Which Bible translation should you use?

In previous posts I gave the illustration of a three-legged stool. That is how many legs a stool needs to stand up on its own. For the Christian life, there are three practices that are all necessary to maintain and grow in the Christian or spiritual life.

The three practices:  (1) Bible Reading, which allows God to speak to us; (2) Prayer, which allows us to talk to God;  (3) Our witness which allows us to share with others about God.

In my own recent reading, I have noticed that many contemporary Bible scholars are very much against doing regular Bible reading from the King James Version. I thoroughly disagree! Modern English versions are very helpful to clarify what the Bible says when the older English is not clear for the modern reader. But I find that the language choices employed by modern English translations actually obscure many important features of the Bible text.

Modern translations seem to go out of their way to obscure the doctrinal terminology used by the Bible.

Modern translations are so translated as to hide the presence of many of the  figures of speech in the Bible.

Modern translations are introducing matters that are not present in the original language of the Bible, namely, Hebrew and Greek. For example, some modern English translations now render masculine pronouns by rewording the text to add the feminine pronouns, often an awkward device at best. In English, masculine pronouns can be understood as generic, so that they refer to men and women equally.

I think Political Correctness has gone too far when it begins to interfere with translating the Bible!

Therefore, I recommend using all Bible translations, but use the King James Version (or another equally faithful literal translation) as the basis for your understanding. Use the other translations to add further clarity and deeper insight as you read God’s Word.

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