Expert: Hoyt Roberson - 10/31/2011

Question
Thanks for your time. My question is which bible translation is the closet to the Greek that the new testament was written in? Which translation is the most accurate?  And What is your thoughts on commentaries and study bibles vs just reading the bible for yourself?

Answer
Josh,

The questions about accurate translations and which are closest to the Greek are hotly debated by adherents of various translations. There are various manuscripts, with various dates, and with various pros and cons for them. This venue is too small to discuss them all.

Translation is a complicated issue. Do we want a word for word translation, or a sentence structure translation, or a thought for thought translation. Again, there are pros and cons to these approaches. Translations which are word-order translations are difficult to read in English because Greek syntax does,kt parallel English and not every word has a corresponding alternate. Then there are definition differences to consider. For instance, "agape" does not have a directly translatable alternate in English. Usually, it is translated as "love," but not just any kind of love. It is generally taken to mean almost an altruistic care for something. The problem is that it and other forms of Greek "love" are at times used interchangably in a passage. Translators have to select how to translate it based on their understanding of the context and the author's intent.

Having said that, we can arrange translations somewhat along a continuum. An interlinear Greek-English translation will be a word-for-word Bible. After that, the Amplified Bible would be close, but their inclusion of bracketed alternative readings can be problematic. Then follows in no particular order the KJV, ESV, and ASB/NASB as examples of word for word translations. The NIV is an example of a paragraph by paragraph or thought by thought translation. These translations allow themselves more freedom to express the author's intent rather than strictly word for word. They are generally easier to read. Finally, The Message is an example of a paraphrase translation. This type of translation is the most loose type, and are normally meant to put the Bible into less formal English and idiom.

Even if you wanted to read a Greek Bible, you would have to choose which version to read since they use different manuscripts.

So, your question doesn't have an easy answer. However, if what you want is something close to word for word, you might consider KJV, ESV, or NASB. If thought for thought is more to your liking, the NIV or Contemporary English Version might work. For what it's worth, I use the ESV mostly.


The use of study aids should be one of illumination and comparison. We should read the Bible first for ourselves, and use aids to help us understand context and background. Using these though has the same issues as which Bible to use. Some commentaries and lesson material will be based in a particular theological view. Others will be based on something else. That's not a bad thing, you just need to be aware of the author's views when using them.  

Hope that helps some.