A great article from Delight in Truth…I may have to confess my bias however. I am rather partial to the ESV, and rather nauseated by The Message (which I personally cannot refer to as a Bible). I have recently been enoying some writing that uses the Homan Christian Study Bible. Either way, the arrow diagram gives a pretty good idea of what to stay away from.
There are dozens of English translations and versions of the Bible.
There are formal equivalency versions (word-for-word) and dynamic equivalency versions (thought-for-thought). On the far end of the thought-for-thought variety is a particularly concerning type of translation called paraphrasing. A couple of versions exist on that end, the Living Bible and the most extreme, The Message.
Delight in Truth highly recommends the English Standard Version for older children and adults. It contains sentence structure at the 8-9th grade level, it is very easy to read, and it is very adequate for Bible study because it is close to the word-for-word approach.
The New International Version (NIV) is also suitable for reading, but much less suitable for Bible study due to a more thought-for-thought approach. It is written closer to the 7th grade level of competency. This is one the reasons many recommend the NIV for younger children or new converts.
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The Narrowing Path 
I prefer the KJV because I trust the texts that it came from. Most modern verseions have been ‘translated’ from the ‘Alexandrian’ texts (Codex A and B) which are reportedly a corrupted version of the first century AD autographs.
I don’t believe in “inspired translations” as such (as do the Ruckmanites) but believe that the original letters and gospels were faithfully copied and preserved by the prividence of God
When I was a young believer, I used a Good News bible for the first 6 months or so, then went over to the NIV for another 18 months, returning to the KJV at the end of 2 years. This has been my favoured Bible ever since, although I do won an Amplified Bible, as well as an English translation of the Syriac Bible, a Layman’s Parallel.
I don’t like the Message, and other similar versions as most of them don’t even qualify as a half decent paraphrase. If you want to change the doctrine, then all you have to do is publish some ‘new’ Bibles which suit the new doctrines/experiences and make sure that most preachers use them too…
Asutin Hellier
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PS – I thkni Taht Yuo nees an Dedit BuTTon Sherry-n…
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Hmm…will look into it and see what I can do. 🙂
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