What Bible to read?

webguy20

So im looking for help and advice here, don't want to start a religion thread.

I'm looking to find which version of the Bible I should read. I want to brush up on my understanding of religion and what better way than to read the bible! I know everybody has different opinions but hopefully Ill see a trend emerge in the recommendations. Only requirement is that is has to be in english.

If you want to reccomend other religous texts, like the Koran, or buddist or other religous type readings Id be grateful as well!

Edit: Im athiest, so this is a learning experience, not a spiritual journey.

Raneados

I always thought the King James version was the standard

Jasconius

I only know that the NIV Bible has some middle english -> modern english translations that some denominations disagree with.

There are literally dozens of versions of English Bibles floating around many of them with stark variations from the King James Bible including just general translation to having entirely additional books within them. Your particular sect of Christianity will dictate that.

If you want to go with the status quo, then the KJV (King James Version) is it, you just need a little extra reading comprehension to get through some parts. I read a decent part of the old testament in the 9th grade with fair comprehension. I've heard some Bible scholars argue that the only way you're going to get a pure draft of the Bible is to learn Latin and secure a Latin copy since many of the English translations take some liberty with translation.

If you are interested in just general spiritual reading then I would highly recommend the book Siddartha by Herman Hesse. It is fantastic.

webguy20

I've also heard that, but I've also heard that liberties were taken with its translation, so I'm not completely sold on it.

Sarcastro

If you're going for a basic understanding, the Student Bible (NIV) is pretty decent. If you are going for a little more in depth study, you might want to go for one that has the greek to english side by side, and since you're in the informative versus attendance version, I would also do a search for one that includes the Apocrypha.

For fucks sake stay away from King James, that shit will ostracize the inquiring mind but good. On the opposite end of the spectrum, Living Word bibles strive to translate into popular language so hard they often lose some of the more subtle meanings behind what is being said. NIV makes a good middle ground, and side by sides are by far the best for study.

Heir

Raneados wrote: »

I always thought the King James version was the standard

No. Some folks use the New King James version, but it's not that great for actual study.


NIV is always the gold standard imo. There is also the New Amercian Translation, which is pretty good.

There's also one called The Message, which basically paraphrases verses and "updates" them to modern language. It's ok for study, but is meant to help those with little knowledge of the Bible to understand easier.

Incenjucar

KJV is -famously- bad in translation.

My advice is to PM Qingu. I think he's mostly into the Qu'Ran, but he's all about the Abrahamic religious texts.

LadyM

I'd go with the New American Bible for the following reasons:

1. It is annotated with footnotes that will explain a lot of details, for example about historical events being referenced (the destruction of the temple is always a biggie), what certain numbers symbolized to the Hebrews, or what was/wasn't accepted in the culture at the time.

2. It's language is more in the manner of vernacular English than, for example, the King James version, which is more flowery. No thees and thous.

3. From what I've heard, it's a pretty accurate translation.

Edit: I'm not familiar with the Student Bible or some of the others mentioned. My basic advice is to stay away from King James and get something with footnotes/annotations.

Apothe0sis

www.blueletterbible.org : This is an online version of what JewCar is talking about

Joke answer LarLar : The Brick Testament

GameHat

I vote for the NIV Bible.

/Christian

/Grew up Catholic, mostly attended non-Catholic churches for the last 5 years

/A really lousy Christian, but I'm trying

Fizban140

According to my Christian friend (I am an atheist) the King James version is the standard for interpretations and meanings and all that.

Dioltas

I like the New Oxford Annotated NRSV (New revised standard edition). There are introductions to every book which explain a lot of the historical background and authorship issues and all that, plus the footnotes are really really interesting and informative. I recommend this as an atheist religion major who knew absolutely nothing about Christianity. Great bible.

Here:

http://www.amazon.com/Annotated-Apocrypha-Revised-Standard-Version/dp/0195284852/ref=ed_oe_p

Johnny Fabulous

I used the New Oxford Annotated Bible for my New Testament as Literature course. It's a really great bible. Tons of helpful footnotes.

Improvolone

I've been waiting for a thread to post this in.
http://www.azcentral.com/ent/pop/articles/0823bibleporn0823.html?&wired



But yes, King James is standard. Maybe you'd like to check out some of the books that were "banned from the Bible"?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banned_from_the_Bible

Papillon

I have to join the group voicing their disapproval of the King James.

I wouldn't say it's an awful translation, but when the translation was done it was designed to sound "proper", so was translated in a slightly older style -- when the translation was done 400 years ago. So it's very difficult to read.

Also, from what I've read there were strong pressures on some of the translators to translate passages in a certain way to conform to the way the Church leaders wanted something translated, rather than the most likely meaning.

I personally would go with the NIV, as it is the most commonly available translation, and is generally considered decent I believe. As a warning; there are some NIV-like translations which are not as good.

The NSRV I believe has a reputation as a more liberal translation, so I would not recommend it.

webguy20

Thanks for all the help so far guys! All these opinions are great. Keep em comin.

Incenjucar

You might want to look into multi-bible software, too.

I have this nifty little disk... from Sega, no less, that has like 14 different versions of the Bible on it, searchable and comparable.

Not great for reading, but if you find a particularly interesting passage and you want to see all the translations of it, it's very functional.

Kate of Lokys

Why just use one?

This site lets you choose between, like, 20 different English versions of the Bible, including the New International, the King James, and the American Standard. You can read through the entire Bible online in any version you like, or you can look up a specific passage and easily switch between different versions.

Legionnaired

If you DO decide to read from the KJV, make sure it's the NKJV, which has actually been updated in the last 400 years.

There's been a hell of a lot of archeological work in that time, and there's all sorts of new texts that fix some of the translation errors.

http://biblegateway.com has every translation, including many foreign ones.

The spectrum of liberality of translation goes thusly: (liberality meaning paraphrasing, not introduction of 'liberal theology'

The Message is a paraphrase. Think of this as an paragraph-for-paragraph translation.

NLT is best for something you can read easily. (best thought-for-thought translation that's not an out-and-out paraphrase) If you go to most 'mainline' evangelical churches, this is likely what you'll hear read, because it has less phrases that give you pause, grammatically.

NIV is a good mix of literalism and readability. Think of it as a 'sentence for sentence' translation.

NASB is the best for something you can study. (best word-for-word translation, consistent translation across usage of greek words, and thus it pairs will with something like Strong's Lexicon) It's also been updated fairly recently too.

All of those should be findable on Biblegateway. I read from the NASB because I'm used to it, and because if I see a word that looks out of place, a word study on it usually gives me some cool new insight, because the original word in Hebrew/Greek, while maybe not having an easy equivalent in modern English, paints a cool picture.

If you have any questions about what you're reading and want the stereotypical church answer without the stereotypical church judgment, shoot me a PM.

Oh, and whatever translation you choose, you might want to start going through John first. It's a good overview of Jesus' life, focusing on how the miracles show something about who he is and why he's here. After that, you might want to look at Deuteronomy for a look at Moses/OT, and Romans for some NT theology.

shutz

You might also be interested in this.

Since you mentioned you're an atheist, you won't be offended by another atheist's insights on the Bible.

I haven't read this book myself, but I've read a few of his essays about certain points in the Bible, and they're definitely illuminating. For instance, one essay traces back the meaning of the "Good Samaritan" parable, which, in many ways, was lost in translation.

real_pochacco

The version that we used in my Humanities 110 class was The New Oxford Annotated Bible with the Apocrypha/ New Revised Standard Version: College Edition (Oxford Univ. Press)

Falx

I can't remember where I found it, but search for "eSword." It's free to download software with like 50 or so different versions of the bible. It even has a Japanese one! Included is all the KJVersions, The Message, New Living Translation, NIV... it even has quizzes and such.

OremLK

I'll just fourth/fifth/whatever reading the NIV. It's pretty tried-and-true and I think one of the (if not the) most popular translations for Protestant denominations. New King James is pretty flowery and I've heard it's not the most accurate translation. (Not that any translation is going to be as good as the original language).

oldsak

I don't remember which version I used for my Theology courses, but I recommend getting an annotated study bible that includes the Apocrypha.

Crashtard

I have to toss another vote for the New American Standard. It's one of the most accurate translations you can get, and it has a TON of helpful study stuff in it.

Hamju

I've got the New Jerusalem Bible and it's pretty good. It's got a lot of editorial notes in it that'd be good for study.
This one.

Fantasma

If you really want to learn about religion, just reading the Bible is not the best approach to reach this goal, the original Bible is huge, not many people know this though, and they stick to the standard texts.

If you have the time and dedication, you could read also about the Nag Hammadi texts, there are excellent summaries and scholar studies available. There is also a poem called the Paradise Lost written by John Milton, this is based on the so called Apocryphal Bible texts.

For learning about Hinduism, you may refer to the poem called The Bhagavad Gita, it is the short version of the longest and more difficult (some say impossible) to read called Mahābhārata.

Good luck.

webguy20

I understand that just reading the bible isn't the end all of learning about religion. If I had my druthers Id take the time and have the money to take theology classes at the Uni.

Mainly I want to understand the beliefs of the majority of people I'm going to be dealing with in life. So I figured the bible was a good place to start because thats about as far as most people get, and after that I can delve into the deeper stuff.

McViking

Mainly I want to understand the beliefs of the majority of people I'm going to be dealing with in life. So I figured the bible was a good place to start because thats about as far as most people get, and after that I can delve into the deeper stuff.

At the risk of being labeled flamebait, after twelve years of Christian school it became pretty clear to me that "the majority of people" have not, in fact, read very much of the bible at all (in any translation, let alone multiple translations). They've read the bits that have been cherry-picked for them by the current theological consensus, but not much beyond that. If you want to understand "the beliefs of the majority of people", you'd unfortunately be better off watching episodes of the 700 Club than actually reading the bible.

(...says the jaded apostate...)

webguy20

As that may be the case, Lets stick to the bible recommendations and keep this on topic as best we can.

Crashtard

McViking wrote: »

Mainly I want to understand the beliefs of the majority of people I'm going to be dealing with in life. So I figured the bible was a good place to start because thats about as far as most people get, and after that I can delve into the deeper stuff.

At the risk of being labeled flamebait, after twelve years of Christian school it became pretty clear to me that "the majority of people" have not, in fact, read very much of the bible at all (in any translation, let alone multiple translations). They've read the bits that have been cherry-picked for them by the current theological consensus, but not much beyond that. If you want to understand "the beliefs of the majority of people", you'd unfortunately be better off watching episodes of the 700 Club than actually reading the bible.

(...says the jaded apostate...)

This is sadly true.

On topic, someone mentioned bible gateway. I'd second that, because it's great for reading the same passage in 3 or 4 different translations of the Bible. Makes understanding stuff a lot easier.

webguy20

I was just talking to a coworker of mine and they have a study version of the NIV, so I think I'm going to read that one first. Thanks for all the recommendations!

Centipede Damascus

webguy20 wrote: »

I understand that just reading the bible isn't the end all of learning about religion. If I had my druthers Id take the time and have the money to take theology classes at the Uni.

Mainly I want to understand the beliefs of the majority of people I'm going to be dealing with in life. So I figured the bible was a good place to start because thats about as far as most people get, and after that I can delve into the deeper stuff.

If this is your intention, I'd recommend starting by just reading the four Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John)

After that, the New Testament letters for some more in-depth information on Christian theology from early Christians.

You might also check out Psalms and Proverbs, which are books of poetry and general life wisdom.

Most of the Old Testament is frankly going to be confusing and pointless to read on a first run through.

SithDrummer

From what I recall of conversations with many Theo students back in college, the New Revised Standard Version was more accurate than the NIV, and generally recommended over the latter.

LewieP's Mummy

The King James version is dreadful - the translators translated words differently acording to the gender of the person the verse/word was about - eg Diakonus was translated as leader/deacon (where the word deacon comes from) if it was a man being referred to, but as helper if it was a woman. It is very gender biased, cos the translators couldn't deal with the idea of women having any key roles in the early church - another example is Priscilla and Aquilla - in hebrew tradition, the more important person was refered to first, but the translators couldn't accept this. Also, Susannah (in Luke) was described as a helper of Jesus, when in fact, she was an important supporter.

The NIV is better, as is the amplified New American Standard. You might find a commentary useful, as well, as it will give you the historical significance of things - eg. why Paul (apostle) told women to cover their heads (so they wouldn't be mistaken for prostitutes).

Have fun!

pinenut_canary

I also recommend staying away from KJV. When I was younger, I went to a really old school Baptist church (Riverview Baptist, in Pasco, WA.) Because I wasn't exposed to much of the world then, I thought that the KJV and their doctrine they were teaching was everything I ever needed to know. I thought I had it together and thought that everything they were doing was so cool and right, but now that I am better learned I see that that church is fubar.

For example:

They would collect any other translations of the Bible other than KJV, and at the end of the summer, they would burn them, along with secular music and literature. It wasn't like a Nazi book burning, but fuck, anything like that is messed up.

Girls weren't allowed to wear pants/shorts. It was deemed sinful. They would have to wear dresses/skirts, all 3 inches below the knee.

Movie theaters were the devil.

Everything else was the devil.

I hate that place now that I look at it. I sometimes read KJV for fun because of the language style, but that's it. I stick to NIV.

delphinus

havent read the thread,

but i recommend an NIV study bible.
you get the passages you're looking for as well as background history on when the passage was written, context its put in and probably a general interpretation of how Christians view the passage in context

Centipede Damascus

study bibles are good regardless of the translation

personally, I haven't found the NIV to be more readable than most other translations

I really like my NKJV and NASB Bibles a lot

FafnerMorell

webguy20 wrote: »

I understand that just reading the bible isn't the end all of learning about religion. If I had my druthers Id take the time and have the money to take theology classes at the Uni.

Mainly I want to understand the beliefs of the majority of people I'm going to be dealing with in life. So I figured the bible was a good place to start because thats about as far as most people get, and after that I can delve into the deeper stuff.

This may sound like I'm being insulting, but it's actually somewhat serious. If you want the basic beliefs of Christians (and probably Jews), read the "Golden Children's Bible". It's going to focus on the basics (and skip the really boring stuff). And realistically, folks tend to really remember what they learned as kids, rather than as adults.

Now, if you want to be able to argue translations & historical meaings, something like "The Five Books of Moses" by Robert Alters is what you want - but it's 1000 pages of detailed footnotes. I seem to recall Isaac Asimov (of SF fame) had a book or two on the Bible (but that's probably meant as a supplement rather than a Bible itself).

Ergandar

New American Standard Bible.

It's what we use for the religious studies courses at the Catholic high school I'm attending.

Legionnaired

Fantasma wrote: »

There is also a poem called the Paradise Lost written by John Milton, this is based on the so called Apocryphal Bible texts.

Trying to get theology from Milton's Poetry is like trying to get Mendelian genetics from Van Gogh's "Water Lilies".