Personally, I believe the best study Bible will have study notes written by a variety of scholars. Sometimes the study notes are written by a number of biblical scholars, such as with the ESV Study Bible, and other times they’re written primarily by a single individual, like the MacArthur Study Bible (notes by John MacArthur).
#BEST BIBLE TO READ AND UNDERSTAND PLUS#
Usually, these Bibles have loads of study notes underneath the text, plus maps, diagrams, cross-references, and dozens of other helpful tools. In other words, they want to help you get to the heart of the author’s original intent. These types of study Bibles are primarily designed to help you understand the meaning of the text in each book of the Bible. Generally speaking, study Bibles fall into one of two categories: Interpretation Centered Study Bibles It’s a flabbergasting, overwhelming blessing. There are Bibles for men, women, college students, high-school students, kids, military members, and on and on. There are so many different types of study Bibles that it can be confusing trying to determine the best study Bible for you. The best study Bibles will be essentially literal translations of God’s word. God chose specific words to include and exclude in scripture, and our job as readers is not to change those words, but wrestle with their meaning. Some examples of dynamic equivalence translations are:īottom line: If you want the best study Bible, I recommend getting an essentially literal translation.īecause you want the translation to be as close to the original as possible, while still being readable.
Overall, this is a big simplification of the two methods of translation, but I think you get the point. This is done by bypassing the words of the original and offering an interpretation of its “content meaning” as distinct from its “lexical meaning.” Instead, these translators often engage in commentary on the biblical text instead of translation of it. This, in turn, can lead to words and phrases being used that weren’t originally in the text.Īdherents of “dynamic equivalence” (and the more recent label “functional equivalence”) do not necessarily feel obliged to translate the actual words of the original. In other words, instead of simply translating the words as they were originally written, an attempt is made to interpret the meaning of the original words and then let that interpretation guide the translation.īecause it has the potential to introduce the biases of the translators. Personally, I believe this is an inferior and unhelpful method of translation because it has the potential to introduce interpretation into the translation. In other words, instead of translating each word individually, they attempt to translate the original thoughts behind each word and phrase. $89.99 −$31.06 $58.93 Dynamic Equivalence Translationsĭynamic equivalence study Bible translations attempt to translate the Bible in a “thought-for-thought” manner. There are rare occasions when a literal translation will make zero sense to a modern English reader, and in that case, the translation attempts to be as close to the original as possible while still making sense to the reader.Įxamples of essentially literal translations are: Essentially Literal Bible TranslationsĮssentially literal study Bible translations are those that seek to examine the original Greek or Hebrew word, then translate that word into English as literally as possible. Now, this may seem a bit of a strange question, but stay with me.īasically, there are TWO primary types of translations. Which Is The Best Study Bible Translation?īefore you decide on a good study Bible for you, it’s really important to determine the best translation of the Bible to use. Now let’s dive into the nitty gritty of choosing a good study Bible for you. If you just want some quick recommendations and don’t want to read the reasoning behind them, here is a table of good study Bibles to choose from.
A Note About Study Bible / Application Notes.Which Is The Best Study Bible Translation?.A Quick Overview Of The Best Study Bibles.