Since I’ve been posting so little I’m going to resort to commenting on other people’s posts. Or at least this one. For those who may be somewhat new to translations/versions of the Bible, Rick Mansfield wrote a very detailed and helpful Top Ten Bible Versions: Revisited (2010) which has links to reviews he did of most of these translations in 2006.
In case you’d like to know what I like (not that it matters), it’s very similar to him.
His list:
1. Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB)
2. New Living Translation (NLT)
3. NET Bible (New English Translation)
4. New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)
5. New American Standard Bible (NASB)
6. Good News Translation (AKA Today’s English Version; GNT/TEV)
7. The Message
8. New Jerusalem Bible (NJB)
9. Revised English Bible (REB)
10. Today’s New International Version (TNIV)
HONORABLE MENTIONS
The King James Version, English Standard Version, The Modern Language Bible, God’s Word.
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My top 9:
His 1 and 2 are my primary and secondary.
I like the NET but some of it reads a little strange for me and I don’t like replacing fear (of God) with respect and awe, although I always use it for comparison. I love the concept of the fear of God. It would go to about eight for me even though it’s fine I’m sure.
NRSV is my #3 and was my main translation for three years prior to switching to the HCSB and NLT combo last year.
I still like the NASB also. I’ll take that over the ESV.
I also like the GNB (GNT on his list–I like to use the older GNB designation, Good News Bible, so that it doesn’t get confused with the Greek New Testament). Gordon Fee seems to like this translation as his go-to dynamic version in some of his commentaries.
I would put The Message at #9 for comparison purposes only. If you look real hard you’ll find a good verse or two.
Then I would have TNIV at #6 (NIV was my main translation for over two decades–maybe I’m tired of it) and REB at #7 (its predecessor, the NEB, was F.F. Bruce’s go-to dynamic translation from what I saw) which is a great literary translation. That makes nine.
But I mainly wanted to point out Rick Mansfield’s post and the links he has to his prior reviews in case anyone new to this kind of thing wants to go look it up.


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