This article is part of a series that looks at various English translations of the Bible.
WHICH CONTEMPORARY English Bible translation is best to use? Various faith communities answer that question differently.
In the United States, for example, many mainline Protestant churches use the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV), while evangelical Protestant churches often prefer either the New International Version (NIV) or the New American Standard Bible (NASB). The New American Bible (NAB) shows up in Catholic liturgies, and the New Jewish Publication Society Translation (NJPS) of the Hebrew Bible is the one most Reform and Conservative synagogues use. These late 20th-century translations all strive to translate each ancient word into its current English equivalent, just as the King James Version (KJV) did at the start of the 17th century.
