Since it has been around the longest, has the most selection of editions and study Bibles.įor "unchurched people" I also recommend a Bible embedded inside a beginner-level study Bible such as the NLT Life Application Study Bible, 3rd Ed (2019), winner of the 2020 Christian Book Award for Bible of the Year (Evangelical Christian Publishers Association).
NIV : similar reading level with CSB, but less literal than CSB. According to a report from Global Bible Initiative CSB has the best overall score (70.3%) when balancing readability and literalness compared to ESV (69.3%), NIV (63.6%), KJV (61.0%), NLT (56.6%), etc. In a 2018 Bible Gateway blog guest post The Mission and Impact of the New Living Translation Bible, Mark Taylor (CEO of Tyndale, publisher of NLT) made the case for NLT, which grew out of The Living Bible which his father published in 1971.Ĭhristian Standard Bible (CSB): more accurate than NLT, ranking #6 in sales and only slightly higher reading grade level. NLT (New Living Translation): NLT has also been gaining popularity (move to rank #3 from rank #4 nine years ago) and there are more packaging choices as well as more study Bible with NLT translations compared to the GNT (Good News Bible). Although KVJ ranks #2 it is requires too high a reading level. Although The Message is very readable, it's not recommended, since it is a paraphrase (not that accurate). But as a replacement for GNT, I think NLT is your best choice since it is the most readable. GNT : thought-for-thought, Eugene Nida's method "functional equivalence"Īs for readability as US school grade level, BibleGateway and ranks:īased on the comparison above, to fit your criteria of most widely used "simple English" for "unchurched" people, and taking into consideration accuracy, I recommend 3 options: NLT, CSB, then NIV.NLT : thought-for-thought, dynamic equivalent.NIV : thought-for-thought, "balanced approach".CSB (major revision of HCSB) : thought-for-thought, "optimal equivalence".