The benefit of this sort of translation philosophy is that it presents a slightly more raw and un-interpreted (as much as possible) translation of the original, which allows the Bible reader and studier to work directly with the specific written words. The Formal Equivalence translation philosophy attempts to take each Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek word and find the equivalent word in the translation as they take into account the appropriate English grammar standards. Those two endpoints are Formal Equivalence (Word for Word) and Dynamic Equivalence (Thought for Thought).

Knowing that, it helps to first begin with a focus on the two ends of the Bible translation philosophy spectrum as Bibles are regularly identified based on their relative closeness to one of the two ends. Along this spectrum exists a large number of options for a Bible translation to be identified, which can quickly become overwhelming as one first begins to dip one’s toes in this area of study. In studying translation philosophy one quickly discovers there exists a spectrum along which a particular Bible will find itself when the philosophy of a certain translation is discussed. Translation philosophy is the term commonly used within the Bible translation world in order to differentiate the foundation and/or plan for a specific Bible translation. To do this, a discussion of three translation factors will be presented: Translation Philosophy, Translation Accuracy, and Translation Readability. With this short article I would like to highlight three factors of Bible translation I think go a long way towards helping one better grasp why their Bible is the way it is while giving a good foundation for understating why other Bibles are the way they are.

Not only does an understanding of different Bible translations help with seeing the differences within translations, but it also begins to deepen one’s respect for those that have given their lives to the work of Bible translation. Through experience we know the New International Version (NIV) does not read like the English Standard Version (ESV) and the New American Standard Bible (NASB) does not read like the King James Version (KJV) and yet they are all the word of God. The study of Bible translations is helpful mainly because it provides a good base for understanding why the Bible you use reads like it does.

Different bible versions