I believe the Bible is the Word of God, that He (God) inspired men to write down His message to us so that we might know Him. We are told by the Apostle Peter that “Because of that experience, we have even greater confidence in the message proclaimed by the prophets. You must pay close attention to what they wrote, for their words are like a lamp shining in a dark place – until the Day dawns, and Christ the Morning Star shines in your hearts. Above all, you must realize that no prophecy in Scripture ever came from the prophet’s own understanding, or from human initiative. No, those prophets were moved by the Holy Spirit, and they spoke from God.” 2 Peter 1:19-21 (NLT). And the Apostle Paul told Timothy, “All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right. God uses it to prepare and equip his people to do every good work.” 2 Tim 3:16-17 (NLT).
I was asked a few years ago how I know the Bible was really the Word of God and which translation was the correct one. My answer was to quote those verses above and admit it is by faith that I understand this to be true. God began inspiring men to write His word about 1,400 years before Christ and probably earlier. The Book of Job may be the oldest book of the Bible; we don’t know who wrote it, but the story takes place around the time of Esau and Jacob or just after. One of the characters, Eliphaz the Temanite, may have been the son of Esau. But the Bible was first written in Hebrew, then Aramaic, and finally Greek, and only the first writings were inspired. Everything since then has come to us through copies and translations; the original is long gone and that is a good thing. If the originals were still around, some people would start worshiping them.
So how can we know we are really reading the Word of God today? Well, first it is by faith; the Bible itself says that without faith it is impossible to please God. But, if I believe God could inspire men to write His Word, why should I not believe that God could look after His Word to make sure that through the centuries we have good copies and translations of that Word? If God could create the universe and everything in it, He can surely oversee His message to us.
Now, I know there are many translations of the Bible out there today. I grew up on the King James Version, and it is a good translation. However, I don’t speak the same English people used in 1611 when that translation was published. And I always had difficulty reading the archaic wording of that translation. But there are many people who love it because of the beauty of expression found in its pages and that is a good thing. I have tried many translations over the last 50 years and here are a few.
Word for word translations: meaning the translators used the English words and sentence structure as close to the original languages as possible; they are 1) King James Version, 2) New King James Version, 3) New American Standard Version, and 4) English Standard Version. All of these are excellent word-for-word translations.
Thought for thought translations: meaning the translators used the words but not necessarily the sentence structure of the original languages; these are 1) Holman Christian Standard Bible, 2) New International Version, and 3) New Living Translation.
Paraphrases are translations that try to explain the meaning of the text by using similes and other forms of speech; these include: 1) The Living Bible, 2) the Amplified Bible, and 3) many others.
Personally, I prefer the thought-for-thought translation, and I will illustrate why. A teacher I had at the Bible Institute had been a missionary to Paraguay. While he was in training in Mexico to learn Spanish, he was invited to a co-worker’s house one evening. When he got to the house, he was greeted at the door by the co-worker with these words in Spanish, “Go to your own house”. My friend was shocked and apologetically asked the co-worker what he had done to offend him since being invited over for the evening. “Why are you telling me to go home” he asked. The co-worker smiled and explained that what he had said was an idiom of the language and actually meant “Make yourself at home” or “My house is your house”. Sometimes word-for-word may not mean the same thing to us in the 21st century as it did in the 1st century or earlier.
My personal choice, in case you haven’t notices, is the New Living Translation. My sister, Betty, suggested I try it around 1998, and I haven’t used anything else since then as my primary translation. I personally find it the easiest translation to read and understand. It has made a difference in my reading enjoyment because I don’t have to stop and ask “what did that say”. Of course, God still has to open my mind to understand the meaning He wants me to get, but at least I’m not struggling to understand the words. I certainly recommend it to anyone who has trouble reading the Word of God on a daily basis.