Which Translation?

We've been talking here about the biblical canon, but let's take it another step. Which translation of the Bible should we use? Or, which translation does one think is best?

I'll confess up front my preference for the New Revised Standard Version. It blends a certain formalism with a flexibility that the text itself allows. Before I started using the NRSV, for some time I used the NIV, and before that the New American Standard Bible. One's choice in a translation will depend in part on one's theology or one's context. If you attend a church that uses the NRSV, you're probably more likely to use that translation than if you attend one where the NIV is generally used.

So, to get our conversation off, let me offer some definitions:

THEORIES OF TRANSLATION

One of the most important questions facing the translator concerns how close one wants to get to the original literal reading. As Gordon Fee and Douglas Stuart ask, how far are we willing to go to bridge the gap between the original and the receptor languages? * Of course there are many people who are satisfied and delight in the archaic nature of the older translations. As Keith Crim points out translators will often retain vocabulary and sentence structure that reflect the wording of the KJV. * Yet, even the early translations such as the KJV or Luther's German translation tried to reflect the idioms and speech of the common person. There are essentially three different ways of approaching this question:

1. LITERAL

The literal theory seeks to keep as close as possible to the original wording. It tries to keep intact the historical distance. For example, issues of money or weights and measures are not changed to modern usage. (KJV, NASB, RSV, NRSV)

2. FREE

Under this theory, the translator attempts to translate the idea from one language to the other, thereby eliminating most of the historical distance. They do the hard part for you. Most paraphrases lie here. (Cotton Patch, Phillips, Living Bible, The Message).

3. DYNAMIC EQUIVALENCE

Under this theory the translators attempt to translate words, idioms, grammar into the most precise equivalent of the receptor language. (Among DE translations are the NIV, GNB, Jerusalem Bible and the New American Bible)

So, which translation do you choose, and why?




*Sources

Gordon D. Fee & Douglas Stuart, How to Read the Bible for all Its Worth, 2nd ed., (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1993), 34-35.

Keith Crim, "Modern English Versions of the Bible," in The New Interpreter's Bible, 12 vols., Leander Keck, et al, eds., (Nashville: Abingdon, 1994), 1:23.