Translations

When I lead Bible study, I encourage the use of different translations. It gives a different spin on some of the verses.

The Tuesday group has the NASB (New American Standard Bible) [ the one I use], NIV (New International Version), NRSV (New Revised Standard Version - one used in our worship services), Good News Bible, and maybe even a NKJV (New King's James Version).

I use my translation because it has the verses as I remember them from my youth plus it keeps some of the poetry.  For example: from Mark 1:19 from the NIV is "The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!" from NASB is "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel." from NRSV is "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent and believe in the good news." They of course are very similar but "is at hand" seems to me to more powerful.  

For future reference http://www.biblegateway.com/ is a great website to use when you are looking for a chapter or verses when you are online.  I got the NASB & NIV translations above there (they do not have the NRSV on their site but do have different language Bible translations).

The rationale for the newer translations is to bring the language closer to the language of the today.  I think something is lost when we dumb down the Word.  "Thy" is not a frightening word, but we change it to "your".

One of the people in the study said my Bible is a Baptist Bible.  I guess I am conservative in my Bible too!

translation (n) 1 the process of translating words or text from one language into another : Constantine's translation of Arabic texts into Latin. • a written or spoken rendering of the meaning of a word, speech, book, or other text, in another language : a German translation of Oscar Wilde's play | a term for which there is no adequate English translation. 2 the conversion of something from one form or medium into another : the translation of research findings into clinical practice.