Power Hour | Ep. 12 | The Translation Wars: Which Bible Translation is Best for You?

Why are there so many Bible translations—and does it actually matter which one you read?

In this episode of the Power Hour, Pastor Ty and Pastor Kyle dive into the tension behind the “translation wars” and break down what really separates versions like the NIV, ESV, KJV, and more. From word-for-word accuracy to thought-for-thought clarity, every translation sits somewhere on a spectrum—and understanding that changes everything. 

We tackle the biggest questions people are asking:

• Which translation is the most accurate?
• Which one is easiest to understand?
• Is there actually a “best” Bible?

And most importantly—how do you choose the right one for you?

Whether you’re new to reading the Bible or you’ve been following Jesus for years, this conversation will help you stop overthinking it and start engaging Scripture with confidence.

Because at the end of the day, the best Bible translation… is the one that leads you to actually read it, understand it, and live it out.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:09

What is up, everybody? We got another episode of the Power Hour. Let's go. I'm Pastor Kyle. I'm Pastor Ty. And uh this is episode number 12.

SPEAKER_01 0:21

Can you believe it, Ty? I can't, man. The dirty dozen. Let's go.

SPEAKER_00 0:26

I I'm fired up. You know, most uh most podcasts only make it a few episodes, and here we are, 12 episodes. We've only missed one week. Granted, we were in Texas, so there's a bit of an excuse there, but we won't let it happen again. We promise. Uh, but we want to get into a really cool topic, uh, one that honestly might be a little controversial to some, but we're not doing it for controversial purposes. We are talking about the different translations of the Bible, and at the end of the day, Pastor Ty will tell you which is the best Bible translation. Isn't that right?

SPEAKER_01 1:13

Man, way to put the pressure on it. I'll tell you what, I'll give you a couple that I appreciate and why, and a couple that I might avoid and why. But the best one, man, that's that's heavy. That's heavy. But um, yeah, I'd love to get into the history a little bit, um, why they were written, the purposes for each one, kind of like the philosophy. And then I know, Pastor Kyle, you want to give some emphasis on buying some study Bibles and why that might be helpful for our faith day to day.

SPEAKER_00 1:38

That's right. And the reason all this came up is we have honestly had multiple people come to us, uh, people who are newer to Christ, who are just asking the questions, hey, we went to purchase a Bible and come to find out there are tens, if not hundreds, of translations of Bibles out there. And it's probably one of the most confusing things that if you don't have a Bible purchased for you, then you're like, where the heck do I start? So we thought we would just come out with a podcast that we can use in the future to push people towards uh when trying to pick out a Bible, and uh the first thing that I am going to get into, uh, because I think a question a lot of people have is why the heck are there so many different Bible translations? And I'll say right off the bat, one of the biggest reasons for it is the fact that the English language language is not only very complex, but it's ever evolving, it's changing, our our terms are changing. I'll say I my daughter will come home as a middle schooler and she will talk in ways that I have no idea what she's talking about, and yet I live supposedly in the same society as her. But these middle schoolers, they got different terms, they got different expressions, phrases. So, because of that, we uh we as Christians and especially scholars are trying to keep up in such a way that keeps the Bible um easily understandable for us. But to really get into it, there are two uh main styles of translations. And Pastor Ty, I'll I'll let you uh kind of go into the two different options.

SPEAKER_01 3:35

Yeah, so there's basically two ends of the spectrum. There's word for word, where it's I'm like taking each word and trying to translate it from the original language to English, or there's thought for thought, where you're basically taking a verse or a paragraph and saying, hey, I want you to understand, um, you know, I took a lot of Spanish in high school, still couldn't speak it, but I took a lot of it. And you notice even how they phrase things are different than how they phrase things in English. So what we're really asking is, are we looking to verbatim be word for word, or are we looking to make it conversational, thought for thought, the easily most well spoken? And there's obviously a spectrum in between. And so when they are writing all these translations, I think a good way to say it was, man, they have different purposes. Some are there for getting really into it and getting more deeper, word for word. They want you to understand exactly verbatim what they're saying, and then there's thought for thought, which is more of like we want you to comprehend in today's language, and and and and um, you know, for those that maybe word for word is a little bit um a little bit, I'm trying to think of how to say this, a little bit um unapproachable to them or a little bit harder to understand, that this is a little bit easier to grasp and stuff. And so ironically, my two tran favorite translations are on the opposite end of the spectrum. I don't know about you, Pastor Kyle.

SPEAKER_00 4:56

Yeah, mine actually are two. Like, I think of it this way like, have you ever heard a Spanish song? And while it's in Spanish, it sounds absolutely beautiful and it's great. And then you hear the the English version of it, and they just translate it word for word, and you're like, This is the weirdest song ever, like it doesn't make sense, anything like that. That's kind of the difference between the thought for thought and the word for word, because word for word, they uh people in the original language they write different, their sentences are structured differently. So when it's word for word, sometimes it gets a little convoluted, uh uh a little confusing when it's transferred immediately into English. Meanwhile, the thought for thought will always be slightly easier to understand because it takes the entire concept and it writes it in such a way that makes sense in English versus the word for word.

SPEAKER_01 6:04

Yeah, when you mentioned that song, the first thing I thought of was when you watch those movies in a foreign language that are dubbed and you're like, man, their lips are not moving the same. You know what I mean? That's right. It makes it a little easier for us and stuff. But no, that's good. So, real quick, I I want to give you a chance to talk maybe at the end about study Bibles and why those are important, but I kind of wanted to give real quick our our three um our three favorite, probably most recommended translations, sure. And then maybe our three least recommended translations and kind of why so perhaps I have that I might recommend, not not in any particular order, and then I want to leave you for for one, you know what I mean? And then and then we can go from there. So my two most recommended Bibles translations, and I would say uh it really, these are like again opposite end of the spectrum, is the ESV, known as the English Standard Version, and the NLT, the New Living Translation, which is the version I read from at church, the ones that we have in all the back of the pews and everything. But ESV is probably my favorite word-for-word translation. Man, when I first got in the Bible, it's what I read. My wife owns like six ESV Bibles. It's really funny. All of our study Bibles are in ESV. If you're looking to study, find out verbatim what was said in the scripture, the ESV is my favorite. Yeah, the scholars are good, the history of the translation is good. There are some other ones that are really good, like NASB, but ESV is probably my favorite. You find a lot of pastors preach from it. It's really good. The NLT, the reason why I preach from it, the reason why it's my other favorite is if you're going thought for thought, one, it's written in such a beautiful way. It also will sometimes move back and forth between thought to thought for word for word. So it's really good for studying, I believe. Um, and it's just so when you get into those historical narratives and the poetry, it just reads so well. It moves you, it's emotional, it's easily approachable, it's it's great. The only uh I would say challenge with it is because it's written for more common people, there you don't find as many study versions of it, which is kind of a bummer. It's getting better, but um, that'd be the only limitation. But I mean, there's a reason why we use it in our church. I think it's written so well. Uh, I love preaching from it, I love reading from it. Um, we do all of our family devotionals from it. I love it. So those two would be my two picks. Pastor Kyle, do you have a third one for us?

SPEAKER_00 8:28

Man, so this is hard because you took my two favorites as well. Let's go, double them down. We took the the uh NLT, which I believe is the easiest Bible to read while maintaining the most accuracy. Yep. So if anyone was just out there, like, what's one Bible I can I can buy right now, dive into, and have a great Bible? NLT. Oh, yeah, 100% all the way. When it comes down to studying, you're right. ESB all the way. Uh, you know, interestingly, with the ESB, because it's a later translation, um, it had the Dead Sea scrolls that what were discovered in 1947. So it had over 5,000 Greek manuscripts and over 300 scholars that worked on it. So it's one of those those translations that is, in my opinion, as accurate as you can be right up there with like the legacy standard Bible or the NASB. Now I'm going to give a translation that you might not expect because and I because I have a very specific caveat about with this. Okay, you ready?

SPEAKER_01 9:42

Let's hear it.

SPEAKER_00 9:43

Okay, brace yourself. One of my favorites is the new international version, and I'll give only this caveat. You're giving me a weird look, I can see it. Only caveat to the NIV is in every single book in the Bible, I would prefer almost every other translation to it. This is except for the book of Psalms. Alrighty. So the book of Psalms, because it is written as one of poetry and one of music, the book of Psalms, because of how they went full thought for thought, and they never went word for word, because of that reason, I would say when you read the book of Psalms out of the NIV, it conveys the same emotion, feeling, and reverence that I believe David originally wanted to inspire those who heard his original psalms. So would I say it's Psalms only? Yes, but there is just something about the NIV that I think captures the emotion, and that's what I think the Psalms is all about. I I believe it it comes out of the emotions of David. We see the highs and lows of his relationship. So for that reason, you're not going to get all this extra theology or prophecy or teaching that comes out of Psalms. Psalms is all about the relationship you have with God. And we all know that most relationships, one of its foundation is the emotion and the love you have for that other person. So for that reason, I would say for me, just for the book of Psalms, I would put the NIV in that as well. But if you're looking for super accurate ones, ESV, Legacy Standard Bible, NESB, very word for word, very, very accurate. Okay, so now that that's out of the way, um, I have a feeling NIV is about to come up again. So I caveat everything with that. Um let's get into the three that we don't like the most. And in this way, speaking, you stole my two last time, I'm gonna take the first two. All right, let's hear it. And I'll I'll give you the last one.

SPEAKER_01 12:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:21

Okay. So for me, that the two that I don't like the most, one the NIV. For exactly the reason why I just said I love the book of Psalms. Uh but outside of the book of Psalms, I do not like the NIV. I I think it tries too much work thought for thought, and there is a lot that gets missed as far as the translation goes. The other one, and I'm not trying to just rage bait people here, even though I'm sure I will, but the other one that I really, really dislike is the KJV. Let's go. That's the other one as well. So many people will constantly say, I know there are churches that believe if you are not reading the KJV, you are not reading the Bible. Uh, people are incredibly, incredibly sensitive when it comes to this. So there's a couple terms you need to understand with the KJV. Number one is Textus Receptus. So when the KJV was was written, it used what was what is known as the Textus Receptus, which is basically the Greek New Testament and a lot of um the Byzantine tradition and Latin manuscripts. These manuscripts, there was only about five to eight manuscripts that was used to write the KJV. So because of it, there's a lot less source. And that's compared to uh most of these other translations, the ESV, the uh even the NIV, the NLT, which uses what's called the Codex. Now the Codex is both older translation, it's earlier copies, and there's a lot more to it. At this point, the codex has thousands and thousands of manuscripts, and for that reason, it is more complete, and it's it just has a better um overall understanding of what scriptures should be. The KJV, when it was written, was mostly written by one person, and all the manuscripts was the 10th to the 15th century, which means you're talking about almost a thousand years separating the manuscripts that he used versus when the the first books of the New Testament were were written. And uh for that reason, I'm not a fan of the KJV. The other reason is we doth not use the the terms and the verbiage that the KJV uses. It it's incredibly ter terrible to try to for me to give this translation to my daughter and be like read and understand the Bible when it's honestly speaking a different language than she knows how to speak. So that's the other that's the other one. And I'll give a uh bit of a shout out to the MSG, the message uh translation as well for the sole fact that it's not the Bible. Uh the author even says it's not the Bible, it's just his opinion of what the Bible says, which is good as long as you're not reading it as the inspired word of God. So that's mine. Uh I don't know. Hopefully, we still have people listening right now, Ty. We might have had some people tune us out.

SPEAKER_01 16:16

You just gave you just gave your three, I which is good. I I only I'm gonna touch a little bit on the three you mentioned and then just give one more. So I guess we're giving our worst four, right? Okay, there you go. And so I'll just say with the NIV, first of all, here, if you read the NIV, it's the most popular translation of the Bible out there. It's what I had as a kid. Yeah, there's nothing wrong with it. My my all-time favorite pastor, preacher, you know, most of you know him who I grew up with, Jeremy Hawker. He still preaches out of the NIV. Mostly, I think, because I just haven't given him a hard enough time. But man, I got saved under the preaching of the NIV. There's nothing inherently wrong with it. I just I compare it to being okay at everything, not great at anything. And so if you're a new Christian or if you're looking for a new Bible, it's not one I'd recommend. But if you have one and you love it, there's nothing wrong with that.

SPEAKER_00 16:59

Yeah. Keep doing you.

SPEAKER_01 17:00

Yeah, KJV, um, I think you hit the nail on the head there, Pastor Kyle. I I just my main, and it's very practical reason I I move I oppose it, and I oppose is a strong word, I don't even say that, but I don't use it personally, is because it's hard, it just adds a layer of of hardship to understanding that doesn't need to be there. Um, it was written before the Dead Sea Scrolls, which for those of you that don't know, were some scrolls found that are uh like original manuscripts of the New Testament um that you know was written that were found afterwards, and so that a lot of new translations are based off of that. They've how they've shown accuracy. And so I don't I don't have an issue with the King James Version other than I have an issue when people say it's the only version. I remember my first ministry position in Port Orford, a small town on the coast in Washington when I was a kids' pastor, is I did ministry with these uh this great family that believed in KJV only, and they would only use that when they would quote scripture to the kids, and it just made it harder for the kids to understand what we were talking about. And so uh, you know, there are sometimes that I read the KJV and it moves me emotionally because of how it's written, but uh, I'm not a Shakespearean by nature, so I think it just makes the things a little more difficult. But again, if you're one of my favorite ladies in our church, Miss Jeannie, I'm calling you out. Uh, she loves the KJV, and I love that for her. Uh the message I would agree, and I'm gonna add one more that's in a similar vein that I I oppose is the passion translation. And that was written by someone who does not, um, I would say does not give the same um the same precursor where he doesn't say, don't read this as a Bible, you know what I mean? He he demands that it's Bible, but he has no experience or training in translation. He's never gone to school, he doesn't know the original language. He just decided that he has all authority to write his own translation. And so it gets a little sketchy when people do that because if they don't know um why they're translating something the way that it is, it's easy for things to be misunderstood and miscommunicated. So I would just really encourage people to avoid it, stick to one of the ones uh that are trusted, that are written by scholars who have spent their life not only translating but learning why we should translate. So I think that is good. But with all that said, I want to jump into a little bit onto one of your passions, Pastor Kyle, which is study Bibles. And I love that. I I'm not a study Bible guy, you know what I mean? I I only own my wife, owns dozens and dozens of Bibles. She's probably gonna say I'm exaggerating, but we literally have boxes of Bibles not only on shelves but in storage containers that she loves. I only own one physical Bible, and it was a gift given to me last year, actually, for my ordination. It's an NLT, I love preaching out of it. Um I I I just I love it. I might get another one at some point that's a more giant print, but all of my Bibles are digital. I have a Bible study software that gives me like dozens and dozens of commentary, helps me break down things. So I don't per se own a study Bible, but I think that the reasons you have for people to own one are really good. And so I want to give you the opportunity to kind of share on that a little bit.

SPEAKER_00 20:01

Yeah, I have I brought three, and I actually physically brought one uh with me because I just it's my daily driver, if you will. I always use that. I will want to make a quick mention. Uh, if you guys just heard, he is looking for a Bible with large prints. Giant print. That's because he's getting really old and he needs he needs the large print.

SPEAKER_01 20:26

I'll just say this. You know, I I want a large print, and then I found out there is giant print, which is even larger than larger print. But man, I I'm on the hunt for a Bible, but there's a specific Bible I found that meet all the weird criteria I have for a preaching Bible, and it is hundreds of dollars. So let's just say I'm uh starting a GoFundMe. It's gonna be a hot minute before I get that Bible. It's an expensive Bible. It is, but it does all the things that I love. It's single column, not double column. Uh, it's lot, it's giant print, so it's easy to read. It looks beautifully artistically. It's got it's it's made with high quality, uh, I was gonna say ingredients, but materials. But anyways, that's a I won't even say which one it is because none of you better be spending that much money on buying me a Bible, but uh it I'm excited for it one day when I can afford it. But going back into it, Pastor Kyle, tell us more about the study Bibles.

SPEAKER_00 21:16

Okay, so I have three. These are the three that I will consistently use on a daily basis, and even more as I have opportunities to preach coming up. The first one is a good old-fashioned fire bible. I love the fire bible as a study Bible, A, because it's one of the few NLT study Bibles out there. Come on. So I love that, but then it really focuses, it's very Pentecostal uh in its notes and highlights. So it focuses a lot on the Holy Spirit, a lot of the works of the Holy Spirit, and lines up directly with my Pentecostal. Pentecostal views, especially with the assemblies of God. So, as far as like what Bible do I read in my uh like morning time of prayer and study, it is the fire Bible NLT 100%. Uh, number two, which is funny that I even mentioned this because it's an NIV translation. Let's go. But uh, it is the Cultural Background Bible. Now, this is one of the newest ones that I have to my collection, but the reason why I love it is not necessarily to read it out of the NIV, it just comes in the NIV, but because it specifically highlights the the as the name would uh assume the cultural background of what is going on. So instead of it talking more about you know the prophecy side or the old testament references that a lot of Bibles talk about, it it focuses on the culture, what the original listener back in the day would have understood uh when listening to Jesus. Uh, you know, when when you talk about the the book of Revelation and you know you get to the passage that talks about I'd rather you be hot or cold, but because you're lukewarm, I'll spit you out of my mouth. That reference gets lost on a lot of people. However, the original listeners would have understood it because they understood the geography of the area at the time. So cultural background number two. And I would say one of the best ones, and Pastor Ty, if you don't have one, I need to like gift you a copy because every pastor needs this. It's a keyword Bible. I love the keyword translations. I used to have it NESB and I lost it somewhere, so now I think I want to I actually need to purchase one. The problem is they're like they're not as expensive as your Bible, whatever crazy giant print thing you're wanting to get. That's right, that's right. But they are like 80, 80 to like 100 bucks. Um, and it's the the keyword Bible, the keyword ESV Bible. And I'll give a tri an illustration as to why it is important that as you are maturing in your Christian walk, uh, like I would say for new believers, just start reading the Bible and just learn about who Jesus is, what he did, what he preached on, um, and and just dive into scripture. Read the Bible a couple times cover to cover. Once you get to that point and you are ready to go from, as Paul would say, from the milk to the meat, I would encourage you to get a study Bible. And uh a good illustration of that is a passage that uh Ty, I know you remember I preached this last Friday, Good Friday, uh, which is John 21, 15. Jesus goes to Peter and he says, Do you love me? And Peter says, Yes, I love you. And Peter repeats it, uh Jesus repeats it two more times, Peter repeats it two more times. However, if you look at the keyword, the word love for how Jesus says it versus how Peter says it are different words. So when Jesus says, Do you love me, he uses the word agapeo, which is considered an unconditional love. When Peter says, Yes, Lord, I love you, he uses the word Phileo, which Phileo is more of a brotherly, relational love, it's the love that I would have for you, and vice versa. So, what does that mean practically? Well, if you're just reading the normal Bible, you would read the love, the word love, several times, and that would be it. But when you're studying it in a study Bible, and you can get into more of the meat, the original language, you are realizing that Jesus is not just meeting Peter where he's at, he's actually meeting him in his own honesty. Peter in the past had overpromised, and he said, No matter what, Lord, I will follow you till death. Well, we know that that's not the case because Peter realized that's not the case. So, what is Peter saying? He is saying, Lord, I don't have unconditional love because no one can love the way that you love me. So I will give you as much love as I possibly can that me as a human can offer to you. He doesn't overpromise anything like he did in the past to Jesus. I think that's a powerful statement when you realize that Jesus is the only one that'll love you unconditionally, no matter your faults. We as humans, we can only give him so much because only he is capable of unconditional love. So you take that, and all of a sudden that passage becomes so much more.

SPEAKER_01 27:28

I think we need to take an offering. Pastor Kyle's over here spitting fire, preaching the word.

SPEAKER_00 27:33

I would have gone into it, but I was over my time. Honestly, so I couldn't.

SPEAKER_01 27:38

Yeah, that's right. Um, but no, I and and here's I want to end this mostly because lunch is is now, lunch is past, but secondly, because if you've listened this far and you're sitting there and you're like, I want to buy one Bible to rule them all, Pastor Ty, Pastor Kyle, which Bible should I buy? I would say NLT Fire Bible. If you're sitting there and like, I want to buy my very first Bible, I'd say NLT Fire Bible. They run about $50 to $75. They're a little more expensive, but I would say it is worth it. Save up your pennies, buy an NLT Fire Bible. And if you're looking to buy a Bible, and you specifically if you go to Powerhouse even, and you're like, man, I want to buy someone in our church a Bible, NLT Fire Bible. Not only every time that I read from scripture will they be will theirs match up word for word, but man, that fire bible is so practical and so helpful. And the commentary that it gives is not too deep. It's just enough to say, how should I live my life today based off of what I read? And I think that's powerful.

SPEAKER_00 28:38

Right. Bottom line, uh, when you go into it, understand people will ask, they'll push back all this all the time. Well, you guys have so many Bibles, you can't even agree what one thing says. Well, if I told Ty and I told Adon and I told Alexandra to go out and invite someone to church, they would all go out and say something differently to invite that person to church. But the statements and the heart stays the same. That's why there's so many translations. And here's the bottom line when it comes down to it. Most of these translations are not bad. Even though I'm a little harsh on the KJV, it's still the inspired word of God. Even though I'm not in love with the NIV, I grew up and my love started forming for Jesus from reading the NIV. It is the inspired word of God. So, what me and Ty are really coming at this is we are saying that there are some translations that, in our opinion, are better than others. But at the same point, if you love one translation, and that's the translation you know, then stick with it. There is nothing wrong with it. But if you are looking for one translation, Lord of the Rings style to rule them all, yes, we would encourage you to look at the New Living Translation, the Fire Bible. You can get it both as a study Bible, which is more expensive, or as a non-study Bible. And as a cool caveat, there are also uh fire bibles specifically for teenagers as well, that the extra highlights, the the study portion of those Bibles are geared more towards uh the the younger generation as well. So that could be really cool. But, anyways, we are going to wrap it up right there. Uh, we hope that uh we haven't offended anybody, uh at least too much with this with this episode. We hope to do more of these. Uh, again, this was inspired by uh someone in our church, a couple people that wanted to know. So come come at us with your your ideas, your topics, your questions. We'd love to hear more. And make this podcast uh as helpful as possible to uh our our house family. But we love you guys and uh until next week. God bless you.