Why Are There So Many Different Bibles?

Why are there so many different types of Bibles? And what is the best one to read?
– Patty

Let’s look at some of the reasons. You may be able to think of more reasons, but we’ll start with these four.

Reason One: There are Many Languages

A long time ago, the ancient Israelites gathered writings they considered inspired by God… the Hebrew Old Testament. Some time after that, Greek became a primary language of the region… so they translated the Hebrew Scriptures into Greek. After Jesus’ death and resurrection, the early Christians gathered writings inspired by God, which we call the New Testament. As the news about Jesus spread to different countries, it was translated into Latin, Coptic, Syriac, Armenian, and more. Eventually it was translated into English and Chinese and Tagalog and many other languages. That’s one of the reasons for so many Bibles: people need to know the gospel, and about how God loves them, and it’s easier for them to understand in their own language.

That only covers SOME of the Bibles, of course. It’s easy to understand why we translate the Bible into different languages. One might ask why we need multiple Bibles in the same language, and it’s a good question. I can think of three more reasons for this.

Reason Two: Languages Change

Languages change over time, and the meanings of words also change over time. Consider how many of today’s English speakers would be able to understand Old English. Let’s compare Genesis 19:24 in Old English and modern English:

That’s a pretty drastic difference, isn’t it? Some of those letters don’t even exist in modern English! The fonts I use here probably don’t accurately present the text. You can see that one reason we have so many Bibles is that languages change over time. Virtually nobody can read Old English today.

Reason Three: Different Purposes

Another reason we might want multiple Bibles in the same language has to do with the purpose of the Bible. The two most obvious purposes have to do with readability and accuracy. Let’s look at a simple Spanish-to-English translation:

Casa blanca is Spanish. How would we translate this into English? We have two options. We can translate it strictly, replacing each word with its English equivalent. In this case, the English would be house white. Casa means house, blanca means white. We can also translate it a bit less strictly, but in a phrase-by-phrase way that makes more sense to English speakers. In this case, the English would be white house. This way of translating is a better fit for most readers.

That’s how translations work: some can be very strict in a word-for-word sense, but may sacrifice readability in the “target language.” This is known as formal equivalence. Others can be less strict and communicate the same idea in a phrase-by-phrase way. This is known as dynamic equivalence. They serve different purposes. A more strict translation is better for serious study, for example… and a less strict translation is usually better for public readings and devotionals. It’s important to note that neither translation is wrong, and one is not necessarily better than the other. They simply serve different purposes.

Reason Four: Manuscript Evidence

One more reason for having multiple translations in the same language has to do with the source material. We keep finding more and more ancient manuscripts. This is very helpful when it comes to translation… and, considering the Bible’s importance, it makes sense that we would want as much information as we can get before translating. To date there are well over 25,000 ancient Greek manuscripts and partial manuscripts of just the New Testament, and we keep finding more. As we revise and update the Bibles we have, we don’t get rid of the old ones. That means we continue to have multiple translations of the Bible in the same languages, which is a good thing.

Let’s recap. Here are some reasons we have so many different Bibles:

• There are many different languages
• Languages change over time
• We translate differently for different reasons
• We find more and more manuscripts over time

So: which Bible is the right Bible? The answer is simple: almost any modern Bible is great. The best Bible is the one you’ll read! There are a few to stay away from, of course… they’re not translated using the same responsible processes, and reflect the values of either a single person or another religion entirely. I do have a list of Problematic Bibles, if you need it. I don’t have a list of good Bibles, because almost all of them are awesome.

No matter which good Bible you choose, I have two recommendations. First, read it. Second, focus primarily on the New Testament. The whole thing is good, true, and valuable… but for people who want to follow Jesus, the primary part is where He and His first students teach us how to live as God intends.

I made a free Bible Reading Checklist to keep track of your progress, if you find that helpful. Let me know.

Join me on Substack!