So many people including cults and heretics want to steer you into reading their bible, so I can understand your situation.
John MacArthur, a respected fundamental pastor, wrote a short essay explaining different Bibles.
http://www.gty.org/Resources/Issues&Answers/640
His Bible and its commentaries are pretty good.
I personally like New King James Version cause it has beautiful language while maintaining the literal translations. NASB is the best in understanding the original scripture's words and nuances in English.
New International Version is thought-to-thought and well, I did start my Bible reading with it but I now like the NKJV.
I'd stay away from Jehovah's Witnesses's New World Translation cause it's so twisted and poor scholarly work.
I'd definitely stay away from Mormon's Book of Mormons cause it fails historical, archaelogical and prophetical tests, not to mention it's heretical.
The New Jerusalem Bible is the Catholic version with added "books" which were questionable and changed scriptures to fit in their Catholic traditions. I'd stay away from them.
Do not read "The Message" cause it so butchered every word and included environmentalism, deleted God's holiness, minimized Devil's works, added Jehovah's Witnesses' favorite altered verses etc.
Oh, the muslims would want you to even stear you into the Koran, but their book wants you to kill every Jews and Christians, so don't.
You can compare all of the available Bibles for free here.
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/
2007-10-12 20:16:08
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answer #1
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answered by Sam L 3
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The New King James Version or the Authorized King James Version would be the best and most reliable.
If there is a verse that I'm not sure of, I use the New Living Translation along side, because it uses more modern language, but doesn't leave out any verses. There are other versions such as the NIV, that have skipped many scriptures and words entirely, but include them in the footnotes. The TNIV, however, doesn't even have the footnotes, so I would stay away from that one. And ones like The Message and The Living Bible are only paraphrases, not true translations.
2007-10-12 19:46:45
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answer #2
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answered by mysongsrhis 3
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The readings in Catholic churches are from the New American Bible. It is a good translation. No bible is easy to read on its own. There are difficult passages The King James is very old English and you will get lost. It may have been a good translation at one time but came out 400 years ago in 1611. The best scholarly bible with recent translation from the original languages is the New Jerusalem bible. It was translated by Jews, Catholics and Protestants. It has extensive notes.
2016-05-22 04:58:57
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answer #3
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answered by ? 3
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I own many different Bibles. They all say the same thing when you get into the details. The one's I might stay away from is the Message, and the Amplified Bibles. They attempt to explain when they ought to tell you what was written.
I use the King James Version and the New International Version mostly. But I have a concordance in case I need to know what the original says.
I recommend that you look at a lot of Bibles before purchasing one. And also consider which one your pastor uses, that can be helpful so that you can follow what's being preached about.
2007-10-12 19:52:02
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answer #4
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answered by Christian Sinner 7
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The best version for someone else may not be the best version for you (and please note that a different version does not have different stuff in it, it just may say "Your will be done" instead of "Thy will be done"). I would reccomend the NIV (New International Version) Bible though, as it is in more common language than the KJV (King James Version....written under King James....older language...with thees and thous)...try checking out www.zondervan.com they are one of the major Bible producers, and they have information about the different types of Bibles on their website. If you want an instant read, try www.BibleGateway.com you can select the book and verse, and even the translation, so you might be able to get a better idea of which translation you like the best. If you're looking at buying a Bible though, I'd reccomend a study Bible, no matter what translation you get, because it provides interesting notes that often help me to understand what I'm reading better. Good luck to you on your search.
2007-10-12 19:58:06
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answer #5
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answered by Confused 1
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New International Version is the closest to the modern language of today. It depends on how much substance your looking for. New Living translation is very paraphrased and you might miss out on some of the promises God has.New American standard Version is pretty good if you don't mind hard reading and it was the most recent bible to be retranslated from the original text. New King James is also good and has a fare amount of original text translations but not as many as NASB. I hope this helps some
2007-10-12 19:59:17
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answer #6
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answered by Anonymous
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Buy this or get from your library to help with your decision:
Don't Know Much About the Bible: Everything You Need to Know About the Good Book but Never Learned-
Kenneth C. Davis
http://www.amazon.com/Dont-Know-Much-About-Bible/dp/0380728397
You can then better assess the answers you'll receive here on YA
this is the Best Answer I can offer
2007-10-12 19:50:15
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answer #7
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answered by B C 4
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New American Standard Bible or NAB for short, it is a complete bible has all original 73 books
2007-10-12 19:45:28
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answer #8
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answered by tebone0315 7
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The quest study bible is nice, it has side bar information on some of the verses, that may be confusing to you....p.s. it's the NIV (New International Version) it's also written in a more modern english, compared to the King James version, which is from the 15th century or so
2007-10-12 19:45:56
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answer #9
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answered by Anonymous
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Hmm.. so many bibles... which one are you going to go for? will you read all of them and choose the one you think is the best? or will you take people's word and go with the flow? keep in mind that the KJV (king James version) has 7 books less than the RCV (roman catholic version) well that's interesting...
if you want to learn about God I suggest you get a copy of the holy Quran.. you will only find one version... and if you don't feel satisfied (which I doubt it) at least it will be easier for you to move on to another book since you don't have to read 200 versions of it ;)
2007-10-12 20:09:09
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answer #10
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answered by Ilyes 2
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