We tend to favor a particular Bible translation, the one that resonates with us. What happens when a group of people reads from different Bible translations together?
Hearing Scripture
I led a group of people through the Bible. We met once a week and read out loud from the Word (another term for what’s in the Bible). Hearing Scripture (the words in the Bible) read aloud allows you to take in and notice things that might be overlooked if just reading on your own. We each had a different Bible translation.
Here’s a little information on Bible translations:
What to look for when choosing a Bible
Now you might think this would be confusing, and it can be, if you’re following along in your Bible while listening to a different wording being spoken aloud. But we noticed something that really added to our time together.
Different versions
When we took turns reading, we would experience the Bible passage in different versions. Depending on who was reading we might hear the verses in the New King James Version (NKJV), New International Version (NIV), or the Message (MSG), just to name a few. Sometimes we would take the time to read the passage from all of the Bible translations represented. This gave us a fuller picture of what we were experiencing. Sometimes a phrase or a word in someone else’s Bible was the one that really spoke to us.
23rd Psalm
For instance, here’s the first line of the 23rd Psalm in the King James Version:
“The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.” Psalm 23:1 KJV
Most familiar
Something fun about this example is that the King James or New King James Version is probably the most familiar one because of how often it has been quoted or referenced. In fact, because of the cadence, this one can bring the most comfort to a person.
Receive the words
But if we look at the New Living Translation, we see the wording allows us to experience this passage in a different way. Maybe instead of a familiar feel, we now receive the words of this verse as a guiding reminder.
“The Lord is my shepherd;
I have all that I need.” Psalm 23:1 NLT
Connect with Jesus
See what I mean? Just by stopping to read this passage in a different version, we can rest in the truth of who Jesus is in our lives. And isn’t that one of the reasons we read the Bible, to connect with Jesus?
Sharing
Another benefit of this group study was that we each had a preferred translation, the one we favored and most understood. When we each read from the Bible we had brought with us, we were sharing what was important to us. We were sharing from the one that spoke to us. (Well except when someone forgot their Bible. Then they were trying to read the tiny print from the Bible in the church entryway, which introduced another perspective – just trying to figure out what it said).
Listen
But when we read from the one that mattered to us, we shared something of ourselves. And when we took the time to listen to someone else’s perspective, we learned something more about Jesus. Sometimes the fact that we weren’t as familiar with the translation being read meant leaning in a little closer to listen so that we might better understand.
Benefit
One of the people in our group loved the King James Version, the one with Thee and Thou throughout. He liked it because it reads like Shakespeare, which incidentally was the same reason another person didn’t like the KJV. They couldn’t understand it because it read like Shakespeare.
See the benefit of bringing different perspectives together?
Perspective
Experiencing the Bible in different translations was one of the gifts of this group. Reading on our own, we would have only been exposed to the version of the Bible we had chosen. Listening in the group gave us a perspective we would have otherwise missed.