Many people grew up with the King James Version and still love the style and beauty of the translation. The King James Version is the most important book in the English language, having shaped the way English was spoken for hundreds of years. Below are some of the most prominent and best translations:
No single individual has all the skills necessary today to produce a good translation. The best ones are done by teams of competent evangelical scholars and reviewed by others. There are dozens of English translations to choose from. Most translations are on a continuum between being “literal” (staying as close to the original words and literary structure as possible) and “dynamic” (communicating the meaning of the passage in a way that the modern reader will understand, even if extra words are introduced that are not in the original text). As the translation becomes more readable in English, it will become less literal. It is very literal but practically meaningless. If you simply read the English words, you are left, in most cases, with a confusing jumble of words. An Interlinear New Testament gives the Greek text on one line and, under it, the approximate English word for each Greek word. A very accurate “literal” translation would be very unreadable. Further, readability can become an issue.
The more a translation tries to express the original meaning in contemporary language, the more subjective interpretation is introduced. A third option might be to leave the expression intact but include an explanatory footnote about what is actually meant.Īs our example shows, the most literal translation may not be the most accurate. In this case, translating break a leg as “good luck” might be better. If you translate the idiom literally, the readers may get the wrong impression if they do not understand the cultural hijinks behind the phrase. If you have a friend who is involved in a live theatre production, and you want to wish her well, you might say, “Break a leg,” an idiom that, in the theater world, replaces saying, “Good luck” (which is considered bad luck to say). Additionally, every language has idioms and figures of speech-notoriously hard to translate-as well as historical and cultural factors that may affect the connotation of words in ways that cannot be translated.Īn example in English will help illustrate. There is often no perfect one-to-one correspondence between words in different languages. Someone reading on a fifth-grade level might prefer a translation different from what a college student is reading. One translation might be better for study, and another might be better for public reading. Others try to be “dynamic,” or “thought-for-thought,” providing the overall meaning of the text in modern language, not necessarily providing word-for-word correspondence.
Some translations try to be “literal,” aiming for an exact, word-for-word correspondence as much as possible. Each translation of the Bible follows certain translation principles that will affect the final work. Choosing the most accurate translation is difficult because it is somewhat like asking, “What is the best brand of truck?” It depends on what you plan to do with it and what criteria you are using to evaluate it.
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