Bibles I have read to help me understand the meaning of God’s word

These bibles I have read to help me understand the meaning of God’s word I read are all available through Bible Gateway. The purpose is to solely understand God’s word more clearly and in a deeper and richer way during my personal bible studies:

AMP - the Amplified Bible, the goal of the translation team was to enhance the appeal of the Amplified Bible by refreshing the English and refining the amplifications for relevance and clarity. The result is an Amplified Bible that is easier to read and better than ever to study and understand.

The Amplified Bible of 2015 includes more amplification in the Old Testament and refined amplification in the New Testament. Additionally, the Bible text has been improved to read smoothly with or without amplifications, so that the text may be read either way. The same feel and style of amplification have been maintained so that those who read the classic Amplified Bible will be able to easily transition to the new text.

The AMP was the first Bible project of The Lockman Foundation. Its goal was to take both word meaning and context into account to accurately translate the original text from one language into another. The AMP does this through the use of explanatory alternate readings and amplifications to assist the reader in understanding what Scripture really says. Multiple English word equivalents to each key Hebrew and Greek word clarify and amplify meanings that may otherwise have been concealed by the traditional translation method. The first edition was published in 1965.

The AMP is based on the American Standard Version of 1901, Rudolph Kittel’s Biblia Hebraica, the Greek text of Westcott and Hort, and the 23rd edition of the Nestle Greek New Testament as well as the best Hebrew and Greek lexicons available at the time. Cognate languages, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and other Greek works were also consulted. The Septuagint and other versions were compared for interpretation of textual differences. In completing the Amplified Bible, translators made a determined effort to keep, as far as possible, the familiar wording of the earlier versions, and especially the feeling of the ancient Book.

AMPC The Amplified Bible Classic Edition - was the first Bible project of The Lockman Foundation. It attempts to take both word meaning and context into account to accurately translate the original text from one language into another. The AMPC does this through the use of explanatory alternate readings and amplifications to assist the reader in understanding what Scripture really says. Multiple English word equivalents to each key Hebrew and Greek word clarify and amplify meanings that may otherwise have been concealed by the traditional translation method. The first edition was published in 1965.

The AMPC is based on the American Standard Version of 1901. Cognate languages, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and other Greek works were also consulted. The Septuagint and other versions were compared for interpretation of textual differences. In completing the AMPC, translators made a determined effort to keep, as far as possible, the familiar wording of the earlier versions, and especially the feeling of the ancient Book.

CSB The Christian Standard Bible - aims to draw readers into a deeper, more meaningful relationship with God. By translating Scripture into the clearest possible modern English, the CSB allows readers to experience God’s Word at its fullest. Developed by 100 scholars from 17 denominations, the Christian Standard Bible faithfully and accurately captures the Bible’s original meaning without compromising readability.

The CSB was created using Optimal Equivalence, a translation philosophy that balances linguistic precision to the original languages and readability in contemporary English. In the many places throughout Scripture where a word-for-word rendering is clearly understandable, a literal translation is used. When a word-for-word rendering might obscure the meaning for a modern audience, a more dynamic translation is used. This process assures that both the words and thoughts contained in the original text are conveyed as accurately as possible for today’s readers.

The CSB provides a highly accurate text for sermon preparation and serious study, translated from the biblical languages by scholars who love God’s Word. Yet it doesn’t compromise readability and clarity for those who may be less familiar with the traditional (and sometimes difficult) vocabulary retained in some translations. Research shows the CSB is both highly literal to the original languages and highly readable, achieving an optimal balance of the two. Pastors and laypeople can read and share the Christian Standard Bible with confidence, knowing truth of God’s Word will be communicated effectively.

CEB The Common English Bible - is more than a revision or update of an existing translation. It's an ambitious new translation designed to read smoothly and naturally without compromising the accuracy of the Bible text.

A key goal of the translation team is to make the Bible accessible to a broad range of people; it's written at a comfortable level for nearly all English readers. As the translators do their work, reading specialists working with 77 reading groups from more than a dozen denominations review the texts to ensure a smooth and natural reading experience. Easy readability can enhance church worship and participation, and personal Bible study. It also encourages children and youth to discover the Bible for themselves, perhaps for the very first time.

The Common English Bible is committed to the whole church of Jesus Christ. To achieve this, the CEB represents the work of a diverse team with broad scholarship, including the work of over 120 scholars—men and women from 24 faith traditions in American, African, Asian, European and Latino communities. As a result, the English translation of ancient words has an uncommon relevance for a broad audience of Bible readers—from children to scholars.

CJB Complete Jewish Bible - Presenting the Word of God as a unified Jewish book, the Complete Jewish Bible (CJB) is a translation for Jews and non-Jews alike. It connects readers with the Jewishness of the Messiah. Names and key terms are returned to their original Hebrew and presented in easy-to-understand transliterations, enabling the reader to say them the way Yeshua (Jesus) did. Dr. Stern's purpose for producing the Complete Jewish Bible was "to restore God’s Word to its original Jewish context and culture as well as be in easily read modern English."

CEV the Contemporary English Version - Uncompromising simplicity marked the American Bible Society's (ABS) translation of the Contemporary English Version (CEV) that was first published in 1995. The text is easily read by grade schoolers, second language readers, and those who prefer the more contemporized form. The CEV is not a paraphrase. It is an accurate and faithful translation of the original manuscripts.

The CEV began as a result of studies conducted by biblical scholar Dr. Barclay M. Newman in 1984 into speech patterns used in books, magazines, newspapers, and television. These studies focused on how English was read and heard, especially by children. This led to a series of test volumes being published in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The translators of the CEV followed three principles; that the CEV:

• must be understood by people without stumbling in speech
• must be understood by those with little or no comprehension of "Bible" language
• must be understood by all.

"The drafting, reviewing, editing, revising, and refining the text of the Contemporary English Version has been a worldwide process extending over a period of slightly more than ten years. It has involved a wide variety of persons beyond the core team of ABS translators and the consultant experts who have worked closely with the team. The creative process has also involved scholar consultants and reviewers representing a wide range of church traditions and expertise in such areas as the Old Testament, New Testament, Hebrew language, Greek language, English language, linguistics, and poetry. In all, this process involved more than a hundred people in the various stages of the text creation and review process. And it is this process, carried out in constant prayer for the guidance of the Spirit of God, that guarantees the accuracy, integrity, and trustworthiness of the CEV Bible"

ERV The Easy-to-Read Version - is an accurate translation of the Bible created by the translation team at Bible League International. New readers sometimes struggle with reading older standardized translations of Bible text because of their unfamiliarity with the Bible. The ERV uses simpler vocabulary and shorter sentences while maintaining the integrity of the original texts. One of the basic ideas that guided the work was that good translation is good communication. In 2015, a major revision was completed in the English text. It uses a broader vocabulary and it is revised to reflect new cultural perspectives. The ERV is now in the process of revision for the other language texts while continuing to stay true to the original Biblical texts. In this process of revision, we are committed to keeping the text fresh and applicable to the global community of Bible readers.

ESV The English Standard Version - stands in the classic mainstream of English Bible translations over the past half-millennium. The fountainhead of that stream was William Tyndale's New Testament of 1526; marking its course was the King James Version of 1611 (KJV), the English Revised Version of 1885 (RV), the American Standard Version of 1901 (ASV), the Revised Standard Version of 1952 and 1971 (RSV). In that stream, faithfulness to the text and vigorous pursuit of accuracy were combined with simplicity, beauty, and dignity of expression. Our goal has been to carry forward this legacy for a new century.

To this end each word and phrase in the ESV has been carefully weighed against the original Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek, to ensure the fullest accuracy and clarity and to avoid under-translating or overlooking any nuance of the original text. The words and phrases themselves grow out of the Tyndale-King James legacy, and most recently out of the RSV, with the 1971 RSV text providing the starting point for our work. Archaic language has been brought to current usage and significant corrections have been made in the translation of key texts. But throughout, our goal has been to retain the depth of meaning and enduring language that have made their indelible mark on the English-speaking world and have defined the life and doctrine of the church over the last four centuries.

The ESV is an "essentially literal" translation that seeks as far as possible to capture the precise wording of the original text and the personal style of each Bible writer. It seeks to be transparent to the original text, letting the reader see as directly as possible the structure and meaning of the original. 

EXB - The Expanded Bible, while also imperfect, helps with all of these problems inherent in translation. It allows the reader to see multiple possibilities for words, phrases, and interpretations. Rather than opting for one choice, it shows many. It can, for instance, show both an original metaphor and a more prosaic understanding of that metaphor. It can show a second or third way of understanding the meaning of a word, phrase, verse, or passage. It can provide comments that give the historical, cultural, linguistic, or theological background that an English-language reader may lack. When helpful, it provides the most literal renderings to show what a translator has to work with.

With so many English translations available, some may ask why we need another. In many ways this is not another translation. Instead, it offers additional information that allows readers to see how translation communicates meaning. Readers see, in a clear and concise format, much of what a translator sees while working to be as faithful to the text as possible. The goal of this approach is not to suggest that a text can mean whatever anyone wants it to mean (it cannot), but to show that the Bible in its original languages is rich, multi-layered, and profound. The Expanded Bible does not overcome all the limitations of translation, but it allows more of the features of the original text to come across into English than any ordinary translation can.

GW GOD’S WORD Translation - brings God's saving truths to life for today’s world, that the words you read are true to their meaning in the ancient texts. This is the Bible that speaks in today’s English so people of all ages can study and comprehend it. You will hear God’s voice clearly from an easy-to-read, easy-to-understand Bible.  Their objective was to create a “closest natural equivalence” translation, consciously combining scholarly fidelity with natural English. The grammar is simplified; the style is informal; and sentences are shorter and less complicated than in other versions. Another consideration for the translators was readability, so they used common English punctuation, capitalization, and nearly perfect English grammar to express the text in clear, natural English.

GNT The Good News Translation - formerly called the Good News Bible or Today's English Version, as a “common language” Bible. It is a clear and simple modern translation that is faithful to the original Hebrew, Koine Greek, and Aramaic texts. the meaning of the Hebrew and Greek is expressed in a "thought for thought" translation rather than "word for word." The GNB is written in a simple, everyday language, with the intention that everyone can appreciate it, and so is often considered particularly suitable for children and for those learning English. Included in the Good News Bible are introductions to each book of the Bible.

ICB The International Children’s Bible® - is the first version of the Bible translated specifically for children. The ICB is ideal for home study, as well as for Sunday school, promotions, and other gift-giving occasions for the church, creating the perfect way to put God's Word into young hearts. ICB is not a storybook or a paraphrased Bible. It is a translation of God’s Word from the original Hebrew and Greek languages.

God intended for everyone to be able to understand his Word. The earliest Scriptures were in Hebrew, ideally suited for a barely literate society because of its economy of words, acrostic literary form, and poetic parallelism. The New Testament was first written in the simple Greek of everyday life, not in the Latin of Roman courts or the classical Greek of the academies. Even Jesus, the Master Teacher, taught spiritual principles by comparing them to such familiar terms as pearls, seeds, rocks, trees, and sheep. It is for this same purpose of making the Scriptures intelligible that this translation was created.

Two basic premises guided the translation process. The first concern was that the translation be faithful to the manuscripts in the original languages. A team composed of the World Bible Translation Center and twenty-one additional, highly qualified and experienced Bible scholars and translators was assembled. The team included men with translation experience on such accepted versions as the New International Version, the New American Standard Bible and the New King James Version. The most recent scholarship and the best available Hebrew and Greek texts were used, principally the third edition of the United Bible Societies’ Greek text and the latest edition of the Biblia Hebraica, along with the Septuagint.

The second concern was to make the language simple to read and understand. In maintaining language simplicity, several guidelines were followed. Sentences have been kept short and uncomplicated. Vocabulary choice has been based on The Living Word Vocabulary by Dr. Edgar Dale and Dr. Joseph O’Rourke (Worldbook-Childcraft International, 1981) which is the standard used by the editors of The World Book Encyclopedia to determine appropriate vocabulary.

ISV The International Standard Version - is an English translation of the Bible the first modern Bible translation in any language to provide an exclusive textual apparatus comparing the text of the famed Dead Sea Scrolls with the traditional Masoretic text of the Hebrew Tanakh (i.e., the “Old Testament”).

The ISV is intended for liturgical and pulpit uses as well as for devotional reading, Bible study, and reading in the home. It is intended to be a moderately literal translation and seeks to avoid the paraphrasing tendencies of some modern versions. Its goal is to be a compromise between formal equivalence and functional equivalence by attempting to stay as close to the source text as possible without losing communication. The target reading level in English is 7th-8th grade.

NKJV New King James Version - is a translation of the Bible in contemporary English and one that would retain the purity and stylistic beauty of the original King James. 

KJV King James Version - is an Early Modern English translation of the Christian Bible for the Church of England is considered one of the most accurate English translations in existence. A skilled committee of 54 translators worked for 7 years to carefully complete the King James translation project. The translation is most noted for its poetic feel - prose that seems to flow with a certain rhythmic quality. The book is cited as the most published book in world history with a significant influence on literature and culture.

LB Living Bible - is a paraphrase of the Old and New Testaments. Its purpose is to say as exactly as possible what the writers of the Scriptures meant, and to say it simply, expanding where necessary for a clear understanding by the modern reader.

MSG The Message – is a paraphrase of the Bible in contemporary English and this version is an attempt to bring into English the rhythms and idioms of the original language, to capture and engage biblical writings to impact our hearts for God’s word and be relevant to us today.

NASB New American Standard Bible - is an original translation from the Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek texts, based on the same principles of translation, and wording, as the American Standard Version and adheres to the principles of a formal equivalence translation. This is the most exacting and demanding method of translation, striving for the most readable word-for-word translation that is both accurate and clear. This method more closely follows the word and sentence patterns of the biblical authors in order to enable the reader to study Scripture in its most literal format and to experience the individual personalities of those who penned the original manuscripts. The purpose of the updates have been to increase accuracy, clarity, and readability.

NIV The New International Version - is a translation of the Bible in contemporary English and is a balance between a word-for-word and thought-for-thought translation and is considered by many as a highly accurate and smooth-reading version of the Bible in modern English.

YLT Young’s Literal Translation - is an extremely literal translation that attempts to preserve the tense and word usage as found in the original Greek and Hebrew writings. Young was especially concerned that many English translations changed the tenses of Greek and Hebrew verbs, and he insisted on using the present tense in many places in which other translations use the past tense, particularly in narratives. Young’s Literal Translation also consistently renders the Hebrew Tetragrammaton (divine name) throughout the Old Testament as "Jehovah," instead of the traditional practice of representing the Tetragrammaton in English as "LORD" in all capitals.

It very likely is the most strictly literal English translation ever developed. The literal renderings of the verb tenses are especially unique and can be quite valuable in studying God’s Word. Aspects that are usually only clear to those who can study the original Greek are clarified in the YLT. The strictly literal translation method can make Young’s Literal Translation somewhat difficult to read and in some instances very unnatural sounding in English.

 

Dear readers,

The world is continuously trying to enter your mind and write itself on your heart. The Bible reminds us that “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood [contending only with physical opponents], but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this [present] darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly (supernatural) places.” Ephesians 6:12.

So we can expect the accuser, the father of lies is continuously whispering to us and try to write on our hearts any way he can to deceive us and misdirect our hearts away from God’s word.

Lord have mercy on me, O God, according to Your lovingkindness; According to the greatness of Your compassion blot out my transgressions, Psalm 51:1. As I read and learn about Your word, write Your word in my heart, the center of who I am, so I will not sin against You, Psalm 119:11, in Jesus’ mighty name Amen.

I acknowledge the infallibility of God’s Word and my own human frailty. I pray that God will work through me in all that I do to present to you to more clearly understand God’s word through these other translations so you have a more deep understanding as you discover the truth of His word.

The only way the Lord can write His word on your heart is if you are reading His word. At the beginning of reading or studying His word ask Your Heavenly Father to write His word on your heart so you can be touched by His love for you and understand how much He loves you His child.

As you study understand that every word is important from Genesis to Revelation. You may not always understand or know how His word may be relevant to you at the time but the more you read and re-read His word through your time with Him the more He will reveal to you and the more you will discover how much He deeply loves you and wants to be close to you daily.

Thank you for giving me a new heart as the Holy Spirit works within me to soften my hardened heart from the world view to understand the love You have for me from your perspective, so I will be aware of how to live according to Your word and walk in Your ways throughout my life. Ezekiel 36:26-27

Father, Your grace, favor, loving-kindness, and mercy are enough for me, sufficient against any danger, and enable me to bear the troubles in my life, For Your strength and power are made perfect showing most effective in my weakness. I will stand in Your glory in my weaknesses and infirmities so that the strength and power of You Christ will cover me for when I am weak then I am truly strong because of my faith in you Father. 2 Corinthians 12:9-11.

As I am in silence spending time with God and reading through the pages of His word, I hear Him speak to my heart. I dig deeper taking bunny trails through commentaries and other translations to bring an understanding of what He is saying to me and how to incorporate this new understanding into my life. Ephesians 4:22-24

No matter how many times I read the same scripture because His word is living water to my soul, John 4:14, It is His blessings and spiritual power that will flow from Him to me. As I consume His word in my heart it will cause a ripple effect through my actions as a vessel touching others with His word. Isaiah 44:3.

This is truly my goal in all that I do and share. I do not want anyone to see me but just see the work of God in my life to touch you in the way only God can as you study His word. I will do whatever I can to use the gifts, blessings, and teachings that I have done to serve others as a faithful steward of God’s word, mercy, and grace in the best way I can. 1 Peter 4:10. 

God bless you as you take your own personal journey to discover who God is, how much your Heavenly Father loves you, and how much He wants a daily relationship with you.

~ Serving Him, Tracy Leigh

Colossians 3:23, Deuteronomy 13:4, and Ephesians 6:7

Whatever my task, I will work heartily from my soul for the Lord and not for men. ~ Colossians 3:23

 

I shall walk after the Lord my God and reverently fear Him, keep His commandments, obey His voice, cling to Him and serve Him in all that I do. ~ Deuteronomy 13:4

 

I will render my service with my whole heart and do all that God wants me to do and not what this world wants me to do. ~ Ephesians 6:7