Today, a typical Christian bookshop might well stock around fifteen different versions of the Bible in English. The Internet currently offers a list of more than thirty. Why are there so many? Should there be? How do they differ? Which Bible should I use? Some 600 million people now speak English as their first language, and twice that number speak it as their second language. Christians around the world need Bibles for use in church, for devotional reading, for academic study and for evangelism. Different versions are required for highly literate readers and for young children, for theologians and for those who have never opened a Bible before. In this accessible and informative guide, David Dewey introduces the principles and issues involved in the task of Bible translation, traces the story of the Bible in English and offers an even-handed survey and evaluation of the different versions now available.

What Bible should you use? KJV. NIV. NASB. NRSV. ESV. TNIV. The Message. NLT. It's never been easier to find a Bible in English. Still, it's never been harder to decide what Bible to use. Formal or conversational? Traditional or inclusive language? Word-for-word, meaning-for-meaning or paraphrase? A User's Guide to Bible Translations escorts you through the history of Bible versions in English from Wycliffe and Tyndale to the English Standard Version and Today's New International Version, with explanatory glances at the original Hebrew and Greek manuscripts and brief introductions to translation theories along the way. In straightforward language, David Dewey explains how we ended up with so many versions of the Bible, shedding light on the difference between word-for-word and meaning-for-meaning translations, the controversy over gender accuracy, and issues of theological bias. Dewey also reminds us that it's not enough to ask, Which Bible is best? We need to ask, Best for what? For personal study? For reading aloud? For leading a Bible study for inquirers? For lending to an international student struggling with English? Filled with charts comparing versions and diagrams showing translation difficulties, A User's Guide to Bible Translations is just that--an easy-to-use handbook for digging through the mountain of translation options until you find the right Bible for the right purpose.