Translations of the Bible

We looked briefly at translations in the first session. We are now going to look in more detail at the various translations of the English Bible.

There are three different types of translation:

a) “Word-for-word” translations.

These are translations where the principle of "formal equivalence" is applied more rigidly so that individual words are translated as accurately as possible into English.


Bibles of this type are:-

  • The Authorised Version (also called the King James Version)
  • The Revised Version
  • The Revised Standard Version
  • The English Standard Version
  • The New King James Version
  • The New American Standard Bible


b) “Thought-for-thought” translations.

These are translations where the principle of “dynamic equivalence” is used in translation. This means that the translators put phrases into English in a way which reflects the latest scholarly underdstanding, based on study of a wide range of ancient literature, of what the original authors were intending to mean.

Bibles of this type are:-

  • The New English Translation (NET Bible)
  • The New International Version (of which there are four versions)
  • The New Revised Standard Version
  • The New American Bible
  • The New Jerusalem Bible


c) Paraphrase translations.

These are versions where the principle of “dynamic equivalence” has been carried a stage further from the “phrase-for-phrase” versions. They make very easy reading, but they are the furthest away from reflecting the meaning of the original words, and word order.

Examples of paraphrase versions are:-

  • The New Living Translation
  • The Message
  • The Good News Translation
  • The Contemporary English Version

Here is a simple graphic to illustrate where different translations sit on the scale from "word-for-word" to "paraphrase".



Complete and continue