What Is The Best, Most Accurate Translation Of The Holy Bible Available In English?

OK – I hope you’re ready for a real answer. The reason is: how to determine a bible’s accuracy is NOT simple OR obvious, and most people (including those answering above) make one of two very basic mistakes when evaluating bibles for accuracy.
First, let’s talk about those 2 mistakes in particular, then I’ll provide web sites which discuss accuracy and my own 2 bits…
Common Misconception #1 – “The older a bible is, the more accurate it is”
This is usually one of the reasons people like to promote the King James Version (KJV). The *primary* problem with this is, several advances in biblical translation scholarship have been made over the last 400 years, and *continue* to be made. For example: the translators of the KJV had essentially a single available original language document – of questionable authenticity – from which to translate. Modern scholars have literally *hundreds*, many much more ancient (and therefore much less edited) For example: modern translators have had 400 years of improvements in the understanding of ancient Hebrew compared with the translators of the KJV. Any modern, scholarly translation is *bound* to be more consistently accurate than a translation that is 400 years old, or even 100 years old.
Common Misconception #2 – “The more word-for-word literal a translation, the more accurate it is”
Although it may be counter-intuitive, this is a *false* statement. In fact, it is widely recognized among translators that the more word-for-word literal a translation, the LESS accurate it is likely to be! This is explained with examples on the web sites below.
OK, so now we know 2 things for certain:
a) For the most accurate translation, we want a relatively modern, scholarly translation.
b) For the most accurate translation, we want a translation that is NOT very word-for-word literal.
Given those two *certainties*, we can eliminate the following versions right off the bat (remember: accuracy is our primary goal !):
KJV – too old
ASV – too old
interlinear bibles – WAY too literal
NWT – too literal
NASB – too literal
ESV, RSV, KJV, NKJV – caution: more literal than is good for accuracyhttp://www.zondervan.com/images/cms/Bibl…
OK, now some web pages that discuss evaluating accuracy of bible versions
Page #1 – Summary: accuracy is not easily determined by anyone not accredited as a scholar in the original ancient languages of the bible. Still, there are some indicators that are useful for the layman in determining accuracy.http://www.bible-reviews.com/topics_accu…
Page #2 – Summary: overview of some indicators which can be used to evaluate a bible’s accuracyhttp://www.bible-reviews.com/topics_accu…
Page #3 – Summary: side-by-side comparison of how the rendering of the tetragrammaton affects accuracyhttp://bible-reviews.com/accuracytetragr…
My 2 bits: Everything before can be summed up by my recommendations pagehttp://www.bible-reviews.com/selector.ht…
Note that, in my personal *opinion*, the New Jerusalem Bible is still the most accurate English translation available today. The Revised English Bible also gets very high marks, and (to a lesser extent) the New Revised Standard Version. However, consider carefully what YOU want in a bible before choosing one. I will be happy to answer any specific questions regarding bible versions – email me.
Jim

you could get one of those bibles with the literal english written under the greek text for your NT…..can’t for the life of me remember what that kind of bible is called…..aaargghh driving me nuts trying to remember…someone on here will know…anyway they’re great

The Catholic Bible.

New King James