7. The New Living Translation—A translation that puts the Bible into modern English in a very readable format. It started out as an effort to revise The Living Bible, (which is not a translation but a paraphrase) but the intended goal changed. Instead of an updated paraphrase a new English translation was created from Greek and Hebrew manuscripts. The easy to ready style of The Living Bible, however, remains. This translation follows the dynamic equivalence or "thought for thought" method of translation rather than a more literal method.
It is good to own more than one translation, choosing one to be your main Bible from which you read, study, and memorize. The other translations should be used as reference tools to help you get nuances or insights into the author’s meaning.
When talking about Bibles and translations invariably the question about study bibles arises. Personally, I do not think much of study bibles for one reason—risk of doctrinal error that is inherent in study Bibles filled with interpretive notes. Such study helps do the work of interpretation for the reader, which is why they are so popular. But this discourages allowing the Bible to speak for itself. The Holy Spirit no longer is the guide to interpretation but the editor of the marginal notes and commentary is.
