What is the best Study Bible and what translation?

Question

I have a lot of Study Bibles and would like to narrow them down to at least three which ones do you choose.

Answer 1

If I am studying, I like the NIV. Just for reading through, I like the New Living Translation.

Answer 2

Depends on you...

I use my PC exclusively now, carrying a notebook to Bible class, etc.

Find an ACCURATE translation you can easily read and understand. NIV and NASB are good, CEV is a little simpler language and is also very good.

American Bible Society publishes "The Learning Bible" in a few versions. It is a very good study Bible with lots of color photos and things to help you better understand the scriptures.

p.s. I am a New Testament translator and use Greek almost exclusively. The English translation I routinely post from in here is the NIrV, the same translation I gave my then 7 year old daughter. Called the New International Readers' Version, it is translated at a grade level of 2.9. VERY simple language, yet amazingly close to the original meaning.

Windwispers: The new world mistranslation falsely translates "kurios" SEVERAL HUNDRED times. There is no justification. The person who claimed to be its primary translator admitted under oath in federal court that he was incapable of reading even very simple Hebrew or Greek phrases.

Answer 3

Please read these references:

Why did the recently published “New International Version” (NIV) of the Bible fail to use the name of God where it appears about 7,000 times in ancient Bible manuscripts? In response to a person who inquired about this, Edwin H. Palmer, Th.D., Executive Secretary for the NIV’s committee wrote:

“Here is why we did not: You are right that Jehovah is a distinctive name for God and ideally we should have used it. But we put 2 1/4 million dollars into this translation and a sure way of throwing that down the drain is to translate, for example, Psalm 23 as, ‘Yahweh is my shepherd.’ Immediately, we would have translated for nothing. Nobody would have used it. Oh, maybe you and a handful [of] others.
. . . We are the victims of 350 years of the King James tradition. . . . It was a hard decision, and many of our translators agree with you.”


Old Testament:
In fact, the New World Translation is a scholarly work. In 1989, Professor Benjamin Kedar of Israel said:
"In my linguistic research in connection with the Hebrew Bible and translation, I often refer to the English edition as what is known as the New World Translation. In doing so, I find my feeling repeatedly confirmed that this kind of work reflects an honest endeavor to achieve an understanding of the text that is as accurate as possible. Giving evidence of a broad command of the original language, it renders the original words into a second language understandably without deviating unnecessarily from the specific structure of the Hebrew....Every statement of language allows for a certain latitude in interpreting or translating. So the linguistic solution in any given case may be open to debate. But I have never discovered in the New World Translation any biased intent to read something into the text that it does not contain."

New Testament:

While critical of some of its translation choices, BeDuhn called the New World Translation a “remarkably good” translation, “better by far” and “consistently better” than some of the others considered. Overall, concluded BeDuhn, the New World Translation “is one of the most accurate English translations of the New Testament currently available” and “the most accurate of the translations compared.”—Truth in Translation: Accuracy and Bias in English Translations of the New Testament.

“Here at last is a comprehensive comparison of nine major translations of the Bible:
King James Version,
New American Standard Bible,
New International Version,
New Revised Standard Version,
New American Bible,
Amplified Bible,
Today's English Version (Good News Bible),
Living Bible,
and the New World Translation.
The book provides a general introduction to the history and methods of Bible translation, and gives background on each of these versions. Then it compares them on key passages of the New Testament to determine their accuracy and identify their bias. Passages looked at include:
John 1:1; John 8:58; Philippians 2:5-11; Colossians 1:15-20; Titus 2:13; Hebrews 1:8; 2 Peter 1:1

Thank you, and happy reading!
Jason BeDuhn
Associate Professor of Religious Studies, and Chair
Department of Humanities, Arts, and Religion
Northern Arizona University

Answer 4

I like my MacArthur study Bible in the NKJV. But I also like using the e-Sword software available for download from a link on the Free Stuff page @ http://web.express56.com/~bromar/ because it comes with the KJV with Strong's numbers so that when you run your mouse pointer over the number the original Greek or Hebrew word pops up along with a definition and you can also download other Bible and commentaries and maps and the ISBE and the KJ concordance and a lot of other great study add ons all for Free!

Answer 5

I've always found commentaries of far more use than study bibles. You may want to give it a try. For an excellent overview of any book, it's tough to beat J. Vernon McGee's commentaries. McGee isn't big on the gifts of the Spirit, but I still love him and love his feel for history and the way he brings various bible characters to life. If you need to go deeper than McGee, then try any of the old guys that are often free on-line or inexpensive on CD - Clarke, Henry, etc.

The number one best bet though is to just get a Concordance and go to town on your own. Pick a topic and dive in. It's amazing what happens when it's just you and the HS.

Answer 6

I have always liked the Womens Study bible. I am not sure which translation it is. It gives good points to think about and translates into a language that is easy to understand.

Answer 7

Thompson Chain=====KJV

Dake's Annotated Ref. Bible====KJV

Answer 8

I prefer the Bible that has not taken out Gods Devine name. I use KJV, and The New World Translation. Gods name is in there over 7000 times. I just love it. KJV has Gods name in Psalms 83: 18

Answer 9

A good NAB with footnotes or my personal favorite, although not a "Study Bible" is the Douay for accuracy in translation.


The most beautiful and traditional Catholic Bible in English!

Catholics looking for the traditional Catholic Bible in English
should look no further!

The Douay-Rheims Bible is an English translation of the Latin Vulgate Bible, a version universally used in the Church for over 1500 years, itself meticulously translated from
the original Hebrew and Greek by St. Jerome (A.D. 340-420).

In 1546, the Council of Trent declared the Latin Vulgate Bible as authentic, and declared that “No one (may) dare or presume under any pretext whatsoever to reject it” (4th Session, April 8, 1546).

In 1943, Pope Pius XII stated that the continuous use of the Vulgate Bible in the Church for many centuries showed that it was “free from any error whatsoever in matters of faith and morals” (Divino Afflante Spiritu (1943), paragraph 21).

In 1749-1752, Bishop Challoner, knowing that many English Catholics were reading distorted Protestant versions of the Bible such as the King James Version (KJV), made major revisions to the Douay-Rheims version, to improve its readability without diminishing its accuracy.

The revised Douay-Rheims Bible has been approved by the Church many times over, including the approbation of Cardinal Gibbons for the 1899 edition that Baronius Press is publishing.

For over 300 years, the Douay Rheims Bible was the only Catholic English translation of Scripture used. It continues to be used officially in Catholic churches today.

Many anti-Catholics accuse the Church of having hidden Scripture from the faithful by refusing to translate it into the vernacular tongue. The Douay-Rheims was completed in 1609, and is therefore older than the King James Version, the oldest Protestant translation still in use, which was published in 1611. The Rheims New Testament was published nearly thirty years earlier, in 1582.

Further, the translators of the KJV make specific reference to the Douay version in their translators’ preface. It is commonly acknowledged that, in preparing the KJV, the translators made use of the Rheims New Testament and adopted many of its readings in preference to those of other English editions.

Since it was translated quite literally and with great reverence for each individual word from the Vulgate, which in turn reflects the structure of the original languages very clearly, the Douay-Rheims Bible can give great insight into the minds of the sacred authors. The notes, written by Bishop Challoner are
entirely faithful to the teachings of the Holy Catholic Church.

Answer 10

Rainbow Study Bible NIV version - I like it because it color codes all verses in the Bible into various categories and has a cross-reference with other verses.