[Difflugia]

Originally Posted by GtrsRGr8

The old American Standard Version (ASV), published in 1901, is even closer to being a word-for-word translation than the NASB. However, it has its own faults--probably most significantly coming from the fact that, well, it's 118 years old! It is available "everywhere" as a download, but new hard copies are (virtually?) impossible to find nowadays; usually you will need to check the used book market, if you want a copy.

I've been working for a while on an epub version of the ASV that includes the footnotes. I still keep nitpicking at it, but it's usable. Your mention of the ASV spurred me to put it in the Mobileread library. There are ebooks of the ASV for download all over the place, but none of them include the footnotes and I consider the footnotes to be an important part of the translation. This is especially true of the ASV, which has around ten thousand of them.

Most translations since the ASV have been more conservative in what they footnote. Seminaries and researchers loved the ASV because one gets an in-depth feel for the translation process by reading the footnotes along with the text. That same insight actually caused a lot of popular backlash against the translation, though, because too many people were alarmed at verses that could be read in multiple, often contradictory ways. As for the translation itself, I find the ASV difficult to read as straight prose, but I refer to it often.

I like the NASB and I think it's a really good word-for-word translation. I actually switched from the NASB to the ESV as my main translation because the ESV ebooks are so much better and free to boot. Unfortunately, my phone is Android 5.1 and the Literal Word app requires 6.0 or later. i guess it's time for a new phone.

Originally Posted by GtrsRGr8

If you want an idea of what an absolutely word-for-word reading of, say, the New Testament looks like, I recommend that you look in an interlinear of the Greek New Testament. As much as possible, every Greek word, is rendered into an English word. It's virtually unreadable, and completely unsuitable for reading and even efficient Bible study.

Biblehub's online interlinear can't be beat.

Originally Posted by GtrsRGr8

I hope that Difflugia has the time and inclination to weigh in on the matter--he has a lot of knowledge on things like this, and frequently has something useful to say, seemingly no matter what the Bible subject is.

Thank you.