American Standard Version
Translation Philosophy: Literal-Idiomatic 
Manuscripts Consulted: BHS • CT(WH) 
Completeness: Old Testament, New Testament 
Number/Background of Translators: 50+, interdenominational/ecumenical 
Second Person Plural? Yes, indicated by using "ye," "you," or "your" ("thee," "thou," or "thine" are second person singulars.) 
Capital Diety Pronouns? No 
Tetragrammaton? Yes, Jehovah 
Added words offset? Yes, with italics e.g., "added words" 
Update of: ERV, KJV 
Web Site: http://www.ebible.org/bible/asv/  Complete version, also downloadable 
First Published: 1901 
Last Updated: 1901 
Copyright Status: Public Domain 

The American Standard Version (ASV) of 1901 is a revision of the Revised Bible, a revision of the KJV for language and to take advantage of some new (then) manuscript discoveries to allow greater accuracy. The ASV uses "Jehovah" for God's name, instead of "LORD" (which the KJV and many others use). The language of the ASV is less archaic than the KJV, but still far from modern. The ASV is in the Public Domain. 

American equivalent of RV, done shortly thereafter. Contained some additional advances in scholarship. Tended to be more literal than AV. 

CEV (Contemporary English Version): The CEV is highly readable, for both adults and children, and exegetically faithful. It strives to preserve the meaning of the original in natural English expressions. The CEV is not a paraphrase; it is an accurate translation of the original languages.

The CEV Project was begun in 1984 by the American Bible Society. Both the adult version and illustrated children's version have many reading aids. Said to be 5th grade level.

GW (God's Word): highly lauded by its producers who say: it is the most readable translation available - it represents the best English grammar (syntax) ever put "on the page" of an English Bible - it is, quite possibly, the most accurate English translation of the original Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek texts ever produced! These are the same claims made by the producers of the ISV, but the English of the GW is, on the whole, a little more natural, with better stylistic flow than that of the ISV. GW is more
dynamic and readable than the NIV.

This version is outstanding for its accurate and readable translation. The theory of translation is "closest natural equivalence," exceeding "dynamic/function equivalence" translation in accuracy. Said to be 4th -5th grade level.

The King James Version was an academic tour-de-force in 1611, at which time it was a hotly denounced modern translation. In some quarters today it is the only acceptable translation, even though the translators in 1611 explicitly stated that they looked forward to future scholarship to correct whatever errors they may have made.

The King James Version originated when a group of Puritans ambushed King James while he was on a journey and presented him with a petition requesting a new translation of the Bible. Since the petition had a thousand signatures, it was called the Millenary Petition. The Puritans wanted a new translation of the Bible, because most of the existing English Bibles were biased and polemic. To their surprise, the king readily agreed and assembled the brightest and best Bible scholars in England to undertake the project. They were dismayed at first when the king announced he would personally manage the project, but they were pleasantly surprised when it turned out that he had an excellent background in the subject. The resulting translation was made mandatory for the Church of England, over many protests from the clergy. Because books were extremely expensive in those days, well out of the reach of the common person, the law also required every church to keep a copy on display 24 hours a day, so that ordinary people could come in and read the Bible at any time. The Bibles were generally chained to the reading desks to prevent them from being stolen when no one was around. The cost of replacing a stolen Bible in those days could easily bankrupt a local parish.
Disadvantages 
The King James Version is almost incomprehensible to anyone who has not been brought up on it. For example, the word comfort means strengthen, suffer means let, let means prevent, and prevent means precede. Some verses are completely incomprehensible or misleading; for example, Psalm 5:6, 1 Kings 11:1, and Ezekiel 27:25. The textual scholarship underlying the King James Version has been superseded in the last two centuries.  
Advantages 
For people who were brought up on it, this is an excellent translation. For newcomers to the Bible, it is a puzzle. It is suitable for study as long as you are familiar with the language. It is widely known and available, and very inexpensive. The copyright is still valid in the United Kingdom and possibly some other nations of the British Commonwealth, but in the United States and elsewhere it is in the public domain. 

The Living Bible is the work of Kenneth N. Taylor, who in 1954 began paraphrasing scripture for use in family devotions. The first complete Living Bible appeared in 1970. It has been revised many times and appears in many different versions.
Disadvantages 
The Living Bible mixes the author’s interpretations with text, making objective study impossible unless you agree with Kenneth N. Taylor’s views. It is strongly tendentious, as the author often inserts wording that has no basis whatsoever in the original text in order to conform it to fundamentalist viewpoints on end-times, sexuality, politics, and social policy. (For example, compare Jude 7 in the Living Bible with Jude 7 in the King James Version and notice how much extra text they inserted.) Depending on your views, you may see the Living Bible as clarifying the meaning that is already present in the text or as imputing meaning into the text that is not there. Essentially, the Living Bible does the interpreting for you. Even some fundamentalists find it controversial. 
Advantages 
The Living Bible is easy to read and it makes a good story book. Many editions explain the nature and purpose of the paraphrase. 

The OT is uneven. It was done over decades. Gen was so far out of date that it had to be retranslated, so it ended up visibly newer, i.e. less literal and using more modern scholarship. Even the NT tended to be a bit uneven. The same expression would be translated differently in Mat. and Luke. The 2nd edition smooths this out, but makes it more literal. The newer parts of the OT still tend to have a less literal feeling. However this is still a competent translation. For detailed study of the NT, if you want something as close to the original words as possible but still want modern textual scholarship, the 2nd edition might be the best translation for you. In the OT they sometimes rearrange the order of passages. There's some theory that the originals got out of order.

The New American Bible is principally a lay-oriented Roman Catholic Bible translation, although some non-Catholic scholars were involved. It is primarily the outgrowth of an encyclical by Pope Pius XII (Divino afflante Spiritu) which encouraged Bible-reading among Roman Catholics.
Disadvantages 
The New American Bible is not as good as the Jerusalem Bible for serious study. The notes have a distinct Roman Catholic flavor, which can be a disadvantage for people who are not Roman Catholics.  Advantages  
This is a very good Bible for the lay Catholic. The notes have a distinct Roman Catholic flavor, which can be an advantage for Roman Catholics or for people who are not Roman Catholics themselves, but wish to inform themselves about the position of the Roman Catholic church on specific passages. 

Favored by some conservatives who prefer a literal translation. The quality of English is not as good as in the NIV. An updated version was published in 1995.

New American Standard Bible - in some sense a conservative reaction to RSV. Tried to return to the supposed accuracy (i.e. literalness) of ASV, backed out of some of the more controversial positions of the RSV. However did still make use of early manuscripts (though not very aggressively). 

The New American Standard Bible was the project of the Lockman Foundation, which sought to produce an accurate, readable translation. The translators came from a wide variety of evangelical backgrounds.
Disadvantages 
The New American Standard Bible does not lend itself well to reading out loud to an audience. The drive for accuracy led to some peculiarities in the renderings. There is occasional emphasis on relatively minor grammatical points. 
Advantages 
Excellent for serious study, very accurate. The current edition that you find in bookstores has been updated for improved readability. 

This version is also quite good. It is very readable. It was originally translated for children under the title International Children's Version. It has undergone some revision so that it can be enjoyed by adults, as well. Several formats are available for children and adults.

Adapted from a translation for the deaf, the NCV began as the International Children's Bible and later as the Everyday Bible (now out of print), both at 3rd grade level. The standard NCV is now written at 5th grade level.

Team of 20 translators. This version uses a relatively literal translation approach, generally avoiding dynamic phrasings. It is, however, more readable than more literal versions such as NASB. It will probably make a good study version for those already familiar with the Bible. Its website, like several other Bible version websites, lists its translation principles. There are myriads of informative footnotes explaining NET translation decisions and giving other background information. This version is Internet-friendly with footnotes clickable from the main text.

The best-selling English Bible. Its New Testament is based on the UBS Greek text. Its language is easy to read, and its accuracy is well respected. It is not widely available on line, due to copyright restrictions, but you can find it at the Bible Gateway. 

The best-selling English version. Could benefit from another update, but hindered recently by opposition from conservatives to NIV hopes to increase accuracy of its gender inclusive language. Considered the version of first choice by many evangelicals.

It tries to go as far towards readability as one can go while still showing you the form of the original. Note that there's a tendency to make OT prophecies compatible with NT quotations, where a reading of the OT alone would come up with something different. Is 7:14 is an example.

The New International Version is the product of evangelical scholars from a wide variety of church backgrounds under the auspices of the New York Bible Society International.

Disadvantages 
The New International Version has a slight premillennial tinge. For example, the Greek word thlipsis is only translated as tribulation in contexts that fit premillennialism. However, that is not much of an obstacle. A Lutheran publishing house even issued a study Bible based on the New International Version, even though for the last 400 years Lutherans have considered any form of millennialism to be a heresy. The New International Version has a number of innovative renderings here and there. For example, a single Hebrew word is rendered valley, gorge, river, ravine, or brook in different passages. 
Advantages 
The New International Version is an excellent translation into very good contemporary English, very suitable for study and reading out loud. The word international in the name means that the translators took pains to make sure that their work would be usable in any English-speaking country on the globe, although it appears in versions with American and British spelling. The Psalms are rendered poetically. 

This version is an excellent simplification of the New International Version, the most widely used English Bible. The NIrV is a very readable version for both adults and children. It contains many special features and helps to aid in understanding. Said to be 2.9 grade level.

Carefully translated with strong Biblical scholarship. There is a literary sophistication to its English. The NJB is a revision of the Jerusalem Bible.

The (New) Jerusalem Bible is the product of the best Bible scholarship in the Roman Catholic Church.

Advantages 
The (New) Jerusalem Bible is an excellent scholarly work for serious students of the Bible, especially Roman Catholics. The notes have a distinct Roman Catholic flavor, which can be a disadvantage for people who are not Roman Catholics. 
Disadvantages 
The (New) Jerusalem Bible’s wording is often clumsy and opaque to non-scholars. This is a matter of English style rather than accuracy in translation. The notes have a distinct Roman Catholic flavor, which can be an advantage for Roman Catholics or for people who are not Roman Catholics themselves, but wish to inform themselves about the position of the Roman Catholic church on specific passages. 

Seems to be in opposition to the textual scholarship of the previous revisions: it adopts the "majority text". See below. Updates AV by removing "thee" and "thou", and other things that are blatantly inappropriate in the 20th Cent., but otherwise sticks very close to AV. Presumably this means it is not as literal as the AV or NASB. Seems to be a proprietary translation, done by Thomas Nelson. 

There is no real connection between the King James Version and the New King James Bible except for the name, the textual basis of the New Testament, and some similarity in the language. It was the brainchild of Sam Moore, who saw a market for a King-James-sounding modern translation.

Disadvantages 
The New King James Bible sounds like a modernized King James Version, but it is neither modern nor Jacobean English. The New Testament is based on the so-called Majority Text (also called the Received Text) rather than the current state of textual research. If you live outside the United States, please note that King James Version is the American name for the Authorised Version. 
Advantages 
Although the New King James Bible, like all other translations, is not perfect, it is a more accurate rendering of the Greek than the King James Version and is less likely to puzzle the reader. This is an especially good translation for people with a Wesleyan or Eastern Orthodox background. The New Testament of this version was chosen to serve as the basis for an Eastern Orthodox study Bible. 

Exegetically "tightened" by a team of 90 scholars to be more accurate than its predecessor, the Living Bible. Retains some of the good style of the Living Bible. Reads pretty well, better than most of the relatively literal recent versions. Better attention to good English composition and style than in most recent English versions.

The NLT is largely a replacement for the very popular Living Bible, although the Living Bible will continue to be published. Said to be at 6.4 grade level.

The New Living Translation is a revision of the Living Bible to transform it from a paraphrase to a true translation.

Disadvantages 
The New Living Translation still interpolates text in places that address or seem to address modern issues, but is not as excessive as the Living Bible. It is still mildly tendentious in favor of distinctively fundamentalist teachings. 
Advantages 
The New Living Translation is easy to read and it makes a good story book. It is a huge improvement over the Living Bible and it can even be used for study. 

A decent Modern English Bible with some scholarly respect. It strives to avoid "sexist" terminology by translating, for example, "brother" as "brother or sister," and trying to avoid gender-specific language by compromising on number (i. e. "their" for "his"). Generally, these substitutions are usually justified by context. This is an ecumenical work, with editions available that contain the Apocrypha/Dueterocanonical books for not only the Roman Catholic tradition, but for several other denominations, as well. Copyrighted, hard to find on line. 

Highly regarded in scholarly circles. Reads about as well as the NIV.

Still guided by the instruction to stick with AV wording where possible. It's not a bad compromise between literalness and readability. Its most visible feature is an avoidance of masculine gender where the original used masculine to mean everyone. "brothers" will be translated "brothers and sisters", and "he" as "they" (with the whole passage turned plural). This was not true of RSV and RSV 2nd edition. It does not attempt to hide the patriachal nature of the ancient cultures. It is claimed that generic language is used only where that is the genuine meaning of the original. 

The (New) Revised Standard Version is the direct descendant of the King James Version.

Disadvantages 
The initial editions were controversial and were too liberal for many evangelicals, but questionable renderings have been repaired in recent editions. It has clumsy English syntax in places. The Psalms are not poetically rendered and don’t lend themselves well to responsive or unison reading. 
Advantages 
The Revised Standard Version is excellent for study. The New Revised Standard Version attempts to remove spurious gender bias without going overboard. It has fewer controversial renderings than before and has excellent scholarship. 

This is one of the best translations ever produced, in terms of English style and impact upon readers. The translator was the British Biblical scholar J.B. Phillips.

J B Phillips, an Anglican clergyman, first began paraphrasing the epistles of the New Testament into modern English for his church’s youth group, which met in bomb shelters during air raids in World War II. He eventually completed the entire New Testament, and later revised it into a true translation.
Disadvantages 
Many editions of the J B Phillips New Testament lack verse numbers. The wording is significantly different from other translations. Earlier editions are too British for Americans. 
Advantages 
The J B Phillips New Testament gives unique and accurate insights into the New Testament. 

Updated and improved version of the New English Bible, translated by British scholars. Reads well. The target audience is probably moderately well educated adults. Pleasant literary language. 

Another hybrid Modern/Archaic English Bible. (Archaic in the Psalms and in prayer, as if God only spoke Elizabethan English.) It is pretty well trusted, though. The RSV is copyrighted, but it is available freely with The Online Bible. 

Yet another American revision, done primarily because of yet more manuscripts, including Dead Sea Scrolls. Backed out of literalness of ASV, though still not a very free translation. Included scholarly views that were controversial at the time (like translating Is 7:14 as young woman instead of virgin). So it was considered flamingly liberal at the time. Most of these features are now present in evangelical translations, and in fact it is now considered a bit too conservative. 

From the American Bible Society (a conservative Protestant organization that has managed to produce a liberal translation) 

The Good News Bible is a project of the American Bible Society to render the Bible in a form that unchurched people can understand.
Disadvantages 
For people who attend church regularly and are familiar with the Bible, the fact that the Good News Bible does not use traditional religious vocabulary is a disadvantage. Since clarity is the overriding goal of this translation, it often seems to be inaccurate when compared to other translations, but it is in fact an accurate translation. 
Advantages 
The Good News Bible is written at a very low grade level and is consequently very easy to understand. It is excellent as story book. In fact, the Old Testament can be read from Genesis to 2 Kings as easily as a novel. 

A revision of the ASV of 1901 into Modern English. The New Testament is revised to reflect the Majority Text. God's name in the Old Testament is rendered as "Yahweh" instead of "Jehovah" because that is widely regarded to be more correct. This is an all-volunteer project still in progress. The purpose of the WEB is to put an accurate, whole, Modern English Bible into the Public Domain. Note that there are no other English translations in this category. Please see http://www.ebible.org/bible/WEB  for more information. 

See http://worldenglishbible.org/bible/web/