Bible translations: old & new
Many thanks to all of you who have written to us about your favorite Bible translations. We’ve heard from people around the globe about how they’re exploring the Bible in its many older and newer translations and what they’ve found that is useful, healing, inspiring.
In the coming months, we’ll be sharing those contributions like the ones below—and we’d love to hear from more readers with thoughtful comments and experiences to share.
Original languages
“What is your favorite Bible translation?” I recall when that question was asked of a Bible scholar at a conference I was attending. “That’s easy,” she said. “Study it in its original languages.”
There was a marked period of silence as the audience contemplated what she had just said. For me, this was the second time in a year I had heard that advice. So, with all the courage I could muster, I called the local synagogue inquiring about Hebrew lessons.
After explaining that they were not available, the receptionist said: “Hold it! Maybe you were meant to learn Hebrew,” and she shared the name and number of a local tutor who had come to her thought. Thus began my formal journey into the study of biblical languages that culminated in a year’s worth of Koine Greek and biblical Hebrew over two separate summer sessions taught at a local seminary, along with additional work I did with the professors independently.
The insights I have gained from studying the texts in their original language are unparalleled. The Bible and the writings of Mary Baker Eddy are more alive to me today than ever!
Roy Gessford
Pacific Grove, California, US
A fresh slant
The King James version (KJV) always has been and always will be my favorite translation, as it’s one I grew up with and is familiar and comforting. It is also so poetic, and such trouble was taken at the time of its translation to make it “run”—to make it sound literate and flowing.
However, when I need to read aloud in our local village church, I occasionally find alternative translations are easier to read—to make them flow, as Shakespeare wrote, “trippingly on the tongue”!
Last month I was asked to read Psalm 65:9–13 . This is a familiar passage in the KJV, but contains lots of what I think of as old-fashioned terminology. So instead, I read from the Good News Bible, which I felt was far easier for both the reader and the listener to understand.
I regularly use the New English Bible and the New International Version when studying the Christian Science Quarterly Bible Lesson to get a fresh slant on familiar passages, as well as the Good News Bible and the wonderful Bible Lesson column in the Sentinel. I love to get a background of historical facts. It often puts a completely new view on a story one has read from childhood. (A commentary is invaluable for this whenever one is studying the Bible.)
I enjoy the insertion of different translations in the Golden Text and Responsive Readings in the Bible Lessons. The children in Sunday School like matching them up with the KJV. Please keep that going. But I always return to the KJV—you can’t beat it!
E. Ann Wild
Evesham, Worcestershire, England
German, Spanish, and English
My first encounter with the Bible was a version for children translated into German (Die Kinderbibel by Anne de Vries, 1959, original title: Kleuter Vertelboek voor de Bijbelse Geschiedenis). Through it, I learned about the main stories and characters and how by praying and being obedient to God they succeeded in their lives. My mom would read them to me when I was a kid for bedtime stories. About the same time, I became familiar with the Martin Luther translation in German and memorized Psalms 23 and 91 from it.
When I began to attend the Christian Science Sunday School, the Spanish Version Moderna was being used, and it became the first Bible I owned. But it was soon replaced by the 1960 Reina-Valera version, which remains in use today, and where I really learned how to study the Bible Lessons found in the Christian Science Quarterly.
Sunday School in English was also part of my life, and there I became acquainted with the King James Version. Since then, I have been reading and studying it and the Bible Lesson together with Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy in English. Whatever the translation or version of the Bible you read, the Bible’s counsel and guidance for everyday life remains as fresh and current as in the times its books were written and the truths contained in them were followed and practiced.
Eduardo Torfer
Mexico City, Mexico
