I'll take a shot at this one:
Quote:
Originally Posted by KDawg
2. What are people's thoughts on the accuracy of WEV vs. NIV vs. KJV?
|
Please forgive me if I'm telling you stuff you already know.
The WEB is an "updating" of the language in the ASV (American Standard Version -- you can find the source site
here). The drawback to the KJV is that its also a language update of a previous translation, rather than a direct translation. In fact, the KJV is several layers of language updates away from its original translation. The reason that's a drawback is that it allows multiple opportunities for mis-translation.
The
New KJV (NKJV) on the other hand,
is a direct translation from the original source texts, but preserves the 'thee and thou' feel of the KJV, which a lot of folks like both because it tends to flow nicely, and because it's familiar to them.
The NIV is another direct translation, it is a conceptual translation (I think the NKJV is too, but I'm not sure of that). By that I mean they translate each sentence rather than each word. It also flows pretty well, though, arguably, not as nicely as the NKJV.
The
New American Standard (NASB -- I know you didn't ask about it, but I'll be as thorough as I have information for, don't worry, this is about the last of it), is also a direct translation, but it is a word by word translation, rather than a sentence by sentence. This means that it doesn't flow as well, but it arguably is a more
technically accurate translation.
Personally, I like the NIV and the NASB for my own purposes, with the NASB being my current "main" translation. The NKJV is just as good a translation, in my opinion, as either of those (I just happen to prefer the others), but I try to stay away from indirect translations, like the KJV.
The least useful, for my purposes, are the 'paraphrase' translations such as the "Living Bible" or the "Good News Bible," they tend to eliminate all but the most brutally obvious meaning of a given passage, losing any nuance that was in the original text. That can be useful if you've got a passage that you just can't make heads nor tails of, but that's about the extent of it, to my thinking.
I tend to lump translations like those under the SGV label -- "Some Goofy Version."
