Dear Wondering,

Personally, I prefer the New King James. I go further to say I prefer the New King James Spirit- filled Life Bible! I recommend this one because it has the Hebrew and Greek definitions of certain words. It also has many tools at your fingertips for understanding the Scriptures.

The Bible you want to use is a translation from the Hebrew and Greek, not a paraphrase or one person’s work. You may want to look up individual words to see what they mean and how they are used. A paraphrase Bible is not a word for word but a paragraph by paragraph. If you do some studying about them, they make each paragraph easy to understand, but it might be very different from the original meaning.

I like to use several different translations when I am studying. Ask the Holy Spirit to help you. When you are at your church, you might want to use the same version your pastor or leader is teaching from. If it’s only a paraphrase, though, I would not sit under their teaching. I do not want someone else’s opinion on what they think the Scripture is saying to help me understand it. The Holy Spirit will help you with understanding.

All the versions you mentioned are translations with credible translators who used the Hebrew and Greek manuscripts. I have used them all. I have pastor friends who preach out of many different translations. So, enjoy the Word of God and as I always say, it is our manual for success! The key is to get in it, read it, and obey it!

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