Bible Reading Project: Trusted Translation Poll Results

Featured Projects

Read the Bible Aloud

Some of the most fun I've had in my Bible study time has been sustained periods of shouting God's Word aloud. Throughout Scripture God calls His people to response and action, and often a spoken word is the simplest form of response. Putting God's Word in your mouth and ears may be the most effective way of placing it within your heart.
Moleskine Notebook Bible

Create an interleaved Bible by pasting alternating pages from old abused paperback editions into a large plain notebook. With a little ingenuity and some old Bibles and some household items you can have a study tool similar to Jonathan Edward's blank Bible.
Creating Cross References

One of the most common ways to take notes in your Bible is to create your own cross-references in the margins, linking verses that interpret and illuminate each other. Often the process and order of creating these cross references leads to new revelation as topics connect and diverge, one theme leads to another and the relationship between topics in the Word often brings light.
Newsletters

My monthly newsletter articles feature the fruits of study and obedience to fulfill God's call as an urban missionary in the Metro Detroit area. The newsletter posts feature the opening article and a link to the full newsletter and to old newsletters. The articles focus on discovering intimacy and passion on the urban mission field and in Muslim Ministry.
Christ's Commands: Amplified Bible

This highlighting project didn't start out with a complex color scheme, but grew from the desire to focus on a single subject. Jesus makes an unequivocal statement in John 14:15 that constantly challenged me as a young believer and continues to stir me and burn me today: "If you love me you will keep my commandments."p>
Homemade KJV Looseleaf

printkjv.ifbweb.com offers free Microsoft word and Plain Text files of the entire KJV. This means that the text block can reformatted and printed it any way. It also features the books of the Bible in individual documents so you can print an individual book to look at. Perhaps the most obvious use of this resource is the creation of an interleaf Bible.p>

Monday, May 10, 2010

Trusted Translation Poll Results

The results are in for the (first?) Most Trusted Translation(s) poll. A total of 42 of you voted, and I thank you for your input. For posterity the results were:

The winner with 16 votes and 38% of the readership is the New American Standard Bible or NASB. The NASB has marketed itself as the most literal translation for a long time and it makes decent sense that the most literal translation would also be the most trusted.

There was a tie for second place between the English Standard Version or ESV and the King James Version or KJV which had a late surge. This is a fascinating tie as the ESV first came out in 2001 and had a revision in 2007, while the King James is the oldest translation that's still being regularly read. It first came out in 1611 and is working on its 400th year. Both the ESV and the KJV hold positions on the Formal Equivalent or literal side of the scale. The ESV and KJV took 15 votes each and 35% of the vote.

Third place was a tie between the New King James and the New International Version. The New King James was a 1980's revision of the King James Language, while the NIV has held its place as the bestselling English translation for at least two decades. The NIV sits on the dynamic equivalent or "thought for thought" side of the scale and for many is the "quintessential" dynamic equivalent.

Fourth Place goes to the New Revised Standard Version and the recent Holman Christian Standard Bible and fifth place goes to the Amplified Bible (which many might argue was only intended as a reference tool, but I selfishly put on there anyway because I like to read it).

The New Living Translation and The Todays New International Version received no votes and are probably the least literal of the translations.

Obviously this poll is not representative of the general Christian population as I'm guessing my readership are more prone to Bible Study and formal equivalence.