Why use multiple translations? Using multiple translations while you study will give you a well-rounded understanding of the text at hand. Though it’s good to have a primary version for memorization and meditation, reading from different translations demonstrates sound scholarship and can help you better understand a passage by seeing what the biblical author meant in new ways.
The goal of every Bible translation is to balance faithfulness to the wording of the original language with readability in everyday English, but most lean more toward one or the other. Translations that prioritize mimicking the original forms—word choice, word order, and grammatical category—of the Hebrew and Greek are known as “formal equivalence” translations (also known as “word-for-word” translations).
Because these more literal translations generally attempt to choose one English word for each original-language word, and because they try to keep the order of words as close to the original as possible, they tend to be more “wooden” for the modern reader.
In the Formal (Word-for-Word) Translation Bible Bundle 2, we’ve curated five of the most popular formal translations: Lexham English Bible (LEB), English Standard Version (ESV), New King James Version (NKJV), New American Standard Bible, 2020 Update (NASB), and Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB).