Bible Translations

Unlike other translations the language used for this version was Elizabethan English. This version never achieved the wide popularity of the KJV or other versions.

The AMP is largely a revision of the American Standard Version Bible with reference made to various texts in the original languages. It is designed to "amplify" the text by using a system of punctuation and other typographical features.

Work on the began in 1853 by a London businessman called Ferrar Fenton (1832–1920). Fenton spent approximately fifty years working on his translation, with his goal to study the scriptures in their original languages and ascertain what its writers actually said and thought. The is noted for a rearranging of the books of the Bible into what Fenton believed was the correct chronological order.

The CEV is a simplified version of the scriptures written at a fourth grade (10 year old) reading level. It uses gender-neutral language for humanity but not for God.

The ESV is a revision of the Revised Standard Version (1971). It contains the non-inspired books of the Apocrypha.

The Good News is also known as the Good News (GNT). It is written in simple, everyday language. The 1979 edition of the GNB includes the Apocrypha.

The HCSB is the work of one hundred men and women representing seventeen different denominations. One distinction of the HCSB is the of the tetragrammaton (name of the God of Israel used in the Hebrew Bible and represented by the letters YHWH) in 495 places to the English word Yahweh.

The HBFV is one of the only known modern translation that uses the original inspired canonical manuscript order to arrange the books. This restores the original book order and reestablishes its seven divisions which are: 1) The Law, 2) The Prophets, 3) The Writings, 4) The Gospels and Acts, 5) The General Epistles, 6) The Epistles of Paul, and 7) The Book of Revelation. According to its translator, the HBFV reflects the true meaning of the original Hebrew and Greek text and shows the unity of Scripture between the Old and New Testaments.

The NJPS is a modern Jewish of the Hebrew Scriptures into English. It is the second published by the Jewish Publication Society, which is the oldest nonprofit, nondenominational publisher of Jewish works in English. This new supersedes the Society's 1917 version, which is abbreviated as JPS.

The the Living Bible is an English version created by Kenneth N. Taylor. It was one of the best selling translations in the early 1970s. In the late 1980s Taylor and Tyndale House Publishers invited a team of ninety Greek and Hebrew scholars to participate in a project of revising the LB text. The result of their work was the NLT.

James Moffatt (1870 - 1944 A.D.) was Professor of Greek and New Testament Exegesis at Mansfield College, Oxford, England. He was also Professor of Church History at United Free Church College and Union Theological Seminary. In the introduction to his 1926 edition, Moffatt wrote, "The aim I have endeavored to keep before my mind in making this has been to present the books of the Old and the New Testament in effective, intelligible English."

The NAB is a Catholic translation that had its beginnings in the Confraternity Bible, which began to be translated from the original languages in 1948. It was specifically translated into English by the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine under the liturgical principles and reforms of the Second Vatican Council (1962–1965).

The NASB, also called New American Standard Version (NASV), is considered a literal and conservative revision of the ASV of 1901.

The NEB is a modern English version taken directly from the original Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic texts. This controversial version, which also includes the Apocrypha, was sponsored by several denominations in Great Britain.

The New International Reader's Version (NIrV) is derived from the popular New International Version (NIV). The NIV was rewritten in a simpler form of English by the International Bible Society in order to make it more accessible to people who have difficulty reading English.

The NIV is one of the most popular modern Bible translations in English. Fifteen Biblical scholars made up the core team that produced the NIV, with additional scholars from various denominations around the world also participating.

The NJB was created by the Roman Catholic Church. It is an updated version of the JB, which was an English version of a French version known as La Bible de Jérusalem. Like the JB, the NJB translates God's name in the Old Testament (the Tetragrammaton) as Yahweh.

The NKJV is a conservative revision of the KJV that does not make any alterations on the basis of a revised Greek or Hebrew text, but adheres to the readings presumed to underlie the KJV. The Gideons, a Christian organization that distributes free copies of God's word through hotels, motels and other means, uses the NKJV.

The NRSV is a thorough revision of the Revised Standard Version (RSV) Bible of 1952. This is less literal than the RSV due to the goal of making the English easier to understand. Some editions of the NRSV contain the Apocrypha.

The RSV is an authorized revision of the American Standard Version (ASV) of 1901. The 1957 version of the RSV contains the Apocrypha.

The YLT was produced by Robert Young, who also produced Young's Analytical Concordance. It is considered a strict literal translation of the original Hebrew and Greek texts.

An edition of the Masoretic Text of the Hebrew Bible as preserved in the Leningrad Codex and supplemented by Masoretic and text-critical notes.

Considered the authoritative Hebrew bible text of what we today call the Old Testament. The word Masoretic comes from the Hebrew word masora, meaning tradition.

The text itself is based on the Masora, the textual tradition and marginal notes of the Levitical scholars known as Masoretes. The Masoretes were active from about 500 to 950 A.D. They continued the work of earlier Aaronic priests and Levitical scribes known as the Sopherim, who were appointed by Ezra the prophet as the official guardians of the Hebrew text after its canonization around the 500s to 400s B.C.

Latin name of the Greek-language version of the New Testament, which was first published by Erasmus in 1516 A.D. Today, this term usually refers to the Nestle-Aland editions, which are named after the scholars who led the critical editing work.

The word Septuagint, which means "seventy," is a Greek of the Hebrew-based Old Testament. Also called the LXX (the Roman numeral for 70), the text is believed to be the work of seventy Jewish scholars that assembled in Alexandria, Egypt around 285 to 247 B.C. The Septuagint includes the books of the Apocrypha.

Textus Receptus, which is Latin for "received text," is also known as the Stephens Greek Text of 1550 A.D. The Stephens text was one of the Reformation's printed editions of the Greek New Testament. The Textus Receptus was the base for the original German Luther Bible, the New Testament into English by William Tyndale, the KJV and others.

A 4th century A.D. Latin translation of the Bible by Jerome, a Greek and Latin scholar who was commissioned by Roman Catholic Pope Damasus I. The Vulgate included the fourteen books of the Apocrypha. It was considered the definitive edition of the scriptures up until the 1530s.