Mark Ward (PhD, Bob Jones University) has some excellent thoughts on English Bible translations which go along with something I recently posted:

English speakers are looking for the wrong thing when we look for best. As I said, we need to look for useful. Does that sound too pragmatic? Let me clarify. We need to ask, “Which English Bible translation is most useful for preaching?” “Which is most useful for evangelism?” “Which is useful for reading through in a year?” “Which is conducive to close study?” How about for reading to kids? For memorization?

The average Christian has umpteen Bibles at home; we can afford, financially, to buy different editions for different purposes.

He is quite right. I love the KJV for preaching, because it is majestic, beautiful, and follows the original Greek text very closely. I am growing to love the NET for personal devotions, because it flows better in modern English, and is a bit more interpretive, especially in the Old Testament. (You can purchase the NET Bible here, or read it for free online here).

I’ll be posting more on the various English Bible translations in a few weeks. For now, feel free to read Mark Ward’s entire article here.