A study of the Bible itself:

 

What's your Bible made with?

 

Bible.com lists 88 bibles. Everything from the trusty KJV to the CJB.

 

Let's take a look at the New Living Translation.

The New Living Translation (NLT) uses a fascinating text-critical approach. Rather than relying on just one historical textual stream, the translation team utilized a primary foundation backed by a robust "eclectic" method of cross-referencing alternative historical witnesses.

The historical versions and manuscripts utilized for the NLT include:

1. Old Testament: The Tanakh Foundation with Septuagint & Scroll Cross-Checks

• Primary Source (The Tanakh): The core baseline for the NLT Old Testament is the traditional Masoretic Text of the Hebrew Bible, specifically using Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia (1977 edition). This means its primary bedrock is the classic Hebrew text tradition.
  Tyndale House
• Secondary Sources (The Septuagint & Others): When the Hebrew text of the Tanakh is obscure, damaged, or famously ambiguous, the NLT translation team actively consulted and cross-referenced alternative ancient witnesses. This explicitly includes:
• The Septuagint (LXX): The 3rd-century BCE Greek translation you mentioned.
• The Dead Sea Scrolls: Older Hebrew fragments that often predate the standard Masoretic text.
• Other Ancient Tools: The Samaritan Pentateuch, the Syriac Peshitta, and the Latin Vulgate.
  Tyndale House
• Note: While the NLT handles these variants in difficult passages, its Old Testament canon count matches the Protestant 39-book layout derived from the Hebrew Bible.

2. New Testament: The Critical Greek Text

• Primary Source: For the New Testament, the NLT completely bypasses the later Textus Receptus (the Byzantine-majority text used by older translations like the King James Version).
  GospelRiver.com
• The Critical Editions: Instead, they relied on modern Critical Greek Texts—specifically the United Bible Societies' Greek New Testament (UBS4) and the Nestle-Aland Novum Testamentum Graece (NA27). These critical texts are compiled by weighing thousands of surviving ancient Greek manuscripts, including early papyri and major 4th-century codices (like Codex Sinaiticus and Codex Vaticanus).
  Tyndale House

In short, the NLT uses the Tanakh (Masoretic Text) as its main highway for the Old Testament, but it frequently pulls directional signs and clarifications from the Septuagint and the Dead Sea Scrolls when the Hebrew trail gets rocky!

 

Septuagint is based on the Hebrew Tanakh (specifically, ancient Hebrew source texts).

Here is how the relationship between the two works:

• The Tanakh (The Hebrew Bible): Written primarily in ancient Hebrew (with a few portions in Aramaic), the Tanakh was composed and compiled over centuries, with its texts finalized long before the Septuagint. It serves as the canonical baseline for Judaism.
• The Septuagint (LXX): This is the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible. It was produced in Alexandria, Egypt, starting around the 3rd century BCE (with the Torah translated first, followed by the Prophets and Writings) by Jewish scholars for the Greek-speaking Jewish diaspora.

Because the Septuagint is a translation, it was derived from ancient Hebrew manuscripts—some of which slightly predate or differed textually from the standardized Masoretic Text used for the modern Tanakh today.

Fun Fact: The Septuagint became the primary Old Testament used by the early Christian church and the basis for the Old Testament in many ancient Christian traditions (like the Eastern Orthodox Church), which is why its book order and inclusion of certain texts (the Apocrypha/Deuterocanonical books) differ slightly from the traditional Hebrew Tanakh.

 

The Septuagint (often abbreviated as LXX) originated precisely in the 3rd century BCE.

According to historical tradition (most famously recorded in the Letter of Aristeas), the translation began around 280 to 250 BCE in Alexandria, Egypt. Ptolemy II Philadelphus reportedly commissioned Jewish scholars to translate the Torah (the first five books) into Koine Greek for the massive Greek-speaking Jewish community in Alexandria and for the famous Library of Alexandria.

The rest of the Hebrew Bible (the Prophets and the Writings) was translated incrementally over the subsequent decades, with the entire Greek collection largely coming together by the 2nd century BCE.

This makes the Septuagint an exceptionally valuable historical artifact because it preserves a Hebrew text-tradition that is older, and occasionally different, than the standardized Masoretic Text finalized centuries later.

 

Different Christian traditions rely heavily on either the Tanakh (Masoretic Hebrew text) or the Septuagint (Greek text), which directly dictates how many books are in their Old Testaments and how certain passages read.

1. Bibles Based on the Tanakh (Masoretic Text)

• Protestant Bibles (e.g., King James Version, English Standard Version, New International Version):
• The Source: Their Old Testaments are translated directly from the Masoretic Text (the traditional Hebrew Tanakh).
• The Books: They contain 39 books in the Old Testament. (Note: These are the exact same content as the 24 books of the Jewish Tanakh, just split and counted differently—for example, Samuel and Kings are divided into two books each, and the 12 Minor Prophets are separated).
• Exclusions: They exclude the Apocrypha / Deuterocanonical books because those texts were not part of the finalized Hebrew canon.

2. Bibles Based on the Septuagint (or Mixed Traditions)

• Eastern Orthodox Bibles (e.g., Eastern Orthodox Bible, Septuagint-based translations):
• The Source: They use the Septuagint (LXX) as the foundational text for their Old Testament.
• The Books: They include roughly 49+ books in the Old Testament.
• Inclusions: Because the Septuagint contained a wider collection of Jewish literature popular in the ancient Hellenistic world, Orthodox Bibles include texts like Tobit, Judith, 1 and 2 Maccabees, Wisdom of Solomon, Sirach, Baruch, and additional sections in Esther and Daniel.
• Catholic Bibles (e.g., New American Bible, New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition):
• The Source: Modern Catholic Old Testaments use a hybrid approach—relying primarily on the Masoretic Hebrew text for base translation, but heavily cross-referencing the Septuagint and the Dead Sea Scrolls where the Hebrew is unclear or damaged.
• The Books: They contain 46 books in the Old Testament.
• Inclusions: While their translation base leans on the Hebrew text today, their canon follows the ancient Greek Septuagint tradition, incorporating the 7 "Deuterocanonical" books (which Protestants call the Apocrypha).

Quick Comparison Summary

Tradition	Primary Old Testament Source Text	Number of OT Books	Includes Deuterocanon / Apocrypha?
Judaism (Tanakh)	Masoretic Text (Hebrew)	24 (Traditional count)	No
Protestant	Masoretic Text (Hebrew)	39	No (Historically placed in a separate "Apocrypha" section or omitted)
Catholic	Mixed (Masoretic Hebrew base, with Septuagint/Dead Sea Scroll cross-checks)	46	Yes (7 books)
Eastern Orthodox	Septuagint (Greek)	49+	Yes (Includes the Catholic set plus a few extras like 3 Maccabees and Psalm 151)

 

Team Septuagint

The primary English translations based on the Septuagint include:

1. The Orthodox Study Bible (OSB)

• What it is: Published in 2008, the Old Testament of the Orthodox Study Bible is a formal translation made specifically for Eastern Orthodox Christians.
• Details: It translates the traditional Greek Septuagint text into English while using the New King James Version (NKJV) as a stylistic framework and baseline for readability. It includes the full collection of Orthodox deuterocanonical books.

2. The Brenton Septuagint Translation (Sir Lancelot C.L. Brenton)

• What it is: Published in 1851, this is the classic, historical English translation of the Septuagint.
• Details: Based primarily on the Codex Vaticanus, Brenton’s translation was for over a century the most widely available and accessible English version of the Greek Old Testament. It is in the public domain and is still frequently printed today with the Greek and English text in parallel columns.

3. A New English Translation of the Septuagint (NETS)

• What it is: An academic scholarly translation sponsored by the International Organization for Septuagint and Cognate Studies (IOSCS), completed in 2007.
• Details: Rather than starting entirely from scratch, the scholars based NETS on the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV), systematically altering and adjusting it to match the exact wording, variant readings, and stylistic quirks of modern critical editions of the Greek Septuagint (such as the Göttingen edition). It is designed primarily for textual criticism and academic comparison.

4. The Lexham English Septuagint (LES)

• What it is: Published by Lexham Press in 2012 (with updated editions since), this translation was built to provide a modern, highly readable, yet literal translation of the Septuagint for general students and lay readers.
• Details: It is translated directly from Henry Barclay Swete’s manual edition of the Septuagint and aims for transparent rendering so readers can easily track how the Greek text differs from standard Hebrew-based translations.

 

Team Tanakh

Strictly speaking, the Tanakh is the Hebrew Bible (an acronym for the Torah [Law], Nevi'im [Prophets], and Ketuvim [Writings]). In Christian terminology, this is known as the Old Testament.

Because the Tanakh is written in Hebrew and Aramaic, the vast majority of English translations of the Old Testament are based directly on the Tanakh (specifically, the Masoretic Text preserved by Jewish scribes).

English translations derived from the Tanakh fall into two main categories depending on who published them and their intended audience:

1. Jewish Publication Society (JPS) Translations

These are standard, authoritative English translations produced by Jewish scholars directly from the Hebrew Tanakh, reflecting Jewish tradition, commentary, and grammar.

• The JPS Tanakh (1985 / NJPS):
• What it is: Widely considered the gold standard for modern Jewish translations in English. It was translated directly from the traditional Hebrew text by a committee of leading Jewish biblical scholars and linguists.
• Details: It prioritizes modern linguistic discoveries and clarity while respecting the traditional Jewish parsing of the text (distinct from how Christian translations often interpret certain verses).
• The Holy Scriptures According to the Masoretic Text (1917):
• What it is: The historic predecessor to the 1985 JPS translation, heavily influenced by the style of the King James Version, but rooted strictly in the Hebrew text.
• The Living Torah / The Living Nach (Aryeh Kaplan):
• What it is: A widely respected Orthodox Jewish translation and commentary that emphasizes traditional rabbinic interpretation (Rashi, etc.) alongside a clear, accessible English rendering of the Hebrew.

2. Standard Christian Old Testament Translations

Nearly all modern Christian Old Testament translations are also translated directly from the Hebrew Tanakh (using the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia as the standard Hebrew source text) rather than the Greek Septuagint. Examples include:

• English Standard Version (ESV): Known for a literal, word-for-word translation philosophy directly from the Hebrew text.
• New International Version (NIV): A balance of literal and dynamic equivalence translated from Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek sources.
• New Revised Standard Version (NRSV): A heavily peer-reviewed scholarly translation directly from the Hebrew Masoretic Text (supplemented by the Dead Sea Scrolls and ancient versions where the Hebrew is unclear).
• New King James Version (NKJV) & King James Version (KJV): Translated directly from the Hebrew Masoretic Text for the Old Testament sections.

How Tanakh-based Bibles Differ from Septuagint-based Bibles

When comparing an English translation based on the Tanakh (Hebrew) to one based on the Septuagint (Greek), you will notice a few major differences:

• Book Order: The Tanakh is traditionally ordered into 24 books in three sections (Law, Prophets, Writings), ending with Chronicles. Christian Bibles based on the Hebrew text reorganize these same books into 39 books, ending with Malachi to bridge directly into the New Testament.
• Variant Passages: In several books (most notably Jeremiah, Esther, and Job), the ancient Hebrew text underlying the Tanakh is notably shorter or differently arranged than the ancient Greek Septuagint text.
• Messianic Prophecies: Certain famous verses (like Isaiah 7:14) have slight translation variations depending on whether they are translated from the Hebrew word almah ("young woman") or the Greek word parthenos ("virgin").

 

Team Vulgate

The Latin Vulgate—St. Jerome’s late-4th-century Latin translation of the Bible—served as the official, foundational text of the Western Catholic Church for over a millennium.

While most modern Catholic Bibles are now translated directly from the original Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek languages, several historical and notable English translations were based primarily on the Vulgate.

1. The Douay-Rheims Bible (The Clementine Vulgate)

• What it is: The definitive and most famous English Catholic Bible translation for centuries, published around 1582 (New Testament) and 1609–1610 (Old Testament) by English Catholic scholars in exile.
• Details: It was translated strictly and literally from the Latin Clementine Vulgate. Because of its absolute reliance on the Latin, its vocabulary heavily influenced Catholic English theological phrasing (using words like azymes, commensurate, and pasch).
• Note on revisions: In the mid-18th century, Bishop Richard Challoner heavily revised the Douay-Rheims to make its English style flow closer to the King James Version, and those later editions occasionally cross-referenced the Greek and Hebrew, but it remains fundamentally a Vulgate-based Bible.

2. The Knox Bible (Ronald Knox Translation)

• What it is: A literary masterpiece commissioned by the Catholic Bishops of England and Wales in the mid-20th century (published in the late 1940s) to provide a more readable, elegant alternative to the archaic Douay-Rheims.
• Details: Ronald Knox was tasked with translating the Bible from the Latin Vulgate, but with a specific mandate: to render it into timeless, beautiful English literature rather than a rigid word-for-word copy. While he consulted the original Hebrew and Greek texts to clarify obscure or difficult Latin passages, his primary text and structural base was the Vulgate.

3. Wycliffe’s Bible (1382–1395)

• What it is: The very first complete translation of the Bible into the English language, produced by John Wycliffe and his followers.
• Details: Because the original Hebrew and Greek manuscripts were largely unavailable or forbidden in medieval England, Wycliffe's Bible was translated entirely by hand from the Latin Vulgate. It circulated widely in handwritten manuscript form before the invention of the printing press, making Scripture accessible to English speakers for the first time despite being banned by the Church at the time.

Why did Vulgate-based translations matter?

For centuries following the Protestant Reformation, the Council of Trent declared the Latin Vulgate to be the official authoritative text for use in the Roman Catholic Church. Consequently, any Catholic translation intended for liturgical use, study, or devotional reading had to rely on the Latin text rather than the Protestant preference for the original Hebrew and Greek texts (which Protestants argued were superior because they were older).

 

Back to the NLT , this is why it's not so easy to say which translation is "best."

Here is a comparison between the source texts and textual methodology used for the New Living Translation (NLT) and those used for traditional or classic text-based translations (like the King James Version or traditional Hebrew/Greek texts):

1. New Testament Sources & Methodology

• The NLT Approach (Critical Text): For the New Testament, the NLT completely bypasses the later Textus Receptus (the Byzantine-majority text underlying older translations like the KJV). Instead, it relies on modern Critical Greek Texts—specifically the United Bible Societies' Greek New Testament (UBS4) and the Nestle-Aland Novum Testamentum Graece (NA27). These are compiled by weighing thousands of surviving ancient manuscripts, including early papyri and major 4th-century codices (such as Codex Sinaiticus and Codex Vaticanus).
• Traditional Approach (Textus Receptus): Traditional translations rely heavily on the Textus Receptus, a printed compilation of late medieval Byzantine manuscripts.

2. Old Testament Sources & Methodology

• The NLT Approach (Tanakh + Eclectic Cross-Referencing):
• Primary Source: The standard Masoretic Text of the Hebrew Bible (specifically using Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia).
• Secondary/Eclectic Sources: When the Hebrew text is obscure, damaged, or ambiguous, the NLT translation team actively consulted and cross-referenced alternative ancient witnesses, including:
• The Septuagint (LXX): The 3rd-century BCE Greek translation.
• The Dead Sea Scrolls: Older Hebrew fragments predating the standard Masoretic text.
• Other Ancient Witnesses: The Samaritan Pentateuch, the Syriac Peshitta, and the Latin Vulgate.
• Traditional Approach (Strict Masoretic or Single Stream): Traditional Protestant translations (like the ESV or KJV) translate almost exclusively and strictly from the Masoretic Text without the eclectic integration of older non-Masoretic variants in difficult passages. Meanwhile, traditional Catholic and Eastern Orthodox translations lean on the Latin Vulgate or the full Greek Septuagint tradition respectively.

Summary Comparison Table

Feature	New Living Translation (NLT)	Traditional / Classic Translations (e.g., KJV, ESV)
Old Testament Base	Masoretic Text (Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia), with aggressive cross-referencing to the Dead Sea Scrolls and Septuagint.	Strictly the Masoretic Text (for Protestant versions) or historical Vulgate/Septuagint traditions.
New Testament Base	Modern Critical Greek Texts (NA27 / UBS4), utilizing early papyri and uncial codices.	Late medieval Byzantine manuscript tradition (Textus Receptus for KJV).
Translation Philosophy	Dynamic equivalence / Thought-for-thought (prioritizing natural modern readability while maintaining textual rigor).	Formal equivalence / Word-for-word (prioritizing strict lexical correspondence).

 

As you grow in the Word, you may find the particular version you have is not enough to satisfy.

A quick look at the CJB (Complete Jewish Bible)

Yeshayahu (Isaiah) Chapter 58 in the Complete Jewish Bible (CJB)

In Yeshayahu (Isaiah) Chapter 58, the prophet delivers a powerful message contrasting empty, ritualistic religious observance with the kind of fast and righteousness that Adonai truly desires.

Key Themes & Flow of Chapter 58

1. The Critique of Hollow Fasting (Verses 1–5):

• Adonai tells the prophet to raise his voice like a shofar and declare the house of Jacob's rebellious sins.
• The people complain that they fast and humble themselves, yet God does not notice. God exposes their hypocrisy: on the days of their fast, they continue pursuing their own business, exploiting their workers, and engaging in violent quarrels. A fast like that—merely bowing the head like a reed for a day—does not bring heavenly resonance.

The True Fast Pleasing to God (Verses 6–7):

• God defines the kind of fast He actually wants:
• Unbinding the chains of injustice and untying the ropes of the yoke.
• Setting the oppressed free and breaking every yoke.
• Sharing your food with the hungry, bringing the homeless poor into your house.
• Covering the naked when you see them, and not hiding from your own flesh and blood.

The Promise of Restoration and Light (Verses 8–12):

• When God's people live out true justice and mercy, their light will break forth like the morning, and healing will quickly appear.
• When they call out, Adonai will answer, saying, "Here I am." If they stop pointing fingers and speaking maliciously, feed the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted, their light will rise in the darkness, and Adonai will guide them continually.

Keeping the Sabbath Holy (Verses 13–14):

• The chapter concludes with a blessing for honoring Shabbat—turning away from doing your own business on God's holy day, calling the Sabbath a delight, and honoring it rather than going your own ways. Those who do will find their joy in Adonai, and He will make them ride on the heights of the earth.

Distinctive CJB Terminology in This Passage

When reading this chapter in the Complete Jewish Bible (CJB) compared to standard translations:

• The Sabbath: Rendered explicitly as Shabbat, emphasizing its weekly rhythm and covenantal significance in Jewish tradition.
• God's Name: Uses Adonai consistently for the divine name.
• Social Justice (Tzedakah): The emphasis on charity, freeing the oppressed, and feeding the poor aligns closely with the traditional Jewish concepts of tzedakah (righteous giving/justice) and tikkun olam (repairing the world).

 

A touch of Mira weighing in:

a Bible that lets you read naturally, but opens the door to the original words whenever you want to investigate.

And you don't need to know Hebrew or Greek in advance. You can learn a little at a time, starting with words that genuinely affect how a passage is understood.

A practical little Bible-study workshop

Here are three resources that work together particularly well.

Net Bible, Full-Notes Edition, Leathersoft, Teal, Comfort Print - by Thomas Nelson (Leather Bound) : Target

 

1. NET Bible — for the footnotes

Its extensive translator notes explain difficult translation choices, textual variants, and interpretive decisions. It is useful for seeing why a translation says what it says.

Read the NET Bible

 

New English Translation of the Septuagint - Internet Bible Catalog

 

2. NETS — for the Greek Old Testament

This scholarly English translation gives you direct access to the Septuagint's wording without requiring you to read Greek. Its translators explicitly distinguish the Greek text from the Hebrew tradition.

 

CCAT+1

Read NETS free online

 

STEPBible User Guide: Exploring Facilities

 

3. STEP Bible — for the original words

This free study tool lets you explore Hebrew and Greek vocabulary, grammar, and comparisons between translations. You can investigate an individual word without becoming a language specialist first.

 

Hebrew & Greek Resources+1

Open STEP Bible

 

Let's try a real example

Take the Hebrew word nephesh (נֶפֶשׁ), often translated as “soul.”

Depending on context, it can refer to a living being, a person, life itself, or the self. In Genesis 2:7, the wording is particularly interesting: the human becomes a nephesh chayyah, commonly rendered “living being” or “living creature.”

Why does that matter? Because it can affect how we understand the relationship between body, life, and soul. Rather than assuming that one English word carries the same meaning everywhere, we examine the Hebrew usage, the Greek translation, and the context.

 

Let's go back to the Hebrew word Nephesh (נֶפֶשׁ), which is often translated into English as “soul.”

The important point is that nephesh does not always mean what modern English speakers think of as an invisible, immortal soul.

The example: Genesis 2:7

“And man became a living soul.” — KJV

The Hebrew expression is:

נֶפֶשׁ חַיָּה — Nephesh Chayyah

Broken down:

• Nephesh = being, person, life, self, or soul.
• Chayyah = living, alive.

So the phrase can be translated “living being” or “living creature.”

Notice something remarkable: in Genesis 1, the same expression nephesh chayyah is also used for living animals.

Why does this matter?

The Hebrew wording in Genesis 2:7 does not say that God put a soul inside Adam.

It says that God formed the man from the dust, breathed into him the breath of life, and the man became a living nephesh.

The key distinction: The biblical Hebrew often uses nephesh to describe the living person himself, rather than a separate entity residing inside the person.

We can take this further by comparing how nephesh is translated in Genesis, Psalms, and other passages. That comparison is where the word becomes especially fascinating.

 

And that's one of the beautiful things about studying Scripture through its original languages: sometimes a single Hebrew word opens up an entirely different way of understanding a passage.

Genesis 2:7 is especially powerful: Adam didn't receive a living soul; Adam became a living soul.

A small distinction in translation, but a profound difference in meaning.

 

 

Below we have all 88 English translations plus original Greek and Hebrew.  Electronically. Enjoy!