Open two Bibles at the same verse and the words may not match. That is not a sign that something has gone wrong. Every translation has to decide how closely to follow the original wording, and how much to smooth it into natural English. Knowing where a Bible sits on that scale tells you most of what you need to know about it.

The spectrum

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No position on this line is the “right” one. Each buys something and gives something up.

The three approaches

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Approach	What it does	Examples
Literal word for word	Keeps the exact words and phrases of the original. Faithful to the text, but sometimes hard to understand. Holds a constant historical distance, without concern for contemporary usage.	King James Version (KJV) New American Standard Bible (NASB) Legacy Standard Bible (LSB)
Dynamic equivalent thought for thought	Keeps a constant historical distance as to history and facts, but updates the writing style and grammar. This does allow for interpretation of the text — especially where the work is that of one translator or a very small group.	New International Version (NIV) GOD’S WORD Translation (GW)
Free translation paraphrase	Translates the ideas without being constrained by the original words or language, seeking to remove historical distance altogether. Readable, but possibly not precise. You will definitely be hearing the interpretation of the translator.	The Living Bible (TLB) The Message

My favorite among the literal translations is a more recent one, the Legacy Standard Bible (LSB). It keeps the scholarship of the others while using more contemporary English.

Both the NIV and GOD’S WORD had broad input from scholars and translators, which is worth knowing when you weigh how much interpretation has entered a translation.

The Message has had great benefit, even though it is largely the work of one man, Eugene Peterson. It began as he tried to write the Scripture in a way his own children could understand; many years later he had translated the whole Bible. As you build up a library of translations, it is one to include.

Kinds of Bibles

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Most translations are available in several different styles of Bible. Here are a few of the many kinds.

Kind	What you get
Traditional	Text only, with minimal footnotes.
Study Bible	Extensive footnotes and explanatory notes beside the text. Often cross references, a narrative commentary and maps — some also carry a cyclopedic index or a concordance.
Reference Bible	Usually a cyclopedic index (like an encyclopedia, pointing to the verse where a word or thought is used) and a concordance (like a dictionary of common words, with examples and verse references).
Devotional Bible	Selected verses for hospital visits, weddings, funerals and other occasions. Often answers to frequently asked questions.
Children’s Bible	Colour drawings, maps and simplified stories.
Parallel Bible	Two to eight translations set side by side.

One last thing worth knowing. The earliest translations were based on the earliest texts available at the time. Modern archaeology has since turned up many documents that those translators never saw, which is part of why newer translations can differ from older ones.

Why I keep two

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The quotations on this site are from GOD’S WORD unless a page says otherwise. I read it because it is clear and it moves, and because a translation you actually read beats a more exact one you do not. I keep the Legacy Standard Bible open beside it for study.

Here is the honest reason. A translation that works for readability has to settle ambiguities that the original left open. Usually that is a service. Now and then the ambiguity was the interesting part, and once it is settled you cannot see it any more.

Three examples, all from pages on this site.

Luke 2:7. GOD’S WORD says there was no room in the inn. Luke’s word is kataluma, a guest room — and when he means a commercial inn, as in the story of the Good Samaritan, he uses an entirely different word. The only other place he uses kataluma is the upstairs room where the Last Supper is eaten. “Inn” is defensible and it is the traditional English rendering. It also makes that connection invisible.

The day of the crucifixion. In Mark, Luke and John, GOD’S WORD says Friday. The Greek word is paraskeuē — Preparation, the day before a Sabbath. Because that was ordinarily a Friday, the word came to mean Friday. But which Sabbath is precisely the question, and the English has answered it for you before you got there.

Genesis 6:14. GOD’S WORD tells Noah to build a ship. The Hebrew word is tevah — a box, a chest — and it is never the ordinary word for a ship, oniyah. On this one GOD’S WORD stands alone: the Legacy Standard, King James, NIV, ESV and NASB all say ark, which is the Latin arca, a chest. The thing has no rudder, no sail and no pilot, and the only other tevah in the Bible is the basket that carried the infant Moses through the Nile. Call it a ship and you have quietly made it a vessel; leave it a box and it is a rescue. See Noah and the Flood.

Neither of those is an error. Both are decisions, and a thought-for-thought translation exists to make them. That is exactly why I would not want to study from one on its own.

So: GOD’S WORD to read, LSB to check. And when the two disagree with each other, that disagreement is worth a minute of your time — it is nearly always sitting on top of something.

That is not a theory about translation. It is what happens here. Before a passage goes on a page I read it in both, and I quote whichever one serves that passage — the clear rendering where clarity is what is wanted, the older wording where the older wording is carrying something. Every quotation on this site says which translation it is.

And where the two disagree in a way you would notice, I tell you on the page rather than quietly choosing one and moving on. You will find that happening on Passion Week and on the birth of Jesus, and both times it turned out to be the most interesting paragraph on the page.