I absolutely love the ASV. I discovered it a couple of months ago, and someone SENT ME HIS OLD ONE THAT HE USED WHEN HE WAS A KID. I GOT IT FREE. HE EVEN PAID THE SHIPPING.
How I LOVE CHRISTIANS. Really, I often sit and MARVEL at the brotherhood and kindness fellow Christians show to me when they've never met me or even talked to me in more than an email... Ya'll might not think it a big deal, but this bible is PERFECT. ABSOLUTELY PERFECT.
Not only is it my favorite version, but it's got the NICE old true paper, the kind that doesn't crinkle easily (unlike the new crap paper that feels more like a shred of colored plastic than anything,) it's black CALFSKIN leather, (black too, my absolute favorite color of bibles,) gold edges, it's got like a 600 page concordance (no joke,) crossreferences like you WOULDN'T BELIEVE (sometimes 100 to a PAGE) really thick (which makes it ALOT easier to find something in your bible, it really does) about 9x6" length/width. I mean, this bible is PERFECT.
And it's small print, only black letter.
The only thing that thwarts it is the actual version. It's so...BEAUTIFUL. and it's LITERAL. And it substitutes "Jehovah" in for the name "The Lord" which makes it ten times easier when you have two names right next to each other, because it's written "The Lord Jehovah," not, "Sovereign Lord" like the crap NIV does.
I mean, this bible is...unbelievable. I mean, if I could print my own bible, this would be it. Check out the ASV, it's so wonderful.
Aside the ASV, the NASB is OKAY. I find it substitutes awesome literature for basic American understanding, like substituting out, "And he knew her," for, "And Adam laid with his wife," or something like that. (I don't know if it actually does that, but that would be an example that I see all too often in the NASB.) It's so beautiful, "And he knew her," for instance, because it shows that knowing in the biblical sense is an intimate knowledge. The Hebrew word "Yada" signifies that, and the ASV parellels it perfectly in the English. Granted, you sometimes have hard to understand sentences and fragments occasionally, but it makes all the difference in the world when STUDYING something, which I often do.
I love the ESV, though. The only problem I've ever had with the ESV is that it takes out some really cool language like, 'vain repetition' and adds in 'mindless babbling' or something like that. I've only spotted it twice, once in that passage, and another in one of Paul's Epistles. I find the Hebrew transliteration to be almost perfect in the ESV, however, particularly in the Psalms.
The Psalms are by far the most beautiful poetry ever written, especially in the Hebrew tongue, where you can see every facet and simultude of understanding, you can actually FEEL the Psalmist, and the ESV, I feel does an AMAZING job of putting that into English. The ESV, aside the ASV, is absolutely stunning with the Hebrew-English. The Greek-English I've found better than par, but not exceptionally amazing from the ESV.
I hate the NIV for too many reasons to list. My Pastor often has to use alternative versions for sermons because the NIV is often far too liberal and non-literal with their translations. I also find the NIV to be HORRIBLE to read out loud (it is so EXTREMELY WORDY), while the ESV is almost perfect for modern English when reading out loud. Well, I won't go on with the NIV.
The KJV and NKJV I really like. I'm a big fan of both, especially the NKJV while witnessing, although I haven't had any tracts in the ESV which I would really love. Again, I could rant and rave about how the NIV has horrible witnessing verses compared to the other versions, particularly in taking out 'begotten' in John 3:16 and such. *grumble*
I don't use any other versions, and I find the Holman Christian Bible to be too similiar to the NIV in many of the respects I've just said, but yet, more literal, so I could easily put up with it more than the NIV.
Sorry for having you all read all this...I didn't expect to talk this much on bible versions.
