different Bible translations

I remember the first time I read the book of Romans, first and second Corinthians and Psalms. It all really resonated with me. I didn't really understand what I was reading. Like, in Romans, how Paul writes a lot about the Jews and the Gentiles and how they're different. I had no idea about that. I thought he must be talking about different ethnic groups.

At that time, I read the Revised Standard Version, which was quite difficult, and sometimes the King James version, which is even more difficult. Because the RSV was difficult and the KJV was even more difficult, which had a lot to do with the fact that I was pretty young when I read them, that impression stayed with me. I really liked the RSV because I was able to draw some pretty profound meanings from it, even while I struggled to make complete sense of it. 

So, in recent years, I often thought and said that the RSV was my favorite Bible translation. It seemed to represent the ideal balance between the accessibility of the more modern translations and the richness of the KJV. But then, when I started to read the RSV again recently, I found that that wasn't really the case for me because now I understand it a lot better. I still like it, but it's one of a number of different translations that I like. 

I find that all the different translations have strengths and weaknesses, although the weaknesses aren't really flaws. As with people, the weaknesses come with the strengths and the strengths and weaknesses make sense of each other. Like, for example, I really love the way the NET Bible uses very modern terms for a lot of things. It really brings the Bible alive. When you use more eloquent language, as a lot of older translations do, it makes the message seem more distant. 

But the weakness the NET Bible has - at least in my opinion - is that, because it uses such modern terms, it sometimes pulls right out of the original context because you know that people in the original context wouldn't have expressed things in that way. It's not too bad. I still think it's a good translation, but it is noticeable.