Preferred translation or resources?

So after an interesting conversation today and last Sunday at where I go to church I'm kinda curious what y'all prefer for your translation of the Bible and how it's changed over the years.

I grew up usin' the NIV, and then around the time the ESV started getting big I switched over to that. I just downloaded the Holman Christian Standard Bible and so far I'm almost preferring it to the ESV.

The same friend that introduced me to the HCSB also introduced me to a site called blueletterbible.org which seems to be a very helpful tool for any possible translation issues you might have.

I usually use what translation the pastor uses and right now the Bible study podcast I listen to the teacher uses the kjv so I that's what I use

I grew up with the NIV as well! Unfortunately Zondervan updated the NIV last year, and after this year it will be very hard to get your hands on a 1984 version (new or in bulk anyway.)

Knowing that the NIV change was coming I decided to find a new translation that I wanted to teach from.

I like the NASB, but it's more difficult to read.
I also like the ESV, but it too has some really rough sentences.
I stumbled across the HCSB because several of my seminary professors (Talbot) had made contributions to the Apologetic Study Bible. At first I read it personally, but pretty soon, as I started looking into the philosophy of translation I began teaching from it, and using it in my Hebrew/Greek studies. At this point I've been preaching from it for about 2.5 years. The "pew" Bibles my church uses are HCSB. It's very readable, accurate to the original languages, and doesn't do too much interpretation in its translation.

My only major gripe with the HCSB is the poetry translations (in the Psalms, Proverbs and elsewhere). They read a little too wooden and technical.

One final thought: I really like how the HCSB is starting to translate the personal name of God in the Old Testament. Anywhere you see LORD all in capital letters in the old testament, it's really a stand in for YHWH or Yahweh. I think the HCSB is correct in giving us the personal name of God. (They're doing it in stages, wherein the 1st edition has about 49 instances of using Yahweh, the 2nd edition has about 300. I think subsequent releases will head towards translating "Yahweh" everywhere the name appears instead of the traditional LORD).

[According to my Hebrew professor Dr. Rigsby, Yahweh means "The One who causes things to be the way they are."]

I've always preferred the KJV, I Like how poetic and regal it sounds, and it's the only translation I've found that doesn’t replace words like Dragon and Unicorn for things like goats and donkeys.

Nathan James Norman wrote:
One final thought: I really like how the HCSB is starting to translate the personal name of God in the Old Testament. Anywhere you see LORD all in capital letters in the old testament, it's really a stand in for YHWH or Yahweh. I think the HCSB is correct in giving us the personal name of God. (They're doing it in stages, wherein the 1st edition has about 49 instances of using Yahweh, the 2nd edition has about 300. I think subsequent releases will head towards translating "Yahweh" everywhere the name appears instead of the traditional LORD).

[According to my Hebrew professor Dr. Rigsby, Yahweh means "The One who causes things to be the way they are."]

I like that, but personally I'm not 100% sold on all the instances being replaced with it. I'm a bit worried that the constant use of Yahweh instead of LORD placeholders can lead to a desensitize of His name to people through repeated use.

For instance, 1st Kings18:36-37 when Elijha was praying at the alter he says Yahweh 3 times, and in the translation I have it's translated as Yahweh the first and last time. The second time it's translated as LORD. If the same person is speaking I think it'd be appropriate not to translate it all three times but just the first and last. It'd need to be documented in the footnotes though that he really said Yahweh.

...If that makes sense to y'all...

tmorrill wrote:
I like that, but personally I'm not 100% sold on all the instances being replaced with it. I'm a bit worried that the constant use of Yahweh instead of LORD placeholders can lead to a desensitize of His name to people through repeated use.

For instance, 1st Kings18:36-37 when Elijha was praying at the alter he says Yahweh 3 times, and in the translation I have it's translated as Yahweh the first and last time. The second time it's translated as LORD. If the same person is speaking I think it'd be appropriate not to translate it all three times but just the first and last. It'd need to be documented in the footnotes though that he really said Yahweh.

...If that makes sense to y'all...

I think that concern is why the editors of the HCSB have decided to transition to YHWH over a longer period. But then again, I haven't seen a timeframe for the 3rd edition, so this might be as far as they're looking to go.

I grew up in a Methodist church, where the KJV was the norm. Might be one reason I never really enjoyed reading my Bible as a kid.

I got introduced to the NIV, and found it so much easier to read. As of late, I've tried checking out NAS and NCV, but NIV is still my main go-to version.

One version I still just can't get used to reading is The Message version. I am disturbed about the new version being written that replaces gender pronouns with gender-neutral pro-nouns.

I use a variety as well. For poetry, you can't beat the KJV ("1611 - Straight from Heaven!"), with the NKJV being a very close second. For narrative, I like the NIV, but I've also been taken with the NCV. On occasion I've also used the TEV (aka, the Good News Bible), as it does a few interesting things, translation-wise that give a slightly more nuanced reading in places.

Occasionally, I will turn to the Message, understanding that it is a paraphrase; however it is a paraphrase based on original languages. And then for a fun, often fascinating paraphrase, I'll read The Word on the Street, which is incredibly loose, but passionately personal and again gives an interesting perspective on things like discipleship in times of trials.

I'd agree as far as the poetry goes, KJV can't be beat. I use the Olive Tree Reader app for my tablet during Bible studies and I'll split screen between the ESV(although it'll probably become the HCSB now) and the KJV, The Message, or any relevant books.

Admittidly the tablet doesn't have the same feel of a real Bible, but it's an incredibly useful tool to get into the Word.

For me, as a kid in Christian school, we were brought up on NKJ. That's the version I remember all the old familiar verses in.

During High School, I transition to the NASB which I still prefer to this day. I still have the same Hebrew/Greek Keyword study Bible in that translation to this day. It's my baby. It's well worn and full of notes. It's like my sidearm.

Even now that I use my YouVersion Bible app on my phone and tablet in church, the NASB goes with me everywhere. I do enjoy reading KJV sometimes for the poetry like others have said especially for the poetic parts in Genesis, like the story of creation.

For light reading, I enjoy the NLT. I also teach the youth and the children's sunday school out of that version. The ESV is a recent addition to my reading and it restores some of the formality I miss about the Word reading the NLT sometimes.

But no matter what I doubt I will ever veer far from my NASB, mostly because I'm such a word nerd and I get all giddy studying Biblical Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek. It makes me wish that the English language had more depth and age to it. I guess I'm like a less educated Tolkien.

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I grew up on KJV so all those verses I memorized as a kid come out in good ol' King James. I tried NIV for a while but never really liked it for some reason. Now I use NASB almost exclusively. Occasionally I use ESV to check out a different translation or our pastor sometimes uses ESV so I'll pull that up on my phone (YouVersion).

I did dabble with the HCSB just a bit, too, but heard about some small translation variance (I don't remember what passage, sorry) and I just figured why mess with something that was called into question (even if it was a small thing) when I'm perfectly happy with NASB so I just went back to it.