Caller: My question is, what you think of the new versions of the Bible? Is there any danger in reading any one in particular, or don’t you think so?
Pastor Doug: Yeah – well personally, I think that there are dangers. Some of the New English Translations were translated with a very strong bias. A friend of mine was just telling me tonight that his wife had been looking at one of these new age versions of the Bible, and she wasn’t very happy and so she wanted to go to the old age version of the Bible.
But my favorite, really, is the King James, New King James, the versions that stay very close to Textus Receptus. I’ve done a lot of research on it and there are arguments I’ve heard both ways.
But, let me explain a phenomenon for friends who are listening Ted. The Bible is public domain, the King James Version. In order for publishers to make money by selling the Bible and having others not copy it, they must come up with a new version they can copyright. So they’re required to say something different than existing versions in order to have a new, different version they can copyright and market and own.
Caller: Yeah.
Pastor Doug: Isn’t it strange? You’ll get sued for quoting out of it and using like the New International Version NIV without permission – but that’s a fact – the publishers own these versions.
And so, they had a very strong motivation, a monetary motivation, to come up with something different but how many ways can you say the same thing in English? You know what I’m saying?
Caller: I hear you.
Pastor Doug: So my favorite versions for accuracy are, starting out: King James New King James New American Standard would be in there the New Revised Standard then it would go down from there. Towards the tail end of my favorites, the NIV, I do not like very much. I know a lot of people love it, but I don’t. The Living Bible is not even really a translation. It’s a paraphrase. And it’s a dangerous – when you start calling the mark of the beast a tattoo.
So, the Lord works through any of them. I’ve seen people find the Lord from any of these versions, but you asked a question about my preference.
Caller: Right.
Pastor Doug: And some of them are good for comparison, but I think that Christians ought to memorize Scripture. When everybody’s reading different versions, we start sounding like Babylon in church when we quote Scripture together. Ok?
Caller: I guess that’ll take care of what I was trying to get your idea on.
Pastor Doug: Ted listen, Amazing Facts has a booklet we’ve written. If you call the number we’ve been giving over the air…
Caller: I got it.
Pastor Doug: It’s called, The Faithful Witness.
Co-Host: The Faithful Witness.
Pastor Doug: The Faithful Witness. You ask for that and we’ll send it to you for free Ted.
Amazing Facts’ Resource Number: 800-835-6747