A common question I hear is, “What Bible translation should I use?” This is a great question. First, it reveals a desire to use the Bible in a way that is accurate and clear. Second, there are many options to choose from. The number of English Bible translations has become a veritable alphabet soup: CSB, ESV, LSB, NASB, NIV, NLT, and on and on.

First, let’s examine *why* there are several English translations of the Scriptures. Then we can turn to discussing which translation is right for you.

Translation is Interpretation

The books that compose the Bible were written in three ancient languages. The Old Testament was composed in ancient Hebrew with a smattering of Aramaic. The New Testament was written in Greek. Bringing those ancient languages into contemporary English requires a translator to make interpretive decisions.

An example of this is the Greek word for “flesh” used frequently by Paul. Most translations bring the word over directly as “flesh” (ESV, NASB95, LEB, CSB, NET). The NIV and NLT translators render it “sinful nature.” This is a more accurate interpretation of what Paul *meant* when he used the word “flesh.” Thus, an English translation by nature must make some interpretive decisions to *accurately* bring the ancient languages into contemporary parlance. Just how much interpretation needs to be employed depends on the translator’s approach to his work.

Translation Philosophies

When an interpreter begins to translate the Bible from its original languages into English, he adopts an approach known as a translation philosophy. There are three major philosophies that English Bibles employ: formal equivalence, functional equivalence, and free translation.

Formal Equivalence

Often when you hear a person say, “This is a literal translation,” this is the philosophy employed by the translators.

Popular formal equivalence translations include NASB, LSB, and ESV.

Approaching translation with a formal equivalence mindset is an attempt to mirror the original languages as closely as possible, while making it readable in English. A simple example of this is found in Genesis 1:1. Hebrew sentences are structured with the verb before subject. So, the Hebrew text *literally* rendered says:

"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." 

Because in English grammar, the subject comes before the verb, translators reorder the words to say:

 “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”

Translators making a formal equivalent translation will make small changes like this to make the English readable, but they won’t go out of their way to reorder words except to make them flow better in English sentence structure.

When it comes to words, formal equivalence also attempts to render words directly into their equivalent English usage. As mentioned earlier, Paul’s use of “flesh” in Romans 8:13 comes from the Greek word *sarx*. Formal equivalence says this word is used for the physical material that covers the body, so we will choose the equivalent word in English: flesh. No consideration is given to the *meaning* of the word.

Functional Equivalence

Other translators approach their work with a functional goal. Maintaining faithfulness to the meaning of the original languages, translators working with the goal of functional equivalence want to bring those words closer to a “normal” or contemporary English meaning.

Popular Bibles that use this translation philosophy are the NIV and CSB. The NLT would fall under this category as well, but even more pronounced in its use of contemporary words and structure.

Going back to our example in Romans 8:13, the NIV and NLT render *sarx* (flesh) as ‘sinful nature.’ This translation is functional because the meaning of the word takes precedence over the word itself. When Paul says, “If you live according to the flesh, you will die,” what he means is, “If you live according to the sinful nature, you will die.” That interpretation brings clarity to what could be a confusing word in our contemporary understanding.

Another example of how functional equivalence differs from formal equivalence is found in 2 Corinthians 5:14. ESV (formal equivalence) renders the first phrase,

     "For the love of Christ controls us,"

But what is the love of Christ? Is it the love of Christ for us that controls us? Or is it our love for Christ that controls us? Here a decision must be made by the reader.

NIV (functional equivalence) answers it for us in translation:

     "For Christ’s love compels us,"

They see the original language saying, “love of Christ” and interpret that for us as “Christ’s love.” This is not one-to-one (or word-for-word) to the Greek text of 2 Corinthians, but it is an *accurate* rendering of the meaning of the phrase.

Free Translation

Free translations worry less about the original words and grammar and focus more on the ideas that those original words and grammar convey.

Eugene Peterson’s *The Message* translation is the prime example of a free translation.

He takes the idea of 2 Corinthians 5:14 and renders it this way:

     "Christ’s love has moved me to such extremes. His love has the first and last word in everything we do."

Here he fleshes out the meaning of “controls/compels,” AND he adds an explanation of what that means.

Which Translation Should I Use?

The honest answer to this question is: You should use as many translations as you have access to! We have an embarrassment of riches when it comes to Bible translations. In my Bible software alone, I have access to 24 different versions of the English Bible. There are also any number of free apps you can download and have access to multiple translations at your fingertips.

There are benefits to choosing one *primary* translation for everyday reading and memorization. Personally, I use the English Standard Version (ESV) as my daily reader. While it doesn’t check all the boxes, it is a faithful formal equivalence translation that maintains some of the majesty of the English language.

When I’m not using the ESV, my new go-to is the Christian Standard Bible (CSB) or NIV (preferably the 1984 edition). These two are much more enjoyable for long-form reading rather than nuanced word-by-word studies.

What’s best for you? If you are coming fresh to the Scriptures, or you’ve been around the Bible but never in it, I would recommend the CSB or NIV. If you’ve got a bit of Bible in your background or you are looking for a more “word-for-word” style translation, you cannot go wrong with the ESV or the digital-only Lexham English Bible (LEB).

A Note on the King James Version (KJV)

The King James Version of the Bible is the most recognized English translation in the world. However, I would recommend against it being anyone’s primary version. The reason behind this caution is the manuscripts the New Testament was based on. In 1611, there was only a small collection of Greek manuscripts and many of these were from less reliable copy streams. While these reliability issues did not impact any major theological doctrine, the fact that we have more and better manuscripts today means today’s translations have higher accuracy in relation to the original texts than the KJV. Couple this with the difficulty for the modern reader to comprehend the Elizabethan English, and you have a good case for finding another more contemporary translation.