#STRask - Which Translation Would You Recommend for an Adult Who’s New to the Bible?

Episode Date: March 26, 2026

Questions about which Bible translation to recommend to an adult who’s new to the Bible, and what resources to recommend to an unbeliever who’s interested in reading the Bible with her son.   Which Bible translation would you recommend to an adult who’s new to the Bible? What resources would you recommend to an unbeliever who’s interested in reading the Bible with her son?

Okay, Greg, are you ready for some questions about the Bible? All set. Okay. Here's a question from Christine. Which Bible translation would you recommend to an adult that's new to reading the Bible? Well, this kind of depends. I have a very particular perspective about this, and I don't think you ought to start with kind of easy. easy stuff and then get buy more translations that are more challenging.

I think what you ought to do is by a good – now this presumes that this is an adult that's a Christian anticipating a Christian life and growing as a Christian, as opposed to kind of a tire thumper kind of thing, and they're just tire kicker, as it were, and they're checking it out. And then some kind of paraphrase, if you want to get a general idea. of what Jesus taught and said, then a paraphrase like a new, new living translation in LT or something like that. The new living translation isn't a paraphrase. The living translation is, but not the new living translation, just so people know.

Oh, okay. It's more, it's a little, I think it's, I was just looking at this list, West Huff had put together of like a kind of a spectrum and where they fall because you have the more literal, then you have the more thought for thought and then you have the paraphrases. So the NLT is a little bit to the right. Like if you're moving towards paraphrase, it's a little bit farther than, I think, the NIV, but it's still within the thought for thought. Okay, got it. So you have – Like the message or would be more of a – Yeah, or we used to have the good news for modern man, you know, whatever.

But people are just wanting to get a general sense. But when I first became a Christian, I got the New American – standard, which was out that time in the community I was in, used it, and I love it. And I've never diverted from it. Now, the Newmark standard is well known as a very, very tight translation, so tight that some people think it's a little bit stiff. I have never had that sense as I read it. But there's a formal correspondence, and there's a, I guess the terminology mixed up, You just use it like literal and thought for thought. But even thought for thought is...

Oh, dynamic equivalence. There's a dynamic equivalence. That was the word I was looking for. And so in a certain sense, they do some more interpretation for you and it's a little loser. I like the tighter thing. And something like the ESV is a more recent translation that is very, very tight. And the New American Standard is like that. And then if you want to soften it up a little bit, so to speak, you have the new international version.

And this is popular for many, many years. And it publishes that one. And a lot of people like it. I personally don't because I think they make too many interpretive decisions in their translation for my tastes. And I just want to stick with one translation. But here, the general thing is find a quality translation, either a formal equivalence like the New American Standard. or the ESV, for example, or a functional equivalent, which is thought for thought is the way you put it. It's just a little softer read, and that would be, we talked about the NIV.

I mean, there's a bunch of them that fall in that category, but these are ones that are most well known. Something like that. Do not do your study from any paraphrase. And the reason that you don't do a study from paraphrases is because there's a whole bunch of words that are in paraphrases that aren't in the original that you might end up kind of hinging a point on when that isn't even in the original. So the other thing I suggest is do not use the King James. And as John Montgomery used to say, I use a King James translation with everybody who's 350 years old or older. For everybody else, we have to have something more updated because words change their meaning. over time. And when you've got a 350-year gap, you're going to have a lot of words that you're

reading the King James that will not mean what you think they mean. So that's why it's better to go with the translation. So I would say in this circumstance, I would say go ESV or NASB. And if you're the new international version fan, okay, go there. But I wouldn't, for your personal Bible, I wouldn't go anywhere else, and I would stick with the same translation for the rest of your life. And the reason I say that is because I know lots and lots of verses, not so much because I tried to memorize them, but because I read them, reflected on them, and they just got sticky for me. If I go to another translation, there's a foreignness about that same verse. Amy's smiling now because she knows exactly what I'm.

You're an NASB person as well. Yeah, the 1995. 95 is what we use it, standard. Yeah. You use the, what, is it 77? Is that? Well, there was an earlier version, but the one I have now is in the 95, and so that's what I use. And those are very, very modest differences in the additions.

So mostly they read the same. And then you kind of get used to a cadence, the language, whatever, and it's easier to make those words part of you if you stick with the same translation. If you jump all around, I just think it's going to be harder to remember things. So that would be my recommendation. I don't know what yours is, Amy. So my, yeah, if I had to pick one, like you said, I used the NASB 95 that I've used since I was at, I was getting my master's in apologetics at Biola, which has been, you know, 25 years now. So that's the main one I used. But if I had to pick one for people to choose, if they're just starting out, I think what I might suggest is the ESV for a couple of reasons.

First, you'll grow into it. So if you feel like, oh, I haven't read this before, this is like what you were saying, it's not, it's better to pick one and stick with it rather than start down and then move up. You'll grow into it over time. So the better, the more you get to know the Bible, the easier it will be to read. And it might be hard to read it first. And ESV is a very good translation. The ESV is a very smooth translation. And it is on the more literal side.

But the other reason is that so many churches use ESV. And like I bring a different Bible to church because they use the ESV. So if you want to match a whole lot of churches, then I think that's a good one to choose. But also they make beautiful Bibles. They have so many options, so many options for covers and styles. And they're just so good at what they do. Also, the ESV study Bible is very good. Their app is very good.

And their app has free audio Bible. It's all free. You can purchase the digital study Bible and integrate it with the app. Like there are a lot of advantages to it. Yeah, Crossway publishes. Crossway, yeah. They're very good at all of this. That reminds me of something else here.

Now, in my version here, there's all kinds of variations. So mine has what it's called the side column reference. So that means there's a column on the outside that has cross-references and clarifications. Sometimes it'll say, well, literally it's this word, but we translated it this way for this reason, or it'll say some manuscripts do not include this particular verse or there's a variation. It's just helpful. It's just helpful. Plus, there's enough space there that with a sharp number two taekondroga, I can make little notes.

and aside for myself, and I do that, okay? Plus, you also want to invest enough money that you get a leather cover that has a very good binding, because you want this to last for the next 50 years. And actually, my binding is breaking right now, and I'm going to have to have that fixed. But I'm going to spend a lot of money to get it fixed in a very good place because I want this Bible. For me, you know, when I got a new Bible, this one, I went to my old Bible, and I went through page by page and transferred off a nose. I mean, that's pretty radical, but I don't want to lose the thoughts and research that I have put on the margins.

And when I get a question, I can turn to it, maybe see a point that I put in there that'll help answer the question. So I just want this one to be my last one. I probably have had four Bibles. I had one stolen in Thailand, actually. The Bible wasn't stolen. My luggage was stolen and my Bible was in it. So, but now I'm, I have no intention to ever change from this one. And, and so when you get something, think long term. And if it costs you three times as much to get a really good binding with a really good cover like leather, spend that money. It's going to pay dividends in the long run. It's so funny because my fear is losing my Bible or having it stolen. Whenever I, if I leave my backpack in the car or something and I think, I don't care about the computer. Take the computer, but leave the Bible. It has all my notes and everything in there. And in fact, whenever I'm on a plane and they're doing their little safety thing and they say, you know, if you have to leave the plane, leave everything behind, I'm always secretly thinking, you can't make me leave my Bible. I'm taking it with me. I don't care what you say. Well, your Bible said, like, it's a chunky little one in a small print, so I can't imagine how you write in any of that. But I'm amazed at your ability to read Microdot, Amy.

I have a system. Okay, good. And one thing, I don't want anybody to hear saying that you have to switch now to the ESV or the NSB. You don't have to switch. There are so many good Bibles, and this goes back to what Greg's saying, just stay with what you know and keep going with that. the one you read is the best one. If you have a version that you never read, maybe get another version that will encourage you to read. It's okay. It doesn't have to be so literal. So don't feel like we're telling you your version isn't good enough or you have to switch.

Yeah, the qualification I would make is if you are growing as a Christian and studying, you need to get a translation, not a paraphrase. Yeah, yeah. Because a paraphrase is just a paraphrase. and you're not going to be able to do the kind of work you want to be able to do in your study if you have a paraphrase. But I would say most people don't have a paraphrase. That's true. They're much more rare. Yeah.

So anything, you probably don't have a paraphrase. But if you're – you can go online and find little charts of where your Bible fits in if you're just curious how it fits in. And what you could always do is get a more literal translation that you're, you can go. you can compare. So if you're used to reading this one and you're doing study, maybe read through that chapter in another more literal version to get an idea of where the interpretations are coming in, and that could help you. Even if you have ESV or NASB, and you could go to the NSV. In other words, use other good translations who are going to have a little take on some passages that could be translated in different ways. That'll give you more insight.

Yeah. Okay, here's a question from Ariana. Do you have resources you could recommend to an unbeliever who is interested in reading the Bible? My friend told me today she wants to read the Bible with her son. I know a lot of her views, and I worry she will get an incorrect message like the, quote, We Are All Christ, believes that are out there. Yeah. Well, you're not going to get that idea from the Bible. If you're reading scripture, you're going to get that from— What depends on how you're reading it. Well, I guess what I'm saying is you have to kind of have that mindset to begin with that you got from somewhere else, like new thought kind of background. And then you're reading this basically Gnostic, which is a second century heresy concept into these texts. By the way, this is why the Gnostics had to write new texts because you couldn't get Gnosticism out of the authoritative text, the canonical texts. You can read some of that into individual verses in isolation, but not the whole text.

Because in part, I mean, Jesus, God became a man in Jesus. And this is, you know, anathema to Gnostic ideas. In any event, the – oh, now I got myself off the track here. Where are we here? Resources to recommend for someone who's interested in reading the Bible. A resources to recommend for... An unbeliever who's interested in reading the Bible. Oh, I didn't realize it's an unbeliever.

Well, one resource for an unbeliever would be maybe a New Testament or Gospels that are in a paraphrase. I mean, you want to get the broad strokes of Jesus, then that would be a place to start. The difficulty with starting, like, I'm going to read the Bible all the way through. I'm a skeptic, and I'm going to read the Bible. It's not going to make any sense to them. They're going to read historical material in the Old Testament that reads as historical material, but they're not going to understand the cohesion of it and how it plays into the larger picture. And that takes a while to see how these things fall together, and it takes a certain kind of tutor.

This is one of the reasons that I wrote, for example, the story of reality, because this is a big picture take on the enterprise. You could see the big picture cohesion to get more cohesion between the fall and the coming of Christ and the history of Israel. We have a teaching that's available at stand a reason called the Bible fast forward, but that's, you know, that's eight sessions at 50 minutes each. You kind of have to strain through some things to make sense of all of that. I had another thought a few moments ago about an idea that might work here, but why don't you go ahead and maybe come back to mine? So I think getting a big picture is really important. If you can, if she's interested in watching

the Bible fast forward, I think that would be really helpful. Or you could help her to, you could give her the overall picture. Or what you could do is help her pick out the narrative books and just read through the narrative books and maybe, but also like Psalms. But you could skip some of the, like maybe Leviticus or parts of Exodus or whatever it is, so she can get a bigger idea. Yeah, because you don't want her to get stuck in reading how to build the temple. I mean, she- Slaughter calves. Yeah, and all of that's important.

And for somebody who is a Christian, that's all important. But if you don't want her to get stuck there right at the beginning and then miss the bigger picture. But I would start maybe just by reading, never read a Bible verse. Yeah. Because this is ours. Yeah, so this is Greg's. It's just more of an article size thing. It's not too long.

Anyone can read through that. It's not a big investment of time or anything. Because what you want her to understand is that she should read this like she would read a book. The ordinary way. Yes. She's not going into the Bible to get special messages or to read one verse. verse here and one verse there, she should have the idea of reading it as she would, any book, and interpreting it as she would a book, not trying to get special spiritual messages,

secret messages out of it. Or third level meanings or something like that. Yeah. So if you can kind of convey that idea, I think that's really helpful. The other thing I think would be helpful is a book called How to Read the Bible Book by book. Because, again, this would – you could read that little chapter about the book. to give you an idea of what the book's about and how to interpret it before you read through the book.

So I think that would be really helpful. Again, it wouldn't take a ton of time, but it would kind of point them in the right direction and give them an idea of what they're reading. So I think that would be also helpful. No, I'm not sure how you feel about this next recommendation because I think maybe recently there's been some concerns about some of the individuals involved. But I think an enterprise called the Bible Project has been very helpful to me because what it does that takes individual books and gives you kind of a graphic overview. It'll go through the chapters.

For example, last week I read Ruth. And so I went online with my phone in my hand as I'm sitting in my chair where I read in my office at home. And I went to the Bible Project on Ruth. and in about eight minutes, I got this overview that puts it all in perspective for me. And they also have a kind of graphic characterization the way they're like a cartoony type thing, you know, that I think is very helpful to see the coherence and the cohesiveness of these individual books. And having an overview then helps me when I go back to the text to read it in the light of this bigger picture. And it was very, very helpful when I did that with Ruth.

They have one for almost every book of the Bible, I think. Now, that I found really helpful for me, and I still find that. I know you have some apprehensions about it. I have objections to them, but, you know, I mean, I've just seen things I've disagreed with in there, and I think they've gotten some things wrong. I think, I don't know that it could do a ton of damage to somebody, so I wouldn't say, never watch them, but I do think they get some things wrong, so I would just be careful with that. Yeah.

So any other, I guess some of the recommendations just depend on how much time they're willing to put into this. So there are different levels here. There's the never read a Bible verse level, how to read the Bible book by book that they could read a chapter at a time. And then there's the story of reality level or the Bible fast forward level that they all take a little bit more time. So depending on you don't want to overwhelm them because we do want them to read the Bible. Bible, so maybe kind of feel out what they're willing to do. But if you can get across the idea that you read and interpret as larger, not as single verses. In light of the flow of thought of a passage, just like you'd read anything else. You don't just read one line here and there

and then try to figure out what the author means or what's going on. Yeah, and you can help her to understand. Look, I think people have interesting ideas. I've never read the Bible, might have interesting ideas of what it's about. It's helpful to know this is a history. It's not just a book of rules and it's not just a way to divine secret messages. It's a history of what God has done through this people. And here's the big story. You could just even summarize it. You know, God chooses Abraham. He creates a nation. He gives them laws. They fail and then he saves them. And then they fail and then they fail and they save. them and then ultimately they can't save themselves by the law. And so he sends his son to die and pay for their sins so that if we're joined to him, then he stands in our place and takes our punishment for us and then we can be with God forever. But the whole thing is showing us who God is. And that's, that's kind of what she should look for as she reads. Who is God? That should be her biggest question. So maybe you can give her that insight also as she's reading, what do I learn about God?

Not what do I learn about my life from this passage. That's not the main things. Now, we do learn things about our lives and how to live. But the main thing is, who does this reveal God to be? How do I learn more about his character and who he is from this passage? And if you're reading in the Gospels, the question is narrowed down to who do I, who is communicating Jesus is, and the role that he plays in the big picture. And by the way, if you want, in a certain sense,

the most simplified version of an answer here for a beginner, have them read one of the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John. Now, Mark is the shortest. It's snappier, quicker. John is probably the most popular, because it focuses in on who Jesus, the person and the work of Christ, more than the others. Mark is probably the first, John is the last.

the other two are longer and have a little different emphasis, but they're biographies of Jesus, and the point is you're going to get a sense of what Jesus is all about by reading from the beginning and going to the end. Don't just jump around. There's a coherence to his life and read from the beginning and go to the end. That would probably be the simplest way of going about it, and I've heard multiple testimonies of people who are non-Christians who just read Jesus and were were overtaken by it. Bill Craig talks about this in his own personal testimony. Guillaume Bignon, we know the Frenchman, former French atheist, who became a Christian, now a theologian, and his whole testimony, just reading, he couldn't believe what he was reading. He thought he'd be

reading nonsense, and he was taken with what was said here. So that would be maybe the simplest approach. And if I'm talking with somebody and they're open to it, I just offer them a gospel of John that I carry in my bag when I'm traveling to as a way of going another step. And that's a common practice. Here, read Jesus for yourself as what I sometimes will say to them. I don't say, hey, read some of the Bible, you know, because that's kind of, to some people, that's a negative term. But if they want to read an account of Jesus' life, let Jesus speak for himself,

then I give them a gospel of John. Well, thank you for your great questions, Christine and Ariana. We love talking about the Bible. So thank you for those questions. So send us your question on X with the hashtag STR Ask, or you can always just go to our website at STR.org. This is Amy Hall and Greg Kokel for Stand to Reason.