What is the best version of the Bible?

Asinine analogy.
If that's the best you can do then no one should take your opinion about letters seriously.

King James version uses the literal Hebrew word here, "seed"

>And Onan knew that the seed should not be his; and it came to pass, when he went in unto his brother's wife, that he spilled it on the ground, lest that he should give seed to his brother.

NIV "translation"
>But Onan knew that the child would not be his; so whenever he slept with his brother's wife, he spilled his semen on the ground to keep from providing offspring for his brother.

NRSV
>But since Onan knew that the offspring would not be his, he spilled his semen on the ground whenever he went in to his brother’s wife, so that he would not give offspring to his brother.

Even the RSV does this
>But Onan knew that the offspring would not be his; so when he went in to his brother's wife he spilled the semen on the ground, lest he should give offspring to his brother.

Also, here is another example. "To know" in Hebrew is an idiom often used to mean sex

King James
>And knew her not till she had brought forth her firstborn son: and he called his name JESUS.

NIV
>But he did not consummate their marriage until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus.

NRSV
>but had no marital relations with her until she had borne a son; and he named him Jesus.

RSV here remains as true as the KIng James
>but knew her not until she had borne a son; and he called his name Jesus

NIV is awful

According to Robert Alter (who produced his own literary translation of the Tanakh), the King James Bible is the only mainstream translation that has even semblance of Hebrew literary qualities

Here is King James Hebraic rhetoric
>Let the day perish wherein I was born, and the night in which it was said, There is a man child conceived. Let that day be darkness; let not God regard it from above, neither let the light shine upon it. Let darkness and the shadow of death stain it; let a cloud dwell upon it; let the blackness of the day terrify it. As for that night, let darkness seize upon it; let it not be joined unto the days of the year, let it not come into the number of the months. Lo, let that night be solitary, let no joyful voice come therein. Let them curse it that curse the day, who are ready to raise up their mourning. Let the stars of the twilight thereof be dark; let it look for light, but have none; neither let it see the dawning of the day: Because it shut not up the doors of my mother's womb, nor hid sorrow from mine eyes.

Here's an example of narrative King James prose
>And he said, O Lord God of my master Abraham, I pray thee, send me good speed this day, and shew kindness unto my master Abraham. Behold, I stand here by the well of water; and the daughters of the men of the city come out to draw water: and let it come to pass, that the damsel to whom I shall say, Let down thy pitcher, I pray thee, that I may drink; and she shall say, Drink, and I will give thy camels drink also: let the same be she that thou hast appointed for thy servant Isaac; and thereby shall I know that thou hast shewed kindness unto my master. And it came to pass, before he had done speaking, that, behold, Rebekah came out, who was born to Bethuel, son of Milcah, the wife of Nahor, Abraham’s brother, with her pitcher upon her shoulder. And the damsel was very fair to look upon, a virgin, neither had any man known her: and she went down to the well, and filled her pitcher, and came up. And the servant ran to meet her, and said, Let me, I pray thee, drink a little water of thy pitcher. And she said, Drink, my lord: and she hasted, and let down her pitcher upon her hand, and gave him drink. And when she had done giving him drink, she said, I will draw water for thy camels also, until they have done drinking. And she hasted, and emptied her pitcher into the trough, and ran again unto the well to draw water, and drew for all his camels. And the man wondering at her held his peace, to wit whether the Lord had made his journey prosperous or not.

you cherry picked a few verses, whoa im convinced bro!

The KJV is good but completely overrated. I don't know why people go crazy over it and insist that it's the best translation, especially with the archaic language. I'm not sure if the KJV-Only movement is to blame or if there's just something attractive about the KJV but it's completely unnecessary. We find more manuscripts and English changes so we make better translations. Honestly, the ESV is a great translation. It's basically the go-to translation in reformed circles.

>"To know" in Hebrew is an idiom often used to mean sex
The New Testament isn't in Hebrew
But yes the NIV is awful.

KJV is literally just a protestant ripoff of Douay-Rheims, the true Catholic one.

A close second is Revised Standard Version 2nd Catholic Edition

you're right, the majority of architects and civil engineers /do/ intern watching construction sites

It's that way throughout. Hebrew idioms and figures of speech are completely butchered.

Another example, the Hebrew idiom to "say in your heart"

KJV
>And Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing wherewith his father blessed him: and Esau said in his heart, The days of mourning for my father are at hand; then will I slay my brother Jacob.

NIV
>Esau held a grudge against Jacob because of the blessing his father had given him. He said to himself, "The days of mourning for my father are near; then I will kill my brother Jacob."

NRSV
>Now Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing with which his father had blessed him, and Esau said to himself, “The days of mourning for my father are approaching; then I will kill my brother Jacob.”

RSV
> Now Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing with which his father had blessed him, and Esau said to himself, “The days of mourning for my father are approaching; then I will kill my brother Jacob.”

>The New Testament isn't in Hebrew
But the characters of the NT generally speak in Hebrew idioms, derp, since Hebrew or Aramaic is their first language. And this verse is no exception.

NT-wise the KJB was influenced by the DR, but the Douay-Rheims OT was published after the King James Bible

No the KJV was a ripoff of Tyndale's translation and Douay-Rheims was so unreadibly bad that in later editions it ripped off KJV.

>No the KJV was a ripoff of Tyndale's translation
It's a revision, not a ripoff.

For literary influence and overall quality, the KJV is the way to go. Historically, however, it flattens all poetry intro prose, though I suspect recent editions probably don't do this. I think one ought to be familiar with some of the KJV, if only for its influence over English language and lit.

For accuracy, the NASB is the most word-for-word literal. Cultural context and idiom can be lost here, and it is the preference of a lot of conservative the-bible-is-the-literal-word-of-god evangelical adn fundie groups.

The NRSV is the academically accepted translation, as well as the choice of most major mainline protestant groups.

FWIW, I use the KJV for my academic work and for prosey pleasure, and I use the NASB for study and preaching.

>Historically, however, it flattens all poetry intro prose
Hebrew poetry is based on parallel phrases, not on meter, so it's going to read like prose.

>The NRSV is the academically accepted translation
Why?

Also, you don't know what you're talking about, the NASB is not more literal than the King James

Here are these verses according to the NASB

>Onan knew that the [e]offspring would not be his; so when he went in to his brother’s wife, he wasted his seed on the ground in order not to give offspring to his brother.

>but kept her a virgin until she gave birth to a Son; and he called His name Jesus.

>So Esau bore a grudge against Jacob because of the blessing with which his father had blessed him; and Esau said [v]to himself, “The days of mourning for my father are near; then I will kill my brother Jacob.”

>you don't know what you're talking about
On second thought that was a pretty rude thing to say. Sorry, desu. Hope you'll pardon that nastiness. You were just being excited and giving your persona input on Biblical translations, and I was being snotty.

>And knew her not till she had brought forth her firstborn son: and he called his name JESUS
vs Lattimore's

>and Joseph wakening from his sleep did as the angel of the Lord had told him, and he accepted his wife, and did not knew her as a wife until she had born a son. And he called his name, Jesus.

There is no "as a wife" in the Greek.

"born" works just as well here, but "bring forth" is a more universal translation of the term. For instance, the term is used in Hebrews 6:7 and "born" would obviously not work here
>For the earth which drinketh in the rain that cometh oft upon it, and bringeth forth herbs meet for them by whom it is dressed, receiveth blessing from God:

If you want to avoid Protestants and Vatican II then probably yhe Douay-Rheims Bible. It's the Bible of choice for traditional Catholics.

What else could it be

I do not have any Hebrew but I will assume that the word for "know" also carries the meaning of "having sex with", whereas the word "know" in English does not. From this it follows that the English word "know" is not the best translation for the respective Hebrew word, as it does not carry the same connotations. Of course, you know about those connotations having read about them somewhere else. To me, this does not make for an optimal (I don't like this choice of word but I can't do better right now) translation because I think a translation should speak for itself. It should convey, as much as possible, the same meaning, imagery and emotion in the mind of the reader as the original would have, had the reader been a native in the source language. It should not have to rely on notes and explanations.

The same goes for "seed". Apart from plant seeds, this word in English may evoke sperm or perhaps eggs, but I don't remember having ever encountered it in reference to the actual offspring.

As for "he said into his heart", the meaning will clearly be apparent, however I don't think there is any special merit in literal, word for word translation of idioms. Unless perhaps one is interested in the way the Hebrew language forms and uses idioms, in which case one should better study Hebrew itself. To give an example, in my native language the expression used to mean "he spoke to himself" is literally translated as "he said to his thought" or alternatively, "he said inside his own self". Now you know how my language forms this idiom: so what? How does that make for better literature? I don't find these any better than "he spoke to himself". If you were to use it this way it would only serve to bring some exoticism, something that would be perceived as clumsy, awkward in a less formal context, but instead sounds archaic and therefore imbued with solemn meaning in the solemn context of the Bible. For me, it seems more of a trick. I don't feel the need for that in my Bible. I think it stands on its own as a profound and awe-inspiring text without archaisms or implicit information about the structure of ancient Hebrew verbal expressions, some of which may need to be decoded by use of additional reading.

I am not advocating the NIV translation, or any other, versus KJV. I'm arguing that word for word does not necessarily make for a better translation.

Open naught this is a choice

>is the original Hebrew and Greek
*and Aramaic.

It makes for a better translation unless you're a complete tool who can't parse worth shit from context. If people could do it hundreds of years ago when education and literacy was scarce, and they were just overjoyed to be able to hear the Bible in English, why can't people do it today? Have people become stupider? I guess that would explain why plebeian entertainment used to be Shakespeare, and now it's Jerry Springer.

Needlessly erasing idioms fucks up the literary style of the work immensely. "To know" as sex, ties in very much with the tree of knowledge, "to know" means to partake of in a visceral, perhaps carnal way. "Seed" ties in with a lot of parallelisms, when Christ compares the kingdom of heaven to a mustard seed, it's a parallel of Abraham who only had one legitimate child (literally seed), but through that he begot a massive nation.

Saying something in your heart is very important as an idiom, because it ties in heavily with parts like, "Create in me a clean heart." The heart means the mind in Hebraic idiom. Hence when Jesus says, "lusted in his heart," he's talking about the mind. This isn't as clear if you eliminate the idioms that clearly show the mind is what is referred to by things of the heart.

Aramaic (the kind Christ spoke, at least) is basically just to Hebrew as Modern English is to Middle English.

In fact, we even have English idioms we got due to the translation of the Bible into English. "Skin of his teeth," for instance, and "see eye-to-eye" and "stiff-necked," and "days are numbered" and "bite the dust" and "broken heart." None of these colorful idioms would have entered the English language, if the people who first started translating the Bible into English thought to do away with Hebrew idiom that had no precedent in English

stop shilling this stupid fucking translation you literal fucking meme

KJV is English language only. If you were reading for literary purposes Vulgate is the version you'd pick.
The Jerusalem Bible is the translation from Greek instead of Latin with a lot of useful annotations.

>The best version of the "Bible" is the original Hebrew and Greek texts

Which versions? There are several text types.

The only legit translation is the lolcat bible.

You would need to be a real pleb not to see that.

>25423
have you read it?

to be fair you'd be starting with the Hebrews

Revised Standard Version, just make sure it's the Catholic edition.

What's the best Luther bible to get in German?

ITT

>It makes for a better translation unless you're a complete tool who can't parse worth shit from context. If people could do it hundreds of years ago when education and literacy was scarce, and they were just overjoyed to be able to hear the Bible in English, why can't people do it today? Have people become stupider? I guess that would explain why plebeian entertainment used to be Shakespeare, and now it's Jerry Springer.
This is faggotry. People did a lot of bad shit four hundred years ago, due to technical limitations, that we do not need to do now. Asking why we can't live with what a people who had shorter life expectancies lived with is stupid.

>Needlessly erasing idioms fucks up the literary style of the work immensely.
This, on the other hand, is completely correct.

As opposed to the guy shilling the KJV with the exact same copypastas?

if you just wanted to know the story in a "historical influence" type of way is kj the way to go?

I just want a more complete understanding of western culture, figured the bible would be a dope place to start

I prefer the one from 1912 but the one from 1984 is also good. Avoid the 1975 and any translation after 1984.

The 1545 translation is sometimes hard to read but powerfully eloquent

If you want a bible closer to the greek/hebrew text you should read the Eberfelder.

NRSV is good all around.

>sking why we can't live with what a people who had shorter life expectancies lived with is stupid.
Shorter-life expectancies, if anything, would count against them here. We have longer life expectancies, so we become too lazy to parse foreign idiom when people hundreds of years ago were eager to, even though the idioms were just as foreign to the language?

>due to technical limitations
Also, replacing a Hebrew idiom with an English one is not a technical advancement. Loose translation is not anything new, I can promise you that. If anything, translations tended to be much freer then, see any translation of a classical Latin or Greek literary work. Over time it's fidelity to the text which has become increasingly vogue. So saying they had "technical limitations" due to fidelity to the text, is nonsense.

...

Good Lord, that looks like one Hell of a show.
Jeff Foxworthy ain't your average Job.
I better Mark my calendar for this one!
That's the black guy from Samson and son, right?
I'd sell all my daughters for a chance to be a contestant.

That's some class A mental gymnastics, user.
>Also, replacing a Hebrew idiom with an English one is not a technical advancement.
Also, you missed the point of my post.

Exactly.

This is an autistic meme. Please stop.

ESV version it brings the most literal translation ever so you can understand what the bible is trying to say

>Also, you missed the point of my post.
That intellectual capacity among the commoners has gone down due to technology? Saying people did stupid things back then for fun doesn't change that we're talking about ability to comprehend more in terms of language and poetry. And that's not just a matter of Early Modern English vs. Modern English.

>That intellectual capacity among the commoners has gone down due to technology?
What.

No. That your logic was stupid. Not that your eventual, mostly unrelated conclusion was stupid.

>reddit

The logic that massive pushing dumbed-down Bibles as superior to non-dumbed-down, when non-dumbed-down served well for popular consumption for hundreds of years, indicates a drop in attention span or intellect?