This Week’s Poll: Which bible do you use?
Oct 10th, 2007
Not a very original poll, I know, but I’d thought I’d try this new poll gadget thing. The last poll didn’t get many votes and I’m not sure how I answer this myself, as I have a shelf full. Increasingly I try to go for one with a more inclusive language, especially if I’m reading in public. The Greek and Hebrew ones are hard work. The NIV tends to be what everybody else is looking at in church. What do you read?
Loading ...(12-10-07) I updated the poll to include a couple more, otherwise “other” was running away with the lead.
It seems to me that if you don’t have a preference, you’ll use the one that the Pastor preaches out of at church.
I used to use the NIV, but have switched over to NASB because it is more literal, and now with the new NASB version (where they removed the thee’s and thou’s) it is easier to read.
Yes, I found the NASB useful when learning Greek. It was easier to see what is going on.
Entirely depends what I’m doing at the time! At church we use either GNB (St. Nicholas), NIV (St. Stephen’s) or whatever the reader happens to prefer (Valley - they don’t have pew bibles there). At home I normally use either NIV (if studying with my wife) or ESV (if studying by myself). When preparing sermons I generally use ESV + whatever version it is going to be read from at church.
So I’m not going to pick just one from the list!
Richard
You missed out the ESV… the best literal English translation ever!!!
It’s uptake among conservative Evangelicals is HUGE
-Alister
Yes, I have updated the poll and added a couple more. Logs have been deleted so you should be able to vote again if you delete your browser cache. Not very scientific, but I can’t have all those ESV readers thinking I have something against it.
I stopped using NIV in my teens when I became aware that it was becoming so ubiquitous that people were beginning to depend on it’s translation as heavily as the proponents of the KJV. I moved across to the Jerusalem bible for a while, but when I was studying NT Greek at Uni I was recommended to use the NRSV, as the translation tended to follow the Greek better, and I’m still using that (and the Message too). I really dislike the inclusive language in it, but otherwise I find it a nice mix between readability and accuracy.
I use the NASB and ESV primarily. But I couldn’t vote that in your poll, so I just put NASB.
I mainly use the NIVi (not the same as TNIV) because my church folk mostly use NIV. I also use NRSV, Greek NT (and an interlinear to help with vocab!) CEV, GNB, Message, Street Bible and occasionally KJV when preparing as the alternatives give interesting nuances to the interpretation.