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Bible Translations
Posted by Lev/Christopher on August 28, 2008 at 7:48am in Notes
Every translation has its biases (inevitably) and so I take the counsel of the King James Bible translators who said that there is profit in a multiplicity of translations. I hope more will be made.
1. For readability, my favourite is the South African Messianic version called the ISRV (Institute for Scripture Research). You can read this free online at http://www.eliyah.com/thescriptures/
2. For the reasons stated by Rabbi Samuel, the RSTNE is an excellent version - it's certainly the best Two House version and its footnote commentary is geared toward that mindset. However, you may find it heavy going until you have learned the thousand or so different Hebrew words which appear in the English text. It drove our congregation nuts at first, and turned off some investigators who felt they were drowning in all the Hebrew, but it's really excellent once you have the Hebrew mastered. (That's one reason we use the ISRV for evangelism). That's why I recommend it as a 'serious study' version for maturer students or for those who already know some Hebrew. Sadly it is not online free.
3. For the best translation of the B'rit Chadashah (New Testament) plus a fantastic historical and linguistic introduction I recommend James Trimm's HRV (Hebraic Roots Version) though I find the English heavy. Also the Tanakh portion is just a revamp of another version though it does have its useful points. Sadly it is not online free though the superb introduction is: http://nccg.org/mlt/pdf/hrv_intro.pdf
4. Another fantastic version is Phil Goeble's OJB (Orthodox Jewish Bible) which is the nearest we have so far to a Messianic "Amplified Version" - its main weakness is that it follows the Masoretic Text and does not always use the True Names (it favours the use of Adonai over YHWH) plus it is aimed primarily at non-Messianic Orthodox Jews and contains a lot of Yiddish - it's primarily an evangelising tool and an excellent one of you have Orthodox friends you want to reach with the Besorah/Gospel. It has lots of Hebrew in the main text (like the RSTNE) but also includes the English equivalents in the text which I like but which is a drawback to the RSTNE (which makes you scurry to the back for meanings all the time). However, the OJB is naturally bigger because of that. You can read this free online at http://www.afii.org/OJB.pdf (warning, it's a HUGE file)
Between these four there is excellence in translation. I use other versions too but these are the four I recommend all those who ask me what to get. We use the ISRV for congregational worship and the RSTNE and HRV for serious study.
If you're a KJV fan there are at least a couple of Sacred Name versions of that. This version might be useful if you're working with a non-Messianic KJV-only Christian who has strong (even if irrational) attachments to that one. The ISRV is good for people coming from a background where dynamic-equivalent translations like the NIV are used.
If you don't mind the fact that they use Greek-based New Testaments, then David Stern's CJB (Complete Jewish Bible) might suit you, though to me it's more like a paraphrase and does, IMO, take a lot of liberties. Another one in that category is the MRV (Messianic Renewed Covenant) version of the New Testament which has lots of helpful footnotes.
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This page was created on 3 January 2011
Updated on 3 January 2011
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