How I read the Bible

Choosing between different Bible translations

I found myself asking which translation of the Bible I should read. To answer this, I've compiled a list of all the complete Bible translations I know of—those containing both the Old and New Testaments (with or without the Deuterocanon/Apocrypha)—and compared them in the table below, roughly ordered from most literal to most readable. I've placed the Vulgate at the top, however, because it's the only non-English translation listed and would likely be the most difficult for those of us who cannot read Latin.

You may inform me of other translations and how they compare to others, but this is primarily how I've differentiated and determined which translation to read.

My purpose for reading the Bible was primarily to study it. As someone raised Roman Catholic, I naturally want to read the Bibles our Church uses. At the same time, I'm deeply interested in literal translations. So I decided to read at least three Bibles: one used by the Catholic Church, one with a literal translation, and the one my parents gifted me.

As you can see in the table above, I've missed quite a few translations used by Catholics. I had never heard of the Douay-Rheims Bible before, and I'd never seen a New Jerusalem Bible either. This made me realize that I don't actually know which translation our churches use—and that during my search for the best Bible translations to read, those other translations never came up.

So at first, the versions I read were:

• NASB
• NKJV
• GNT (gifted by my parents)

Reading the NASB wasn't difficult for me, likely because I'm used to older texts. I've read Socrates and Plato in some of the most literal English translations, so the NASB felt familiar and comfortable.

I'm aware that most people prefer the NIV for its simpler language, but since I already have a physical copy of the GNT, I'll just use that.

I moved on to the NKJV because I was unsatisfied with the GNT's phrasing. The GNT is indeed easier to read, but it didn't quite suit me. So I looked for another modern translation and settled on the NKJV.

Once I learned that the NKJV is a new version of the KJV, I became curious about how the KJV was written and decided to read it. I loved it—just as much as I love the NASB for its literal translation.

Later, when I became confident in my commitment to the Catholic faith, I looked up which translations the Church uses for Mass. I found NABRE, ESV-CE, NRSV-CE, and RNJB. There are probably more, but these are the ones I know so far. I'll do the table comparison again, don't worry.

I didn't dig as deeply into the other translations, but I did look more closely at the NABRE. As a Filipino, I wanted to verify whether what priests read during Mass is actually the NABRE. It turns out the lectionary (the text read from the pulpit) doesn't use the NABRE at all—it uses the original NAB text, specifically the 1970 Old Testament and the 1966 New Testament.

The reason is practical: replacing the official books used at the altar would require massive reprinting and Vatican approval worldwide, so churches continue using the older NAB text. However, if you buy a Bible in stores today, you'll only find the NABRE.

For simplicity, I'll refer to the NABRE throughout, since about 95% of the wording in the original NAB matches the NABRE anyway, and the NABRE has better accuracy in the Old Testament.

So, based on what I've learned so far, here are the Bible translations I've moved on to reading:

• NASB
• NKJV KJV
• GNT
• NRSV-CE

I chose the NRSV-CE over the NABRE simply because I preferred its writing style. It seems I gravitate toward translations that are either scholarly or archaic in character. Remember, my goal was to study the Bible.

Over the course of the year in which I decided to read the Bible thoroughly, I began leaning more toward Catholic editions. I know I barely scratched the surface of this topic, but I became increasingly aware of the RSVCE and its later variations. When I joined a Catholic Diocese server on Discord, I noticed they used the RSVCE for the daily readings. Then, while searching for translations to download on the YouVersion app, I wanted to find the RSVCE but instead came across translations that began to confuse me.

So here’s another table!

For my Noetheca notes, I primarily use the RSV-2CE and NRSV-CE respectively for Word-for-Word and balanced translations. However, I still read other translations; these two are simply the main ones I rely on for Noetheca.

I now currently read:

• RSV-2CE - for theological study, cross-referencing with CCC
• NRSV-CE - for academic study
• RSV-CE - for my verse database and memorization
• GNT - physical Bible
• NASB, KJV - occasional reading, comparing translations

I also own a book containing the Gospels of Matthew and John from The Message. Some time ago, I read from the Daily Gospel books published by Claretian Publications, whose biblical texts are drawn from the Christian Community Bible and the Catholic Pastoral Edition (57th Edition). So I've read from those translations as well.

What book did I read first for my bible study?

My goal in my Bible study is to read everything that has ever been written—all the books. Since I'm already quite familiar with the New Testament (I did listen during the Gospel readings at church), I started from the very beginning: the Book of Genesis.

From there, I read through the rest of the books in the order they appear in my GNT Bible. My plan is to finish the Old Testament up to the Book of Malachi first, then move on to the Deuterocanon. After that, I'm considering reading the Septuagint and the Dead Sea Scrolls to compare their translations against the Masoretic Text myself. I find the latter particularly intriguing and look forward to what I'll discover.

Only after all that will I fully read the New Testament, which I'm already quite familiar with. And much further down the road, I might also take a look at the Vulgate.

That said, my Bible study differs from reading the Bible for devotion or during Sunday Masses. In those contexts, I end up reading random books each day, which leads to scattered notes across different books—as you'll notice on Noetheca. Even during devotion and after Sunday Masses, I find myself inclined to study what I've read.

What made me want to read the Bible?

That's easy to answer. I've been curious about the Bible ever since I was five—and yes, I could read by then. I picked up English words quickly. My aunt had an English Bible, though I believe it was only the New Testament. I would sometimes open it and read the words on the page, skipping over the ones I didn't yet know how to pronounce. But I could read words like "bless," "Heaven," "praise," "God," "LORD," "man," "woman," "husband," "wives," "sons," "daughters," "sin," and more. I understood what those words meant because I'd heard them spoken before. It wasn't hard for me to imagine that a word spelled d-a-u-g-h-t-e-r was the same "daughter" I'd heard in movies—and I grew up watching English films.

Sometimes I'd read a sentence and understand it, but the ones that followed wouldn't form a coherent thought in my mind—my head would just go empty. But as I grew older, learned more words, and began listening more attentively to the priests at church, I started questioning the values, integrity, and authenticity of the Bible.

For a long time, I was careful about who I listened to when it came to interpreting the biblical texts. I was convinced that most people weren't truly absorbing the words they read. It didn't help when a radio host joked that people who read the Bible go mad because of the interpretations. That remark made me very hesitant to read it thoroughly. I was only seven when I heard it. Still, I think the host was being honest, because I understood even then that the Scriptures are full of riddles, metaphors, and allegories. Years later, I personally came to hold an agnostic view of these interpretations. We can only know what lies within our limits, but what I knew for sure was that God wants us to learn more from Him.

As my life went on, I kept encountering strange experiences that drew me back to the Bible. I wanted to see whether the Word of God could explain what I was going through—only to discover that "Word of God" is understood as divine reason and order. So, by that meaning alone, the Word of God should explain… a lot of things. No kidding.

And so I began this journey of reading the Bible, and so far, I have been amazed by the new things I've learned from it. Here I am, sharing with you the realizations I've gained from reading the Scriptures. In the end, I fully returned to the Catholic faith. That return is what encouraged me to read the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which in turn led me adding RSV-2CE to my Bible reading.