Bible translations
The original translation of the Bible was the Septuagint (known as the "LXX"), which was Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament). It is the oldest version of the Bible extant today.[1] This is the version of the Old Testament was used by Jesus and His followers, and few disputed interpretations in that Bible (such as the prophesy of a virgin birth of the Messiah) were carried over into the New Testament.
The Protestants rely primarily on the untranslated Masoretic Hebrew Texts, while the Greek Orthodox Church relies primarily on the Septuagint. The Roman Catholic Church relies primarily on the Latin Vulgate, which is a translation of the Septuagint into Latin by Jerome around A.D. 400.
There is no fully conservative translation of the Bible as of 2009. All modern translations avoid references to Hell and allow feminist ideology to change the meaning in key places (e.g., "sons of God" becomes "children of God," which has a very different connotation). The best modern versions are listed in chronological order below, with their shortcomings noted:
- King James Version (limited by arcane English as of 1611, before many new conservative terms developed; lacks quotation marks; losing popularity)
- New American Standard Bible (includes many passages of doubtful authenticity but uses notes and italics to mark such passages; becoming dated itself)
- New International Version (lowered to the 7th grade level with many unpublicized, liberal word changes, as in purging references to the unborn child[2])
- English Standard Version (scholarly literal word-for-word translation, but based on the liberal Revised Standard Version)
- Holman Christian Standard Bible (has some unisex, gender-inclusive language, as in "fish for people" (Mt 4:19))
In addition, all of the above translations except the King James Version downplay the existence of Hell.
An entire list of the major translations of the Bible into English includes:
- Geneva Bible (the first full-length English translation of the Bible, and the one used by Puritans)
- Douay-Rheims
- Douay-Challoner
- King James Version (also known as the Authorised Version)
- Revised Standard Version
- New Revised Standard Version
- New International Version
- Today's New International Version
- New English Bible
- Amplified Bible
- Living Bible
- English Standard Version
- New American Standard Bible
- New_World_Translation_of_the_Holy_Scriptures
- Confraternity Bible
- New American Bible
- New Jerusalem Bible
- Jerusalem Bible
- Good News Bible
- New King James Version
- New Living Translation
- Complete Bible - An American Translation
- Bible In Living English
- American Standard Version
- Holman Christian Standard Bible[3]
- New Century Version
- The NET Bible[4]
Interlinear Translations
- Interlinear NIV Hebrew-English Old Testament
- Emphatic Diaglott Greek-English New Testament
References
- ↑ http://www.ecmarsh.com/lxx/
- ↑ The NIV changed "from his mother's womb" to "from birth" (Luke 1:15), "cornerstone" to "capstone" in referencing Christ, and "Lucifer" to "morning star" in referencing Satan (Isaiah 14:12).
- ↑ http://www.biblegateway.com/versions/index.php?action=getVersionInfo&vid=77
- ↑ http://bible.org/netbible/index.htm
See also
- Analysis of the popularity of the major translations
- Listing, with book covers, of all the English translations with a brief description of each
- Disputed Biblical Translations
- Compare translations
- Translations compared on one page, verse by verse
- KJV searchable version
- Word Analysis of Bible
- Feminist Bible
- Many Bibles in pdf, including English Revised Version
- Superb Bible searching tool that includes the older Wycliffe and Tyndale Bibles
