Here’s something a bit different. I’m reblogging this from danielbwallace.com. I’ve read KJV for many years and still enjoy the literary weight of the KJV text. Recently, I have switched to the ESV for a lot of my reading. I find the ESV to be easier to read. When you read 20-30 chapters at a time like I have done for class assignments, that easier reading goes a long way. My thanks to Daniel for the article.

Daniel B. Wallace

1. Perhaps the number one myth about Bible translation is that a word-for-word translation is the best kind. Anyone who is conversant in more than one language recognizes that a word-for-word translation is simply not possible if one is going to communicate in an understandable way in the receptor language. Yet, ironically, even some biblical scholars who should know better continue to tout word-for-word translations as though they were the best. Perhaps the most word-for-word translation of the Bible in English is Wycliffe’s, done in the 1380s. Although translated from the Latin Vulgate, it was a slavishly literal translation to that text. And precisely because of this, it was hardly English.
2. Similar to the first point is that a literal translation is the best version. In fact, this is sometimes just a spin on the first notion. For example, the Greek New Testament has about 138,000–140,000 words, depending on which…

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