Which Bible Translation Is Most Accurate?

No single English edition is the original Bible. The most accurate text is the Hebrew and the Greek. An English translation is accurate when it says what those words say. Word-for-word translations stay nearer the wording. Meaning-based translations move farther into current English. The pages on this site print the King James Version and, under it, the Hebrew or the Greek. Which Bible a church receives as far as the list of books is What Bible Do Catholics Use?. That is a canon question. This page is the translation question.

Key points

• Genesis 1:1CloseIn the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.Genesis 1:1 · King James VersionOpen source (1) in the King James Version says God created the heaven and the earth. Young’s Literal Translation (1862) says “God’s preparing.” The difference is how literal the English is willing to be.
• The Legacy Standard Bible’s publisher says it advances the aim of the New American Standard Bible by consistent words and tighter grammar. (5) The Lockman Foundation says each NASB revision modernized the English and kept the meaning of the original language. (6)
• Matthew 17:21CloseHowbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting.Matthew 17:21 · King James VersionOpen source (3) is in the King James Version. The critical Greek text used on this site omits that sentence and records the Textus Receptus reading. Mark 9:29CloseAnd he said unto them, This kind can come forth by nothing, but by prayer and fasting.Mark 9:29 · King James VersionOpen source (4) still has prayer and fasting.
• Jehovah’s Witnesses’ New World Translation (2013) renders John 1:1CloseIn the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was a god.John 1:1 · New World Translation · Jehovah’s Witnesses’ BibleOpen source so that the Word was “a god.” (7) The King James Version and the American Standard Version (1901) read “the Word was God.”
• The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints describes the Joseph Smith Translation as a revision of the King James Version begun in June 1830, and its Bible Dictionary says the Joseph Smith Translation is not that church’s official Bible. (8)
• How reliable is the New World Translation? follows the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ wording further, including Colossians 1:16.

What translation of the Bible is most accurate?

Accuracy is a relationship to the Hebrew and the Greek, not a trophy held by one publisher. A translation can be accurate in the words and clumsy in English. Another can be clear in English and add words the original sentence does not have. Formal equivalence aims at the first. Dynamic equivalence aims at the second. Both are policies. Neither policy makes an English sentence older than the manuscripts.

This site’s verse pages are built so a reader can test the English. A New Testament verse shows the Greek word by word, then Young’s Literal Translation when that edition has the line. An Old Testament verse shows the Hebrew word by word, then the Jewish Publication Society 1917 when that edition has the line. John 1:1CloseIn the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.John 1:1 · King James VersionOpen source is the test case people already argue: the Word was with God, and the Word was God. John 1 and the Word stays on that verse.

Copyrighted editions such as the New International Version, the English Standard Version, the Christian Standard Bible, and the New Living Translation sit at different points on that spectrum. This page does not host their text, and it does not rank them. A reader who wants their wording opens those editions. The public-domain line this page can print is Young’s.

What is the most literal Bible translation?

Young’s Literal Translation tries to keep Hebrew and Greek structure in English, including verb forms that ordinary English smooths out. Genesis 1:1CloseIn the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.Genesis 1:1 · King James VersionOpen source in Young’s Literal Translation:

In the beginning of God’s preparing the heavens and the earth —

The King James Version of the same verse says, “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” The American Standard Version (1901) says, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” Young’s “preparing” is his consistent rendering of the Hebrew verb. It is more literal, and it is harder English. Literal and readable pull against each other. A translation that always wins on readability has moved some distance from the form. A translation that always wins on form asks the reader to learn the form.

The Hebrew of Genesis 1:1CloseIn the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.Genesis 1:1 · King James VersionOpen source is on that verse page, word by word. That line is closer to the original than Young’s, the King James, or any other English. “Closest to the original” is a claim about languages. It is not a claim that one modern committee recovered a lost English.

What the NASB and the Legacy Standard Bible say they are doing

The Legacy Standard Bible’s own page describes its aim: (5)

The LSB advances the aim of the NASB. It brings out textual connections through consistent translation of words, highlights literary artistry like alliteration, and tightens grammatical structure.

Legacy Standard Bible · Legacy Standard Bible

That is the publisher’s account of a literal revision: the same English word for the same original word, and grammar held tighter. The Lockman Foundation’s page on the New American Standard Bible, 1977, says that with each revision they have improved accuracy and modernized the English to current standards, so as to maintain accuracy and communicate the meaning of the text as written in the original language. (6) Both publishers are describing a word-for-word policy that still updates English. This page quotes their descriptions. It does not crown either edition, and it does not reprint their copyrighted text.

Endorsements by named pastors are a different kind of sentence. They are not a measurement of the Hebrew. This page leaves them off.

Why some Bibles skip a verse

Matthew 17:21CloseHowbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting.Matthew 17:21 · King James VersionOpen source, King James Version:

Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting.

Matthew 17:21 · King James Version

The Greek text on this site’s verse page follows a critical edition that omits that sentence in Matthew and stores the Textus Receptus wording beside the omission. The American Standard Version has no Matthew 17:21. Mark 9:29CloseAnd he said unto them, This kind can come forth by nothing, but by prayer and fasting.Mark 9:29 · King James VersionOpen source carries the same claim, and the American Standard Version includes it there: this kind can come out by nothing but prayer and fasting. A Bible that skips Matthew 17:21 is following copies of Matthew that lack the sentence. It has not deleted Mark 9:29 by the same decision. Does the Trinity depend on 1 John 5:7? is the same kind of problem in a verse the critical text and the King James do not share. The King James is the English this site prints. It is the 1611 translation as revised in 1769, from Hebrew and Greek. It is not the only English that can be honest about a missing line.

The Jehovah’s Witnesses’ New World Translation

Jehovah’s Witnesses present the New World Translation as an accurate rendering of the Hebrew and Greek. At the point where the sentence says who the Word is, their wording and the King James wording do not match.

• Jehovah’s Witnesses’ New World Translation (2013): the Word was “a god” — John 1:1CloseIn the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was a god.John 1:1 · New World Translation · Jehovah’s Witnesses’ BibleOpen source. (7)
• King James Version: the Word was God — John 1:1CloseIn the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.John 1:1 · King James VersionOpen source.
• American Standard Version (1901): the Word was God. The Greek clause is theos ēn ho logos. The verse page glosses those words one by one.

“A god” is the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ reading, in their Bible. John 1 and the Word quotes their study note, which says a qualitative translation would make the Word God, and that the translators refuse that because it would equate him with God Almighty. How reliable is the New World Translation? is the longer comparison. Their edition of Colossians 1:16CloseFor by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:Colossians 1:16 · King James VersionOpen source adds “other,” so that all other things were created by him. The article just named quotes the study note that says a literal rendering would be “all things.”

That is a doctrinal translation, not a choice between “thou” and “you.” Is Jesus God? is the confession the King James sentence supports. Jesus is God. A version that changes the sentence has changed the claim.

The Joseph Smith Translation

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints publishes a Bible Dictionary entry on the Joseph Smith Translation. The entry begins: (8)

A revision or translation of the King James Version of the Bible begun by the Prophet Joseph Smith in June 1830.

Joseph Smith Translation · Bible Dictionary, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

The same entry says that although the Joseph Smith Translation is not the official Bible of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, it offers insights for interpretation. The official Bible, on that church’s terms, remains the King James Version. The Book of Moses and Joseph Smith—Matthew, in the Pearl of Great Price, are excerpts from the revision. Joseph Smith and revelation and the Book of Mormon are the broader claim that later revelation corrects and restores Scripture. The dictionary’s own distinction should be kept: a revision begun in 1830 is not the same object as the Hebrew and Greek manuscripts, and the church’s dictionary does not call it the official Bible.

Which version should a reader avoid?

A list of forbidden brands is not what the manuscripts support. Editions that print “the Word was God” at John 1:1CloseIn the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.John 1:1 · King James VersionOpen source are arguing about English style and about which Greek copies to follow. The Jehovah’s Witnesses’ New World Translation is the case this site has documented in which the English changes who Jesus is. Read it beside the Greek, which is what How reliable is the New World Translation? does. Catholic and Protestant Bibles also differ in which Old Testament books they include. That difference is What Bible Do Catholics Use? and How Was the Bible Canon Decided, and What Is the Apocrypha?. A longer Old Testament list is not, by itself, a looser translation of the books both lists share.

Frequently asked questions

Is the King James Version the only true Bible?

The King James Version is a translation into English. This site uses it as the English text, with the Hebrew and Greek on the verse pages. Churches that confess the same gospel read other English translations. 2 Timothy 3:16CloseAll scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:2 Timothy 3:16 · King James VersionOpen source speaks of Scripture given by inspiration of God. It does not name a committee in 1611. Who Wrote the Bible? is the prior question, who the inspired writers were.

Is the God’s Word translation accurate?

That depends on whether the reader wants word-for-word English or meaning-based English. This page did not fetch that publisher’s preface, so it does not grade the edition. The test is the same test as for any other English Bible: what the Hebrew or Greek on the verse page says, set beside the English line.

Which Bible is closest to the original manuscripts?

The Hebrew and the Greek. For the New Testament, this site uses the SBL Greek New Testament and says where the King James follows a Textus Receptus reading the critical text omits, as at Matthew 17:21CloseHowbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting.Matthew 17:21 · King James VersionOpen source. For the Old Testament, the verse pages use the Westminster Leningrad Codex text of the Hebrew Bible. Dead Sea Scrolls copies, and how close they sit to the later Masoretic text, are Is the Bible True?.

Do Catholics use a more accurate Bible?

Catholic and Protestant confessions differ on the list of Old Testament books, and Catholic teaching has prized the Latin Vulgate and the Greek Septuagint alongside the Hebrew. What Bible Do Catholics Use? quotes those documents. Accuracy of an English sentence is still accuracy to the passage it translates. A different list of books is a different question.

Keep reading

• How reliable is the New World Translation?
• John 1 and the Word
• Is Jesus God?
• What Bible Do Catholics Use?
• How Was the Bible Canon Decided, and What Is the Apocrypha?
• Joseph Smith and revelation
• Is the Bible True?
• Who Wrote the Bible?
• Does the Trinity depend on 1 John 5:7?