the hcsb uh I don't know how much work they put into that but when it came out I was like oh I like this it's it's fresh all right let's move to number five which my guess would be one of the most popular translations today or at least a generation ago is the n NIV tell us about your thoughts on that Mark Strauss that I've mentioned now several times I just interviewed him for Logos live uh he's one of the NIV translators dougm who is the top you know Evangelical commentator on the book of Romans almost a legend in his own time is the head of the committee on Bible translation that puts out the NIV and the NIV is the standard sort of big tent you know Evangelical translation um they were the first major translation to work hard to break away from the shadow of the King James version I found it very interesting when I was reading I think one of the translators back in the 60s now his name is John St who told the story of the NIV in a book he mentioned that the translators found it very difficult to forget the King James version they'd all grown up with it like I did and so the apple of the eye doesn't sound funny to them they had to really work hard to pay attention to how do regular English speakers at a seventh grade level actually use the language and it's the NIV translators who to my knowledge have done the most work on that particular question they've really tuned their ears and I would say their scholarly ears via scholarly tools to the way people use the language that has led to some controversy I'm the sort of rare conservative who has been very happy with the gender language in the NIV um they've worked toward what they call gender accuracy there are a couple places where of course you know anybody might you know quibble but overall they're recognizing whoever you know whatever the reason for changes in English whether you know people uh got to the controls of the English language and changed it or or whether it's natural seven-year-old girls like my daughter were tending to say when they would hear how blessed is the man that does not walk in the counsil of the wicked they would say say my and my daughter did this she said dad why is the the Bible for boys and they're saying well then we need to translate into our English if it's a generic because God is Not specifying in Psalm 1 only men you know men who are uh who don't walk in The Way of the Wicked they'll be blessed um it's for everybody so Psalm 11 I'm trying to pull it up here in my reader Bible in the NIV is going to is to be generic in the NIV here we go blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked and I I think Mark Strauss was saying basically conservative evangelicals have come around to this it was alarming at first but most of us have said yeah when the reference is generic then we should use resources in English that are also generic okay so if the original biblical language itself is not specifying gender then we should should find an equivalent or something comparable to that that doesn't specify gender within the English language but if it is specifically male or female we shouldn't take the liberty and just say person human Etc I I that's exactly what Mark Strauss would say and Don Carson who wrote one of the major defenses An Elegant argument way back in the late 90s uh the inclusive language debate a plea for realism Carson wrote and Carson is an arch conservative he's heading up you know he helped found TGC which is a complimentaries 14 that Paul talks about when he in the King James it says if you use a tongues he's going to think you're crazy but if you um well that isn't the King James that's my paraphrase but if he if he hears you use intelligible language he's going to fall down and confess that God is in you of a truth you know his conscious conscience is going to be stirred I want the Lost person coming into an Evangelical Church service to be struck right away with the meaning of scripture if at all possible rather than having to Wade through some Evangelical ease either in the sermon or archaic language or Evangelical ease in the Bible translation that's being preached from or R so we have we have two more and this was not in our list you can just pass but I noticed you said NIV instead of the tnv have you taken the time to look at that and had any additional thoughts on that or no the NIV that I'm holding right now is an NIV 2011 the main NIV in use before that was the 1984 there were actually several minor editions before that I think there was a 1978 that goes back before my time so I do not remember the 2011 got in some controversy but not nearly as much as the TNI which came out I want to say 2004 2005 I got a free copy when I was in seminary they were sending them out to Seminary students that was when the gender language debate you know really heated up and the tnv was retired for that reason and I think rightly so I think that the any translation that just ends up being pillared in the public square has lost the most valuable thing a good translation has and that is widespread trust so uh some of the same strategies that were put in the tnv were used in the NIV 2011 I'd like to think and I do think that the committee on Bible translation learned a few lessons from that experience and um and I want I hasten to say that there there are ways to mistranslate gender language to take it in uh in in a way that's actually denying or changing what the passages say but the NIV translators did a really careful job of trying not to do that even if again in some cases we might quibble that's great all right let's move to number six the ne which I believe is the new English translation give us your thoughts I don't have a physical copy of that I don't remember what I did with mine I've got so many bibles floating around all the time it might be at my other office at Logos Bible Software here's why I mentioned The Net Bible I actually don't read the translation itself very often I will check it sometimes and I find it to be um refreshingly creative that is when I look in a commentary and I see here's a couple different options for how to interpret or translate this passage which is common and it's not a squishy or wishy-washy thing to do it is a recognition of the way God inspired the Bible there are things that Paul wrote that are hard to be understood Peter says and there are difficulties in poetry and in metaphor and good Bible translators who are not being inspired right they're just doing their best they can legitimately come up at times with different ways to interpret or translate something like Let me Give an example um Jesus talks about uh the person who um is worrying and he said which of You by worrying can add a cubit to his stature modern translations often not always they're kind of divided on this I just quoted the King James modern translations will say sometimes how many of them can add any time to their span of life well that sounds very different it's because there's some inspired ambiguity there and and and it is legitimate to go either direction and we don't have the spirit of God telling us the King James translators mentioned this we don't have the spirit of God telling us go that way so translators go different directions well when that happens The Net Bible will often go a little different direction than most other people just because they can I find that to be helpful but the real value of it is the notes I have tons of study Bibles I've had over my life there's lots of great ones um I tend to reach for commentaries now but I still use The Net Bible because it gives me sort of technical notes on textual critical issues and on translation issues that are rather difficult and I don't find that level of you know intense academic but still accessible notes elsewhere when people ask me why does the ESV differ from the new King James here I will often tell them I could give you a fish but let me teach you how to fish go get The Net Bible and check the notes there it's free on bible.org and often times I would say nine times out of 10 the answer to their question is found in a Net Bible note so those notes if you get a Net Bible does that automatically come with it you don't have to go bu a special study note net I do think they've started to come out with net Bibles that don't have the notes which always seems uh like a waste to me like the whole reason I want the thing is the notes I happen to I'm a nerd about Bible typography I was at the Society of Bible craftsmanship conference at the Museum of the Bible I got to meet clouse Eric krog who I've already interviewed in the past um he's from 2K Denmark and he has revolutionized Bible typography he's made beautiful readable type faces for these bibles if you look at early net Bibles they're kind of ugly and difficult to read typographically speaking he made it beautiful amazing type it was very very hard work because it has so many notes but um he made it as accessible as possible I would definitely get a Net Bible and get one of the more recent ones with make sure you see 2K Denmark in the front and then you'll have a quality Net Bible all right good translation number seven in this one I wouldn't say it surprised me and you could totally correct me if I'm wrong but when we talk about our translation this one is maybe pushing the barrier a little bit staying within the fold but pushing certain limits is the NLT which is the New Living Translation tell us your thoughts on that yeah I myself felt the same way about the New Living Translation when it first came out I thought this is going too far but then I had an experience um I was an evangelist in The Not So Nice part of town in Greenville South Carolina while I was in seminary and I really loved I really cared for these children and teens that I was reaching out to every single week I was actually also in a Ministry to adults and I remember I was asked to preach at this special Cola Wars event we would have every summer and there would be 150 teenagers who get to hear the gospel probably you know once a year at Cola Wars a lot of them um some of them were church but most of them were not and I had to preach something from Romans and I was really struggling how in the world am I going to communicate this you know naughty k n o TTY y bit of nasby verbage to them because it's so important that they understand and it's so important that I actually read from the Bible in front of me I often even though I preach from my laptop or iPad I'll have a physical Bible and I'll hold it up and I'll self-consciously look like I'm reading it and I will read it in order to connect people to the authority that I'm claiming I'm a Herald I'm not making up this message so I noticed I can't remember what the passage was somewhere in Romans 2 the the nasby was just not going to be understood and I happened to check the New Living Translation and it was perfect they nailed it it was easier English which is what it is overall is it a little more interpretive absolutely it is are there times and I think they go a little bit too far sure are they wrong in their interpretations very rarely in my experience and if they are it's usually something that's pretty minor and it's always a responsible take right it's not going to be totally off thewall well they they got this right and I was in an atmosphere where at at the church I was a little bit nervous you know with the youth pastor mind if I quoted from the New Living Translation so I asked him he said go for it and I took that as moral permission from then on to use whatever translation helps get the truth across to the audience that God has actually put in in front of me and if you struggle to read your child struggles to read the New Living Translation or I mentioned earlier the new international Readers version those are excellent options people are always on the Quest for the best Bible translation there's got to be one out there you know that that gets it all right compared to all the others no there doesn't they all have their uses and the New Living Translation I think is useful for your own interpretation when you want something more interpretive because you're struggling to understand a passage or when you're you you have a child or you're in a prison ministry or something when people are struggling I think it's totally appropriate to use a less literal more interpretive translation like the New Living Translation so we've worked through your seven good Bible translations the nkjv ESV nasby csb NIV Net Bible and NLT are there any that just like if I said I need 10 Mark two or three more that would have made it are there any that get like honorable mention or is like after these seven it just falls off the cliff you know there are various iterations of some of these I haven't read through the nasby 2020 I expect it to be good I haven't read through the Legacy Standard Bible I expect it to be good because I know will Varner we went to the same undergrad though decades apart uh he teaches at Masters I expect his work to be responsible um I actually like to use the message sometimes it's a paraphrase and not a translation although there are times when it kind of Strays into translation territory and I I have some videos on my channel where I show Peterson you know wherever his theology was and wasn't where mine is um his insight into these passages has been genuinely helpful for me at times and even the cultural like the transculturation that he'll do at times as long as you understand why he's doing it he's not saying this is what the Hebrew says I think that can be really helpful I expect the the Lutheran and the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran cnid to have done a good job in the Evangelical Heritage version I've heard good stuff now I'm get to Beyond 10 but the Berean Study Bible I have friends who were you know positive about that um a lot of people are alarmed especially in the King James only World by how many translations we have but I like to view it as a super good problem to have right we have so many people trying to help us understand God's word are there people we need to be wary of sure but solid Evangelical people trinitarians and artists who were just trying their best to pick a spot on the formal to functional spectrum and get you a translation that'll help you understand what God has said that's something to be really thankful for and our embarrassment of riches is something that puts a responsibility on our shoulders to whom much is given from that person much shall be required so let's let's play a little game I didn't prep you for this and I realized there's no perfect answer so you can just kind of give the one that comes to mind but I'm going to think of a few different people that will ask me at times for my preferred Bible translation and I realized that none of these is like this one we'll nail it but maybe just one that comes to mind that you would use okay so how about for a new believer I really have been saying recently where did it go the Christian Standard Bible is what I recommend in part because it's right in the middle between formal and functional in part because it has nice additions but in large part because they're less likely to find somebody online who's saying that it comes from Satan like I mentioned earlier I just want them to be able to read the Bible without that threat but that's where I'd go for a new believer you know it's interesting when people ask me my I really do enjoy the ESV and partly doing the apologetic Study Bible which is in the csb I've been reading it more and I thoroughly enjoy that translation as well how about four kids if your child shows every evidence of being you know a normal reader which means he or she is going to be proficient and is growing in proficiency at the regular rate I tend to say the benefits of having the same translation that the adults have in church probably outweigh the detriments of the little misunderstandings that they'll have with a little Bible translation so in my family well we're all over the place we just have kids have whatever grandma got for them uh you know you might be surprised to hear that Mr Bible translations uh has been so prodigal you know letting his kids have whatever falls into their hands but that's an evidence that I don't think it's that big of a deal and you kind of can't go wrong um but if your child struggles I would to say the new international Readers version would be really helpful let's say the child is facing dyslexia or something I think that would be good I'm totally find too the New Living Translation something easier why not the point is not to have them have this set of sacred words that is never violated throughout their lifetime you have no idea what context they're going to be living and ministering in if your goal right then is let's just get them to understand as much as possible right now we don't have to worry about the future then I would tend toward the more functional if your goal is I I think this kid's going to be a good reader um I want him to or her to grow up with the same language so that it just kind of gets baked in I see that as a value go with the ESV or the nasv whatever your church uses if it's more formal I think I know what you're going to say with this one but I want to hear clarify what about some who says I'm a pastor and I'm preparing a message or I'm a Ser I'm a student and I'm diving into the Greek and the Hebrew what translation or translations would you recommend for them I think the more formal translations are more commonly used in those settings and I think it's because they track more directly or obviously with the way way the Hebrew and the Greek operate I think there are benefits to that I do think that regular lay people who are just trying to read their Bibles and understand can be raised higher in their Bible reading ability um and can live up to the challenge of a more formal Bible translation I also just get pragmatic again and if one of my goals in preaching as I think it ought to to be and in Bible teaching in Sunday school and I do both all the time if one of my goals is to teach people how to read their Bibles and to invite people into Bible reading you know almost just by implication by the way I treat the text and that's absolutely the case then and and if I expect that people probably will pick up whatever translation I'm using I like the ESV for that purpose because of all the many additions they're beautiful I think that matters a lot matters a lot to me they um they focus on the right aspects of readability when it comes to the typography and then it'll they have something to interest and benefit everyone with all of their journaling editions and all I mean just every anything you can imagine you're going to be able to point somebody in your church to an ESV and they can get it whereas with some other translations although this is really improving in the last 10 years there was a time when for example the nasb practically had no nice additions they to me as a I was trained in typography they were all a lug L I'm sorry I'm telling the truth it matters for Bible reading it really matters I have a a video on my channel why Bible typography matters it's basically the first video on my channel and thousands of people have watched it and their eyes have been opened up a little bit to why it matters you know the shape of the text on the page um thankfully praise the lord we have so many nice additions now coming out from some of my friends at zandan and Thomas Nelson and these other versions but the ESV the Crossway folks are still out ahead of everybody else that's one reason I point to it for preachers well you heard it from one of the best if not the best on Bible translations typography and Beauty matters let's get it right right uh tell us a little bit about your your channel and uh what you cover and maybe some series you have coming up I was raised in King James onlyism my dad and mom weren't really King James only but we kind of stumbled into that World um my mom and dad were saved as adults in fact your father was instrumental in my mother's conversion maybe we can talk about that in a bit bit um but they they didn't perceive the King James onlyism of my church in high school where I also went to Christian School as a problem because we all use the King James already and to have a little extra oomph in its defense you know just wasn't a big deal to them but it was to me in a way I didn't really perceive at the time as a 14 or 15-year-old and what I came to see as time past is that King James onlyism became a banner and a a totem um a sacred totem a symbol of the superiority of you know a alleged superiority of one Christian group over others it became a point of division and Galatians 5 says that division contention and strife are works of the flesh is there any you know is there any Christian dispute that more frequently causes bitter division than this I mean maybe but in my conservative world it's constant I'm seeing it all the time and not just cuz I do work on this Jesus said blessed are the peacemakers and I saw there is still room to try to bring peace into very Troubled Waters when it comes to Bible translation so on the one hand my channel pushes back against King James onlyism on the other hand however even if you're King James only you can watch my channel and because I focus on the readability of the King James I am frequently teaching people how to read it with greater understanding I would hope that even King James only and they they they message me all the time saying this or regularly I should say thank you for your channel I disagree with you but you've taught me how to read my King James better and then positively speaking again I'm not just helping people read their King James better but I'm I'm trying to promote the idea that there is no best Bible translation that God has anointed above all others and therefore we should all use the embarrassment of riches that we've been talking about in this video and I teach people how to do that a lot of lay people are alarmed God has not given them the opport opportunity to study Greek and Hebrew so they come to these differences between the NIV and the ESV or between the new King James and the New Living Translation and they don't know what to do with them it's all too easy in that area of ignorance right people don't know what's going on for a conspiracy theory to grow like mold in that dark area of ignorance and for them to fit these differences into a narrative that goes like this the King James was totally fine or you know even my niv84 was totally fine and then you know moneyed interest came in and and Satan got his finger in there and he twisted things and he's changing the Bible that is not the case and I'm trying to build people's trust in all of the good Evangelical English Bible translations in part largely by showing them how to use them when they differ what do I do that's what my channel is all about well you're doing great work and I hope people will subscribe and follow along it's just helpful it's interesting you've kind of found a unique Niche that I don't know anybody else is really serving in that way now you emailed me about this you just hinted at it a minute ago that you were interested and sharing the story of sounds like my dad's work in some fashion uh influenced your mom to Faith i' I'd love to hear yeah back in the 70s of course before I was born um around the year of the Evangelical whatever year that was I can't remember exactly when all this occurred but my mom was something of your classic mainliner in America at the time having grown up at the Heyday of the mainline in the US she happened to attend a Lutheran Church that was that had that had pulled away from its Moorings and she thought of herself as a Christian she in general believe the Bible but the classic Evangelical emphases that I think are biblical emphases of a personal relationship with Jesus actual personal repentance from sin personal belief in Jesus death and Resurrection for sin that just had not clicked with her and a girlfriend of hers at an all girls college that she went to Longwood College in uh Virginia Virginia said why don't you come with me to hear this guy Josh McDow and if I recall correctly I think he was talking about some of the same material in evidence that demands a verdict but what really stood out to my mom and I just asked her about this actually after I went on with you last time because I it's been a long time since she's told the story and that was what stuck out to her is what I mentioned earlier that she she believed in Jesus like she didn't disbelieve that Jesus died on the cross but the whole for her sins part and the whole repentance and indwelling of the Holy Spirit part all these Evangelical emphases they had not clicked and praise the Lord through your father's Ministry she came to firm Faith which last to this day she raised her children along with the Christian husband that she met on the elevator who himself was saved uh at the University of Virginia actually by reading his Bible on his own in a time of Crisis having also come from a Mainline background they raised us and I'm so grateful for this as um uh in a Christian family taught my sister and me the truths of the gospel and what better Heritage could I possibly have Mark that's really powerful I appreciate you taking the time that you and I first met really when we talked last time and interviewed you I had no idea that was a backstory and my dad is 84 years old he's still plugging away doing ministry as an 84 year old can but every time I hear a story like that it's just it's encouraging and it's amazing and what a legacy to see that through you and your ministry you're doing that my dad was able to play a piece in that is uh is super encouraging if that was in the 70s 72 is when evidence to man's verdict came out and then he wrote more than a carpenter in 1977 so that would have been the era he was talking about either maximum sex or he was talking about the evidence for the resurrection and the Bible uh she may have heard one or both but but that's super cool Mark we're going to have you back uh I know there was you anytime you talk about Bible translations I can't imagine the amount of criticism and challenges you get uh there were definitely some of of those comments but I got a lot of positive people saying enjoy that that was helpful bring mark back so let's keep thinking of ways that we can kind of work together and and help people get and read and understand their Bibles uh more faithfully and well together so thanks for your work those of you watching make sure you go remind me is if they just search your name on YouTube will your channel come up even though I'll link it below it'll pop up they'll either run into me or into a rodeo writer or an NASCAR driver I can't remember but if they search for Mark Ward onw or Mark Ward King James version they'll probably come to my channel perfect I'll link it below and before you click away uh think about joining us here at Biola make sure you hit subscribe we've got some great interviews really launching into 2024 just reenvisioning this whole Channel this is one of my first interviews on the cool new background cool new mic we've got guests a whole new idea coming to transform this make sure you hit subscribe if you thought about studying apologetics we would love to have you in our ma program it's the top rated apologetics program fully by distance I teach classes on the resurrection problem of evil biblical sexuality reaching gen Z would love to have you in class if you're not ready for Masters but I thought you know what I'd love to Lear apologetics we actually have a certificate program where we'll kind of walk you through good training information for that is below Mark let's do it again this is a lot of fun it was an honor thank you for having me on

Channel: Sean McDowell

Views: 105,757

Keywords: why are there so many bible translations, which bible translation is best, which bible translation is the best, which bible translation should i use, which bible translation should i read, melissa dougherty bible translations, best bible translation, english translations of the bible, bible translations, bible translation, mike winger passion translation, the passion translation, best bible version, which bible is best, bible versions, melissa dougherty ex new ager

Id: 13gzStbU9qs

Length: 46min 26sec (2786 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 10 2023