The "best" Bible translation is subjective and depends on the reader's purpose, with different translation philosophies (formal vs. dynamic equivalence) offering distinct advantages for study, public reading, or personal engagement.
Mind Map
Click to expand
Click to explore the full interactive mind map • Zoom, pan, and navigate
hey everyone welcome to the Council of
Trent podcast I'm your host kers
apologist and speaker Tren horn and
today we're talking about what is the
best translation of the Bible before we
do that though a big thanks to our
supporters at Tren horn podcast.com
because of you I've got the chance to
upgrade my gear I'm using my new Canon
DSLR camera new teleprompter so things
are looking up though I don't
necessarily like seeing myself in high
definition I don't know many people who
do but if you can make the the quality
of the video better to help people these
videos and our content reach more people
I'm grateful for that if you want to
help us to keep reaching more people
definitely consider supporting us at
Tren horn podcast.com now onto the
subject of today's episode So today
we're asking what is the best
translation of the Bible but the problem
with a question like that is it's sort
of like what is the best car you
naturally ask best for what right like
the best car for going at top speeds is
going to be different than the best car
for moving a large family across town to
run errands now you might be thinking
well cars have lots of different
purposes but the Bible has only one
purpose so we we can really say there is
a best translation for that single
purpose now it's true the Bible has one
general purpose in being divine
revelation but people often have
different purposes in reading the Bible
for example reading the Bible aloud at a
funeral is a different purpose than
reading the Bible in a library to
discover facts about the biblical world
so in order to answer this question
though we also have to understand a
basic concept in translating any work
two translation philosophies formal
equivalence which would be word to word
translation and dynamic equivalence
which would be idea to idea
translation so in formal equivalence the
translator tries to bring out the
literal meaning of the original words of
the text as much as possible now you
might think well all we should do just
take the original Greek Hebrew Aramaic
of the biblical manuscripts and just
take those words and turn those words
into English and you've got the best
formal translation right the problem is
though if you do that the Bible becomes
really hard to read and you sort of
sound like Yoda Star Wars consider John
3:16 right A lot of people know John
3:16 by heart for God so loved the world
that he gave his only begotten son that
whoever believes in him should not
perish but have eternal life but if you
read a common Greek Interlinear Bible in
John 316 this is what it literally says
if you swap the Greek for English thus
indeed loved God the world that the son
the only begotten he gave that everyone
believing in him not should perish but
might have life so translator has to get
the words to conform to Modern English
rules of grammar in order to preserve
their meaning sometimes he has to add
articles for example a or one that are
not in the original Greek text to make
the meaning be clear but this also even
if we do this so it doesn't mean we
should only use the original words in
the Bible sometimes the biblical authors
they'll use Expressions whose literal
meaning would mislead a modern person
just like how there are modern
expressions like lady killer or it's
rigning cats and dogs that if we
translated them into Greek and Hebrew
and gave them to a first century person
they wouldn't know what we were talking
about I'll give you an example in Exodus
34:6 it says the Lord a god merciful and
gracious slow to anger and abounding in
steadfast love and faithfulness if you
read an Interlinear Bible it might show
the Hebrew word Eric for slow and apim
for anger but that's not what these
words exactly mean Eric it means long
it's used in Ezekiel 17:3 to talk about
long feathers and apim means face or
nose so when the text says God is slow
to anger it literally says in Hebrew
he's long of nose this may be an
expression to how older people have a
patient wisdom and that when you get
older the cartilage in your nose it
weakens and it droops so it makes your
nose seem longer it's it's a sign of old
age which is another sign of of wisdom
and patience you've acred in a long life
but if we just wrote God is long of NOS
a modern reader might not know what
we're talking about or he might think
that we're saying that God is a liar
because we associate long noses with the
story of Pinocchio when he told a lie
his his nose would grow
so even formal translations they'll have
to use idea for idea if in order to
preserve the original meaning uh so but
you you can go too far though with the
idea for idea in these Dynamic
translations this is true in paraphrases
of the Bible like Eugene Peterson's the
message the Bible and contemporary
language so in a paraphrase the author
doesn't really translate the original
biblical text he gives you the gist of
what it says his summary of it for
example here's how the message
translates in quotation marks The Lord's
Prayer this is their paraphrase Our
Father in Heaven reveal who you are set
the world right do what's best As Above
So Below Keep Us Alive with three Square
meals keep us forgiven with you and
forgiving others keep us safe from
ourselves and the devil you're in charge
you can do anything you want you're a
blaze in Beauty yes yes yes so between
these extremes there's a a lot of
different translations that take the
words and ideas the biblical authors
composed and translate them to make them
accessible to a modern audience so
formal translations try to keep the
original wording as much as possible and
dynamic translations try to communicate
the ideas more in things like modern
language so keeping that in mind that so
formal it tries to be really word to
word and dynamic is idea to idea it
doesn't mean that one philosophy is
better or worse than the other uh
they're going to find principles of both
in any translation but in understanding
those two principles now we can look at
a lot of the different translations and
we can you know ask the question what is
the best translation of the Bible now at
this point though some people might say
well why not just use the Latin Vulgate
that was first translated by St Jerome
and has been used in the church for
centuries now the church does say the
Vulgate has a pride of place in the
Latin right of the church it's not the
official Bible of the Catholic church
because Eastern Catholics have used
other translations for centuries in
Greek and syak and other Eastern
languages the second Vatican Council
said the church quote has always given a
place of honor to other Eastern
translations and Latin ones especially
the Latin translation known as The
Vulgate but since the word of God should
be accessible at all times the church by
her Authority and with material concern
sees to it that suitable and correct
translations are made into different
languages especially from the original
texts of the Sacred books and should the
opportunity arise and the church
authorities approve if these
translations are produced in cooperation
with the separated brethren as well all
Christians will be able to use them so
the church does have a private place for
certain translations like the Vulgate
but the most important Source are going
to be the original biblical texts
themselves in the 2001 address from the
congregation of the doctrine of worship
they said that new translations of the
Liturgy they must be made directly from
the original text namely the Latin as
regards the texts of ecclesiastical
composition or church documents or the
Hebrew Aramaic or Greek as the case may
be as regards the text of sacred
scripture furthermore in the preparation
of these translations for lurgical use
the Nova vulgata adiso the newest Latin
Vulgate promulgated by the apostolic SE
is normally to be consulted as an
auxiliary tool so the Latin Vulgate is
considered an important translation in
the western Church's history but it's
not the church's official Bible or
anything like that but if you like
translations that are based on the
Vulgate that's great uh one example of
this kind of translation would be the
Dewey Reams Bible uh the Dewey Reams was
published in its final form in France
two towns in France D and Reams
completed in 169 it was a Catholic
alternative to popular vernacular
Protestant translations like the Tindale
Bible and later the King James version
that came out in 1611 so one of the
strengths of the Dey Reames Bible is
that it captures it sounds like the King
James version but it's Catholic so it
has that kind of majesty of older
English in it to give you an example in
the Dey Reams the first commandment is
rendered this way I am the Lord thy God
who brought thee out of the land of
Egypt out of the house of bondage Thou
shalt not have strange Gods before me
and whereas though modern translations
not just in the Commandments and other
places the modern translations don't
have the older pronouns like Thy or thee
or thou but the problem is there's
drawbacks with older English sometimes
it's hard to understand Matthew 19 14 in
the Dewey Reams Jesus says suffer the
little children and forbid them not to
come to me most people like suffer the
children what does that mean that's why
modern Bibles usually put allow or
permit the children to come to me but in
any case you should pick a translation
that is approved by the holy sea or by
your local Conference of Catholic
Bishops that's because even if you just
did a word forword inter Interlinear
translation a translator could still
show show his non-catholic bias in the
text that's because Greek and Hebrew
words can have more than one meaning in
English so your choice of of that word
based on its its valid meaning can color
what the text says based on what you
choose I'll give you an
example consider the Greek word
paradosis it's a compound word it's para
means beside and diomi means to give
paradosis literally means to give over
what is close beside to hand over to and
to communicate this idea with a single
word you might use the English words
tradition or teaching but when you read
some Protestant Bibles you'll notice a
funny thing happens with the Greek word
paradosis so in Mark 7:13 Jesus says you
nullify the word of God by your
tradition parados that you have handed
down and you do many things like that so
if you read this verse you might think
religious Traditions are bad and so you
know we should only rely on the written
word of God but that can't be right
because 2 Thessalonians 2:15 uses a
variant of paradosis and in that verse
St Paul says stand firm and hold to the
Traditions which you were taught by us
either by word of mouth or by letter now
however the Protestant translation of
the Bible The New International Version
the NIV
it takes paradosis or parad doen in that
verse and it renders it teaching rather
than tradition stand firm and hold fast
to the teachings you were given so that
ends up making it look like Jesus
condemns religious tradition and Paul
affirms religious teaching but it's the
same word teaching and tradition are the
same paradosis what is handed on and
that can be handed on in a written form
or in an Unwritten form sacred scripture
and sacred tradition now sometimes the
issues are blatant far more blatant than
this such as in the Jehovah's witness's
New World Translation of the Bible this
Bible mistranslates several passages to
affirm Jehovah's Witness theology for
example Jehovah's Witnesses say that
Jesus is not God only the father is God
and the father created Jesus but we have
a problem here because in Colossians
chapter 1 Paul says that in Christ quote
all things were created in Christ all
things were created in heaven on Earth
visible and invisible whether Thrones or
dominions or principalities or
authorities all things were created
through him and for him he is before all
things and in him all things hold
together so here's the problem if Jesus
is not God if he's just a creation how
could Jesus create everything if he's a
part of the father's creation he can't
that's why the new world trans
translation the witnesses use renders
the passage this way because by means of
him all other things were created in the
heavens and on the Earth all other
things have been created through him and
for him also he is before all other
things and by means of him all other
things were made to exist except the
Greek word for other hetro or alos is
not in the text and this is a m
translation to sport their theology so
that's why it's important to get a
really solid Catholic Bible uh to make
sure you have a good translation and to
make sure your Bible has all the books
in it because Protestant Bibles lack the
dudo canonical books of scripture books
and passages that Protestants rejected
uh you know things like serak Tobit
first and second mccabes portions of
Daniel and Esther for more on the Duro
chonicles check out a few of the other
videos on my channel on that subject so
examples of the formal equivalents in
Catholic Bibles like word for word would
be like the Dewey Reams would be an
example of word to word formal the
revised Standard Version Catholic edition
edition
rsvce is an another example I prefer the
rsvce both for personal reading and for
study but what's interesting is that my
favorite Bible verse that's ingrained
into my mind comes from a dynamic
translation of the Bible idea for idea
so in the
RSV uh sirak 2 4-6 my favorite verse in
the Bible goes like this accept whatever
is brought upon you and in changes that
humble you be patient for gold is tested
in the fire and acceptable men in the
furnace of humiliation trust in him and
he will help you make your way straight
and hope in him so that's my favorite
Bible verse in the RSV uh but the way I
learned it was I liked the wording in
The New American Bible which like the
New Jerusalem bible is more of a dynamic
Catholic translation idea for idea uh
this is how the NAB renders Sak 2:
4-6 accept whatever befalls you in
crushing Misfortune be patient for in
fire gold is tested and worthy men in
The Crucible of humiliation trust God
and he will help you make straight your
ways and hope in him since Dynamic
translations idea for idea they can be
easier for people to listen to they're
usually preferred for use in the Liturgy
at least in the western church which is
why the USCCB authorizes the new
American Bible to be read at mass and we
can see the differences here for example
in the RSV Genesis chapter 1 uses the
word firmament to describe the big blue
thing over our heads uh whereas the NAB
will call it the sky that's a looser
translation but it might be helpful for
the average person in Mass who who
doesn't know what a what a firmament is
so uh now I do have some concerns about
The New American Bible some of the
things in the study notes of The New
American Bible are really problematic so
if you're going to use the NAB you need
to watch out for them for example
recently a Catholic priest he posted
online saying that the church teaches or
affirms that the gospels were written
later in the first century after ad70
because the study notes in The New
American Bible say so the problem is
though those study notes in The New
American Bible they have qualifiers like
Scholars say this is when the gospels
are written that doesn't mean the church
teaches this it's just saying here's
what the scholars say say also even if
it did make this claim some of the study
notes in the NAB are really questionable
or just outright bad Jimmy Aken actually
pointed one out to me in Matthew 16 a
note explaining Jesus's prediction of
his passion and death it says this
neither this nor the two later passion
predictions can be taken as sayings that
as they stand go back to Jesus himself
however it is probable that he Jesus
foresaw that his mission would entail
suffering and perhaps death but was
confident that he would ultimately be
Vindicated by God wait a minute Jesus it
possible perhaps he would die the
catechism says by its Union to the
Divine wisdom in the person of the word
incarnate Christ enjoyed in his human
knowledge the fullness of understanding
of the Eternal plans he had come to
reveal that means for Jesus it wasn't
just probable or maybe he would die he
knew it was God's Eternal plan that he
would die for the sins of the world so
this study note seems to Divi deny
Jesus's prophetic nature or his divinity
I'd be really careful there but when it
comes to the text of The New American
Bible the the actual translation uh it's
a fine translation and some people
prefer how it sounds in the Liturgy some
people don't prefer it uh others prefer
the RSV uh but just because the RSV is a
formal translation by the way it doesn't
mean that it's hard to listen to uh
father Mike schmidtz for example uses
the revised Standard Version Catholic
edition the
rsvce for his Bible in year podcast and
a lot of people enjoy listening to that
and of course there's going to be
mixtures between the two in 1949 Manor
Ronald Knox published the Knox Bible
which if you read it it's an interesting
synthesis of formal translation word for
word while using a lot of uh modern uh
sayings or Expressions to help uh the
modern reader understand so it's kind of
in the middle the KNX Bible sort of in
the middle between formal equivalence
and dynamic equivalence so just a
summarize uh there are a lot of
different good or satisfactory Bible
translations of Catholic Bibles and
they're going to go between two
different philosophies formal
equivalence getting the original words
and sticking to that literal meaning as
much as possible which can be helpful
especially for personal study of the
Bible or or dynamic equivalence which
tries to take the idea the biblical
author was expressing and communicate
that idea as clearly as possible in
modern language and as we showed with
the God is long of NOS even formal equ
formally equivalent translations will
have to do that with original literal
meanings that just don't make sense
today but you'll see there's a there's a
spectrum here formal equivalence more
like Dewey Reams RSV uh Dynamic
equivalence you'll see that more like
The New American Bible the New Jerusalem
bible KNX Bible and a few other Bibles
might be in the in the middle uh between
the two so what is the best of these
translations well it depends what you're
choosing to use it for uh so I would say
that that's a very long answer to the
question what is the best translation if
I had to give a short answer like a one
sentence answer I would borrow a line
from Carl keing the founder of Catholic
answers who said the best uh translation
of the Bible is the one you will read so
I would say look go and get a
translation that is a solid Catholic
translation of the Bible uh the
ignatious Catholic Study Bible is an
excellent one I would definitely
recommend that get a solid Catholic
translation just get one that you're
excited to read and jump into it if
you're not a big reader check out father
Mike Schmid's Bible in a year podcast
super duper helpful also at Tren horn
podcast.com I have a new testament study
series for our silver level subscribers
if you subscribe at Tren horn
podcast.com if you subscribe there you
get access to an 18-hours video study
Series where I take you through the
entire New Testament so definitely go
and check that out be sure to do that in
this new year because as St Jerome says
ignorance of scripture is ignorance of
Christ and we don't want to do that
right so hey thank you guys I hope this
was helpful for everybody and I hope
that you have a very blessed day hey
thanks for watching this video if you
want to help us produce more great
content like this be sure to click
subscribe and go to Tren horn
podcast.com to become a premium
subscriber you'll help us create more
videos like this and get access to bonus
content and sneak peeks of our upcoming projects
Click on any text or timestamp to jump to that moment in the video
Share:
Most transcripts ready in under 5 seconds
One-Click Copy125+ LanguagesSearch ContentJump to Timestamps
Paste YouTube URL
Enter any YouTube video link to get the full transcript
Transcript Extraction Form
Most transcripts ready in under 5 seconds
Get Our Chrome Extension
Get transcripts instantly without leaving YouTube. Install our Chrome extension for one-click access to any video's transcript directly on the watch page.
