Replies

Was wondering if anyone would cite the Jerusalem Bible--it has the BEST footnotes, plus the "Wisdom" books that the "Protestant" bibles do not have. I am not a Catholic, and use the NIV for reading--but for studying the Word--the JB is awesome.

However, there IS a mistranslation of John 1:12 (in the 1966 edition), which was corrected in the New Jerusalem Bible of a later issue.

The old version reads:

"He [Jesus] came to his own domain [Israel] and his own people did not accept him. But to all who did accept him he gave the power to become children of God, to all who believe in the name of him who was born not out of human stock or urge of the flesh or will of man but of God himself."

The NIV reads:

"He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. But to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God--children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision, nor a husband's will, but born of God."

BIG difference, and--after checking out a bunch of other Bible versions--the NIV is CLEARLY correct, and the JB not!

I have been using the Jerusalem Bible for about 45 years. A friend of mine brought one back from Ireland for me and I wore that one out. I got a new one a few years ago (a reprint of the original Jerusalem Bible) from Amazon. We use it daily in our reading and reference. In my opinion this is much better than the New Jerusalem Bible, which reverted some of the Old Testiment language to KJV ‘Lord’ from ‘Yahweh’, among other things. The Jerusalem Bible, in my opinion, is a very accurate translation, and reads easily. Many Catholic priests have the Jerusalem Bible in their library.

I grew up reading either KJV or Darby. My great grandfather in England was contemporary with and a close friend of John Nelson Darby. He was mentored by Darby. Darby had a personal ministry to Queen Victoria, and when Darby, 20 years senior to my great grandfather, could no longer continue that ministry, it fell on my great grandfather to continue it. He did so until her death.

I have various translations in my library, and access many others on-line for study or comparison purposes. My least favorite is NIV, the ‘Not Inspired Version’.

I also have Greek and Hebrew texts that I have used for study.