iMonk quotes Scot McKnight’s breakdown of which evangelical tribes prefer which translation of the Bible. Interesting stuff. I don’t know if he meant for it to be amusing, but it kind of is that too.
Scott Mcknight recently came right out and said it: We do translations by tribes:
“NRSV for liberals and Shane Claiborne lovers;
ESV for Reformed complementarian Baptists;
HCSB for LifeWay store buying Southern Baptists;
NIV for complementarian evangelicals;
TNIV for egalitarians;
NASB for those who want straight Bible, forget the English;
NLT for generic brand evangelicals;
Amplified for folks who have no idea what translation is but know that if you try enough words one of them will hit pay dirt;
NKJV and KJV for Byzantine manuscript-tree huggers;
The Message for evangelicals looking for a breath of fresh air and seeker sensitive, never-read-a-commentary evangelists who find Peterson’s prose so catchy.”
I like and use the ESV mainly, but very much like and use the NIV and the HCSB as well.
Never have liked or used the NASB very much. I tried to, but it only gets looked at on hard verses where I want another perspective on the text.
neutral on KJV and NKJV. grew up with them, have verses memorized in KJV and enjoy quoting it, but really don’t use it much.
I actively dislike the NLT, the TNIV and the Message.
I like the NASB but also have the ESV. New King James is ok too. I love all of them, really. I enjoy the APP on my iPhone that makes it easy to look back and forth at the same verse in a bunch of translations! (I also like the daily reading part)