This Bible has proven to be a valuable resource for younger students in my class. There will always be skeptics. I say as long as a translation of the Bible does not distort the message of God's Word, if a person reading it can grasp the meaning, then use the translation that is best for you.

If we allow the Holy Spirit to speak to us individually and reveal the meaning of what God is saying, then there wouldn't be so much skepticism in the Body of Christ. The most important thing is, read the Bible and be led by the Holy Spirit and you can't go wrong.


Clarity is worth a lot   June 16, 2003
 23 out of 23 found this review helpful

Some folk dislike a bible that is different from the King James Version because they think that it has to be inferior. The truth is that the translators of the KJV knew that they had not produced a perfect translation and that their work would need to be improved in the future. Well here we are, about 300 years after the KJV was first published and we NEED new translations because English has changed so much from its state back in 1611 when the KJV was translated.

The Good News Bible is an excellent bible for reading in public and reading in private. It is an accurate translation with numerous 'helps' for a modern bible reader. And What's more, it makes the gospel of Jesus Christ comprehensible. The scriptures speak to us most clearly when they speak to us in our own language. It was that thought that led the translators of the KJV to produce their translation and that thought is still important and still valid for us today. We need a bible in OUR own language; the language that we speak and that we write in today. And with the Good news bible we have that kind of bible. It is a clear and easy to read aloud bible for english speaking people all over the world.


Perfectly Translated Bible   April 25, 2002
 22 out of 24 found this review helpful

I found this Bible very understandable. I have owned this Bible for several years for school because it is much less confusing than most other Bible's. It is translated very well into today's terms which make it very easy to read and understand. The stories are very clear and accurate. Before I rarely ever read the Bible, but now with The Good News Bible I read it much more often. This is a great Bible, especially for younger children who have a hard time reading and understanding other Bible's.


More of a commentary than a translation   March 24, 2002
 20 out of 48 found this review helpful

The Good News Bible utilizes a "dynamic equivalence" (thought for thought) method of translating. But there are potential problems with this method. I will use a representative verse to demonstrate such problems, quoted from the GNB and the more literal New King James Version.

The NKJV renders the first part of Romans 1:17 as, "For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith." Meanwhile, the GNB has, "For the gospel reveals how God puts people right with himself; it is through faith from the beginning to the end."

First, "it" has been changed to "the gospel." This is probably what "it" is referring to, but God inspired Paul to write a pronoun, not a noun.

Second, it is true the Gospel, "reveals how God puts people right with himself." But, this rewrite misses the emphasis on God's righteousness in this passage. It is because God is righteous, and we are not, that we need the Gospel.

Third, "from faith to faith" could be one of the statements Peter was referring to when he said that in Paul's epistles, "are some things hard to understand" (2Peter 3:16). There are several possible interpretations of this phrase. The GNB has chosen from among these and rendered the phrase in such a way that only one of these is possible.

Maybe the GNB's interpretation is correct, maybe it isn't. But one would not know the GNB has in fact already interpreted this difficult phrase for its readers unless a more literal version like the NKJV is consulted.

So due to its dynamic equivalence style of translation, the GNB significantly alters the text. And worse, it actually interprets the text for its readers. As such, the GNB is more of a commentary on the Bible than a true translation of the Word of God.

The above was adapted from my book "Differences Between Bible Versions." My book contains more on the GNB, along with reviews of over 30 other versions of the Bible.