Which Bible?

Today, a typical Christian bookshop might well stock around fifteen different versions of the Bible in English. The Internet currently offers a list of more than thirty. Why are there so many? Should there be? How do they differ? Which Bible should I use?

Some 600 million people now speak English as their first language, and twice that number speak it as their second language. Christians around the world need Bibles for use in church, for devotional reading, for academic study and for evangelism. Different versions are required for highly literate readers and for young children, for theologians and for those who have never opened a Bible before.

In this accessible and informative guide, David Dewey introduces the principles and issues involved in the task of Bible translation, traces the story of the Bible in English and offers an even-handed survey and evaluation of the different versions now available.

‘David Dewey distinguishes helpfully between form- and meaning-driven translations and faces squarely the divisive controversy of inclusive language and gender accuracy. There is the eminently readable overview of translations, from Old English to Bibles on the Net, and he concludes the book in the very best traditions of the survey, with some pointers to a shortlist of selected versions.’

From the Foreword by David Coffey