Best version of the Bible for me to read?

joshua 1:9
quick(understanding)summary: if god sends you through a dark alley or somewhere scary don’t be afraid b because he’ll b there where ever you go

You can’t read the Bible by itself, in English, and expect to fully grasp everything it’s saying. I would read other books that objectively explain the historical, cultural, and literary context of the Bible before plunging right into it.

The best version I know of is the King James version of the New testament. The old testament is for study on the do’s and don’ts and not on the joy of faith and love of the father.

SQuare bear, Yes, I have read the bible, and to me, it is very precious. How about going to a Christian bookstore, and asking them to show you the different versions that they have available. Then you can find one that appeals to you.

I personally like the Spirit filled life bible, in the New King James version. However, the first bible that I read, when I got saved, was the King James Version, and that will always be my favorite. But, it is nice to read different ones, from time to time, sometimes that helps you to get a clearer meaning. The Spirit Filled Life bible, has explanations at the bottom of the page, as to what most of the verses are referring to.

Another thing that I would suggest, is to pray before reading it, and ask God to help you to understand it, the way he meant for it to be understood, also, in the right spirit. As it is a Spirit inspired book, the same spirit that caused it to be written, will open it up to you, if you ask him to. Without the guidance of the spirit ,it can be hard to understand.

It is a book like no other, that is for sure. God can and will speak to you thru the pages, if you seek him.

Blessings…

Well, I think you should NOT begin at the beginning! Toadaly’s point, that it’s not one long story from beginning to end, has some validity. It has constant themes but some bits are history, some bits are prophecy, some are poetry, meditation, stories etc… So the best place to begin is the book of Matthew, I think. This is the oldest Gospel, and tells, fairly briefly, the main events of the life of Jesus.

If you begin with Matthew, and then maybe read one of the other Gospels (Luke has lots of detail, for example) then you will really be reading the core of the Bible. Christians believe that everything before and after the Gospels has to be understood in the light of Jesus. Once you’ve understood Him, or even got to know Him, then reading the rest will begin to make some kind of sense.

I agree that the NIV (New International Version) would be a good version to read. It’s a clear modern translation.

The bible is the best book out there…

And the Message is the easiest to understand… :) NIV is good… but the message was easiest for me…

Im glad to hear you are taking an interest in the bible. I would encourage you to initialy read in the book of Luke. This will give you a great story of the live of Jesus who is the premise in the Bible. Also I would encourage you to not take anyone elses opinion on what the scriptures is interpreted to be and just read if for yourself. So please don’t go to any “sceptic” or “christian” websites before you initialy read a section for yourself. After you get an unbiased read of the Luke account you can certainly check out what everybody has to say about it. I would encourage you not just to check out sceptical websites, but also see what Bible believing christians think about it. A great website to find out about their viewpoint would be AIG.com. For understandability, a great version would be the NIV bible. This is a very mainstream bible that is used in a lot of churches and essepecialy amoung people who might have trouble understanding. It turns a lot of the lanuage and meanings of the scriptures into something for common people to understand easier. Of course after you read Luke, and think about what youve read, you should certainly continue on to get a more complete picture. After Luke I would recomend starting in the begging with Genesis. The bible is not meant to be a light, fictional, fairytale read. It is meant to be serious and deep. It has many answers to life questions. It is also meant to be taken into context so when reading keep this in mind and definetly engage your thinking skills. I know that if you choose to do this it can drasticaly change your life for the better. The Bible is certainly my favorite book and it is my roadmap to life. I am excited for you and I wish you the best!

NIV is the easiest, and my fav version =) hope this helped.

“You will also find that the Scripture has no problems but some people do have rather personal problems with it.”

Really? I would think the fact that it’s massively internally inconsistent is a problem:

http://www.skepticsannotatedbible.com/contra/by_name.html

You can download a multiversion software bible at http://www.e-sword.net for free and you can also download commentaries and dictionarys help with your bible study

You will also find that the Scripture has no problems but some people do have rather personal problems with it.

Some of the parts are rather boring and some will leave you scratching your head and none of the authors were proffesional writers

I recommend this one: http://www.skepticsannotatedbible.com/

I enjoy it because it helps point out problems with the scriptures that you might otherwise miss. It also helps you understand how people interpret things differently.

There are different versions of the Bible available and, as far as print goes, I think the New Jerusalem Bible is the best.

There is much in the Bible that you probably won’t understand. People have spent their entire lives trying to figure the Bible out and it hasn’t been done yet to my knowledge. But no matter what you choose to believe, the Bible is a good read. It certainly helps swell our atheist ranks.

Good advice, Silverwings.

NIV - is the best VERSION to read .