Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Progressive Christian
History and Religion
What’s The Best Version of The Bible?

What’s The Best Version of The Bible?

Last updated on: July 19, 2023 at 12:30 pm by Keith Giles

0 Comments

What’s The Best Version of The Bible? 2023-07-19T12:30:42+00:00 Keith Giles

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

IMAGE: Pexels

I get asked this question a lot by those who read my books and blog posts. Usually it’s in response to a post or a chapter they read about how certain words were either added to the text or removed from the text by English translators, or sometimes it’s in reaction to my pointing out that some versions of the Bible are translated by teams of scholars who are funded by religious institutions with a vested interest in making sure that certain verses skew harder in their preferred doctrinal territory.

So, I’ll do my best to answer this question here for those who are curious about which version of the Bible I recommend most often.

First, you should look for a Bible that doesn’t remove words or phrases like the “what?!” from 1 Corinthians 14:36 where Paul is responding to the Corinthian church’s claim that the “law demands” that women remain silent in the Church – it doesn’t – and because Paul knows this isn’t something the Law commands, he responds to their statement with “What?! Did the word of God originate with you?” Which is another way of saying, “Are you out of your mind?” and then he wraps that up by suggesting that they simply follow what he has told them all through the previous chapters about how everyone can speak in tongues, and everyone can prophesy, and how the women who do so should make sure to cover their hair.

You should also find a Bible that doesn’t add the word “homosexual” in 1 Corinthians 6:9 since neither word – Arsenokotai or Malakois – has anything to do with a consensual, loving and mutual same-sex union but to pedophilia [Arsenokotai] and effimacy [Malakois].

I’d also suggest finding a Bible that doesn’t change the word “exomologeo” in Philippians 2:10-11 from “gladly confess” [which is what the word actually means] to merely “confess” which suggests that such a confess is coerced rather than gladly offered by everyone.

I always suggest finding a Bible translation that relies on the Septuagint [the same Greek translation of the Hebrew scriptures literally used and quoted by Jesus and Paul in the First Century] rather than the Masoretic text which came a few hundreds years after the time of Christ.

For reasons why, you can read my article HERE>

You might also look for a Bible translation that makes note of the fact that the reference in 1 Timothy about “women [being] saved through childbirth” is a reference to the Artemis worship going on at the time in Ephesus [where the letter was addressed to] rather than some wonky idea that women need to have babies to fulfill their created duty or something.

So, the real challenge is that if you decide to look for an English Translation of the Bible that avoids these all-too-common mistakes, you’ll soon discover the horrible truth: It doesn’t exist.

Sadly, there is no single version of the English translation of the Bible that meets all of these criteria. A few come close, and so I’ll suggest those here.

For the Old Covenant Hebrew scriptures, I recommend The Orthodox Study Bible [Thomas Nelson] which happens to be the #1 best-selling Bible under Christian Orthodoxy on Amazon [as of this writing]. It uses the Septuagint text for the Old Testament section rather than the Masoretic text.

For the New Covenant scriptures, I recommend David Bentley Hart’s excellent New Translation of the New Testament [Yale University Press] which is in its second edition.

David Bentley Hart’s translation does correctly render the Greek word “exomologeo” as “gladly confess” and his notations under most of the troublesome texts are exceptionally good. Plus, his introduction and afterword are both worth the price of the book by themselves, so it’s a great value and an excellent resource for those looking for the best possible translation of the Greek New Testament into English.

I hope this is helpful as you seek a better understanding of the First and Second Covenant texts.

Enjoy!

Sola Deus: What If God Is All Of Us? by Keith Giles is now available on Amazon in Paperback and on Kindle.

Keith Giles is the best-selling author of the Jesus Un series. He has appeared on CNN, USA Today, BuzzFeed, and John Fugelsang’s “Tell Me Everything.” He hosts the Second Cup with Keith podcast, and co-hosts the Apostates Anonymous podcast, and the Heretic Happy Hour Podcast. Find out more about his online courses HERE>

History and Religion

Education and Religion

Biblicism

Previous Post

July 14, 2023

INNER CIRCLE: The Poverty of the Kingdom

Next Post

July 21, 2023 INNER CIRCLE: The Commerce of the Kingdom

Recent Comments

0 | Leave a Comment

"Googled: “In psychology and everyday language, intelligence is the capacity to learn, understand, reason, think ..."

Herm

AI Is A Gateway to the ..."

"It's so weird to me how anyone thinks that getting basic income is in any ..."

Scott Santens

AI Is A Gateway to the ..."

"Sounds very much like what Pope Leo wrote in Magnifica Humanitas - a lot of ..."

ffeineandsugar

AI Is A Gateway to the ..."

"As it is written in the canonical Gospels:But as many as received Him, to them ..."

Herm

INNER CIRCLE: God’s Transcending Love

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Art Biblicism Christian Politics Cosmic Christ Deconstruction Discipleship Dispensationalism Divine Unity Ekklesia End Time Stuff Eschatology Evergreen Following Jesus Gender General Christian Topics Gnostics God's Love Gospel of Judas Gospel of Mary Gospel of Philip Gospel of the Kingdom Gospel of Thomas Gospel of Truth Hell Historical Jesus Inner Circle Investigative Reporting Islam LGBTQ Issues Marriage Mental/Emotional Health Mystery Non-Duality Philosophy Podcast Poetry Politics Poverty Preemptive Love Prophecy Psychology Quantum Theology Racism Reconstruction Satire Sex Technology Theology Uncategorized Universalism

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

True or False: Paul's first missionary journey was with Silas.

Select your answer to see how you score.

TRUE FALSE

Books by This Author Books by Keith Giles

See All Titles »