A long time ago, the only English Bible you could get was full of Shakespearean style language with words like thee and thou and begat. Today you can buy Bibles in easy-to-understand English.
Most of the Old Testament was originally written in Hebrew, with some small parts written in Aramaic (a kind of street language during Jesus’ time). The original language of the New Testament was Greek. Because many of the world’s people can’t read these languages, it needs to be translated. All translations lie somewhere on a spectrum between a word for word and a thought for thought approach – in fact they all move up and down on the scale in different places. Translations closer to the word for word end of the spectrum tend to reflect the grammar of the biblical languages more closely, but as a result are often more difficult to understand. Thought for thought translations attempt to reflect the meaning behind larger sections of text in a way that makes the most sense for their intended readers.
A lot of people ask which Bible they should use. Check out the video below for some thoughts…