Theology 1.0: What are the differences between the English translations of the Bible?

 

General differences between translations of the Bible

In this post, I will be briefly examine the differences of the English translations of the Bible. I will assume all translators had good intentions to make the Bible as knowable to the general audience, and will not be throwing shade at translations I disagree with. So let me start:

One of the criticisms of the Bible I do agree with is that we have so many English translations of the Bible. In Bible Gateway alone we have over 60 translations in English! In contrast the same website has 13 translations in Chinese, 5 in Italian and 1 in Tamil (as of 20 March 2025).

So why so many English translations?

Same goal but many approaches
Translating Biblical text is not a new thing. The Jews translated the Old Testament from Hebrew into Greek so that Greek-speaking Jews could read and understand the Scriptures. Similarly, English translations pop up to cater to an English-reading audience so that they may personally read the Word of God.

However, English is a relatively young and fluid language. This means the frequency of usage and meaning of words have changed with time. For instance, let us compare how translations of Psalms 23 has changed over time.

As you can see the phrase "I lack nothing" is more in used now than "I shall not want" in 1611.

The issue with all translations
Thus translators will come to an issue. Should they do a word-for-word translation at the cost of making the Bible more difficult to understand for the modern audience? This approach is known as formal equivalence, and it used by the translators who worked on the English Standard Version (ESV) and the New King James Version (NKJV).

Yet another way is to do complete paraphrasing, at the expense of precise wording. This makes the passages easy to read. This is done by the translators who worked on the Message (MSG) and the Good News Translation (GNT).

An alternative is to do a balance between the two earlier approaches. This is known as the dynamic/optimal equivalence. This approach is favoured by the translators who worked on the New International Version (NIV) and New Living Translation (NLT). 

In conclusion
Translations allow people to understand the Word of God and thus grow in their walk with God. However, all translations have their limitations and it is good practice to read various translations (and in different languages if possible). 

For instance, I generally use both the ESV (the one I used most during Bible study) and NIV (the one I use the most in my personal reading). I also have used the NLT during my university days in England, and NSRV (New Standard Revised Version) from my old church.

I also use the Nuova Riveduta (2006) when I read in Italian, and Chinese Union Version with New Punctuation (CUNPSS or CUVMPS) with the simplified script when I read in Chinese.

Source:
Bible Gateway Blog

Wesly Huff

Alternative Culture: The Localization Controversy

Comparison of text between the Japanese (original) and American versions of the game Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

The issue with localization in anime and video games
Japan is known for producing high-quality animation (anime) and video games. As such, it is little wonder that there is a demand for subtitling (subbing) and dubbing into different languages. 

However, one of the challengers of translation is that sometimes the Japanese phrases do not translate well outside Japan. For instance, our Japanese friends tend to use the words like "senpai", and honorifics like "-san" and "-chan" that are uniquely Japanese. Thus there is a need to do localization, which is to translate the Japanese words to suit the audience's culture. For instance in the game Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword,  the shopping district in is translated from "shoppu moru" to "bazaar" as it does resemble a street market in most countries.

One of the localization choices from Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

Localization controversy
Recently, Japanese-to-English localizers has come under fire for refusing to translate according to the original author's intention. 

The controversy first gained traction when the American audience noted the difference between the subtitles (which were more literal to the Japanese text) and the dubs in the anime Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid. 

The change from the text in Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid

In another example, the person in charge of dubbing the anime Lovely Complex took pride that his localization deliberately took liberties with the text against the author's intent, with the statement,  "We made it good. This show SUCKED!".

Such liberties usually seem to conform to a typical California left-wing politics, rather than an international audience, or even the general American audience. These include and not limited to uncalled criticism of capitalism, unhinged hatred of males, sudden claims of patriarchy and insertion of LGBT ideology or pronouns when the original Japanese did not even allude to it. I attached a video below to show how inappropriate the localization can be in video games.

What this means for Christians?
Be wary of inserting our own desires into the Bible

Now whether we Christians should think such localizations are right and wrong is not the point I want to discuss for part of the post.

What I want to discuss for this post is like whether we tend to localize Scripture to our interest, rather than allowing the God's intent to be read.

Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth. - 2 Timothy 2: 15

By rightly handling, this means doing the research, and not inserting our own politics, interpreting things to our favor  and detouring from the original text and intent. I have seen happen (whether intentionally or unintentionally) many times.

After all, no one seriously interprets God's instruction to the prophet Hosea to marry an unfaithful woman as a command to all Christian to do so. Similarly, we should not take verses like the one below:

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. - Jeremiah 29: 11

as a prediction that God always prosper us as it was a specific instruction for Jeremiah.

Dangers with translation of the Bible
I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book, and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book. - Revelations 22: 18-19

Another lesson we can take from the localization controversy is the lesson to localize or translate the Bible seriously. I appreciate the translators of the Bible for making the text available to everybody as learning the original Greek and Hebrew (in addition to the context) would not be accessible. 

Nevertheless, I think even for the Message translation (by Eugene Peterson) which takes great liberties with the text, I never got the sense that Peterson hated the original material unlike some of the anime and video game localizers.

Conclusion
The localization controversy should encourage Christians also to closely examine on how they interpret the Bible.

For more information:

Niche Gamer

Desiring God

Ministry Magazine