Do you have a favorite Bible?

[illuminator]

Maybe a different version or translation than coc approved? I really liked the Complete Jewish Bible by David H. Stern. But it was a one man translation!!! Wasn't Hugo McCord's also? Most thought if you didn't use a KJV Thompson Chain Reference like Peter and Paul, it was hell-bound for you!

[agricola]

I started with a multi-translation version - four major translations with the same passages all together on every two page spread (two columns per page) so you could directly compare.

I think it had KJV, and the Living Bible and NASV and - something else.

Then I got some other translations. I probably own at least five or six currently. I still have my first personal KJV which I 'won' in third grade? Bible class for reading the Bible every day for a year or something like that. It is a red letter version too in 'simulated leather'.
It isn't the version I generally use though!

My usual standard version is the JPS (new 1980's - 1990's) Tanakh (I have several volumes with that translation - some plain, some with commentary and at least one that has both the Hebrew as well as the JPS English translation in it), although it doesn't have an NT included of course. I think the only NT I have is probably that old KJV.

[Ashes]

the Cotton Patch Version

...and ESV

[illuminator]

agricola, have you seen Stern's Jewish New Testament?

http://www.amazon.com/Jewish-New-Testam ... bc?ie=UTF8

[Opie]

My 'go to' bible is the updated (2011) New International Version (NIV). Also use the New Living Translation (NLT) and the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV). At the CoC I used to attend, some of the elders spoke out against any translation other than the KJV, but that didn't stop the majority of the congregation from continuing to use the NIV.

[agricola]

agricola, have you seen Stern's Jewish New Testament?

http://www.amazon.com/Jewish-New-Testam ... bc?ie=UTF8

I know what it is, I have seen it and seen reviews of it, and I have absolutely no interest in it whatsoever.

If anyone is interested in an ACTUAL Jewish look at the NT, I would recommend Levine and Brettler's The Jewish Annotated New Testament.

http://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/0195 ... 1_2&sr=8-2


Stern's version is a product of the deceptive 'Jews for Jesus' group, which is an underhanded non-Jewish movement targeting Jews for conversion. Talk about a translation with an agenda! no, I don't have one of those.

[Ivy]

I have not read the Bible in years.....years!!

The version I used the most back in the day was the NIV. I was told by one cofc preacher that the
NIV is not recommended because it distorts something. I believe it was that Abraham's belief in the Lord
being "credited to him as righteousness", since this would go against the cofc's works salvation doctrine.
I could be wrong, but maybe someone will remember this argument and what it was about. I'd still have
to say that if I was going to read a bible it would probably be the NIV. But I love the uniqueness of each
translation -- each sheds new light on some word / concept or other.

[Moogy]

I remember that argument against the NIV, Ivy. That preacher (as well as others) made a big deal about the distinction between the words "as" and "for," and also the Greek words translated in these two ways. This was sometimes called the "Robe of Righteousness" argument. Even then, I knew the arguments made no sense at all.

[Moogy]

Back to the topic of favorite translations. I prefer the KJV, because of the beauty of the language, and because I did all my childhood memorization with KJV. So if I want to find a verse I sort of recall, I can go to one of the online Bible sites, enter the familiar words in a KJV search, and presto, I can usually find it.
I own dozens of translations, from back in my COC days when I felt it necessary to dig deep to find the real and correct meaning of every verse. That sort of analysis is no longer important to me.

[illuminator]

Sheesh. Sorry I asked.