Bible translations

Which Bible should I read?

There is no single "right" translation, but there are honest differences worth knowing before you choose.

For the Old Testament as the Orthodox Church reads it, choose a Septuagint translation such as Brenton. The apostles usually quoted the Greek Old Testament, and it includes books (Tobit, Wisdom, Sirach, Maccabees…) that the Hebrew Bible and Protestant Bibles leave out or set apart.

For careful study, a formal (word-for-word) translation keeps closer to the original wording; a dynamic one is easier to read but makes more interpretive choices for you. Very literal versions (Young's, Darby) are useful for checking the shape of a sentence.

New Testament translations follow one of three kinds of Greek text: the Byzantine (Majority) text, read in the Orthodox Church for centuries; the Textus Receptus, the printed text behind the KJV and Reina-Valera; or a modern critical text. The differences are real but rarely touch doctrine.

Reading in Spanish? The Reina-Valera 1909 is the classic public-domain Spanish Bible; La Biblia en Español Sencillo, Palabra de Dios para ti, the Nueva Biblia Viva and the Versión Biblia Libre are easier modern options. None of the Spanish texts we can publish yet includes the deuterocanonical books; for those, read an English Septuagint alongside.

Whatever you choose, read it alongside a second translation now and then (use Parallel), and with the Church's interpretation in mind.

Read the full guide: Which Bible should I read?