Re: WHY DO "BIBLES" VARY FROM ONE DENOMINATION TO ANOTHER

(This article has been culled from another source although I may have chooked in one or two words to spice it up. So make some Pastor or wannabe Reverend no kommot start cush me say I don cush Bible. Dis na New Year, Yes New Year, New Fashion. Disagree ferociously with the content of what I write; which is usually societal in general and lef me make I be who wey I be. I am sick and tired of those who hold Bible 4 one hand and Kalachnikov 4 the other hand, ready to "Pray and Kill"...Mishe Fon).

There are countless versions and  editions of the bible on sale (from a business perspective); those aimed at Moms, teens, substance abusers in recovery, ESL students, the clergy, patients and the like, and all come with the useful study guides with marginal notations, explanatory articles, timelines, maps, and indexes to facilitate comprehension.

The "Authorized" (by whom?) King James Version of the bible from 1611 is a monumental piece of good English (language) literature and excellent story telling that retains wide popularity, especially among Protestant Fundamentalists of varying cardinalities, some of whom champion a militant "King James Only" movement. The King James version is the sole Bible used in Mormonism. Thr truth is that the King's Elizabethan language is occasionally hard (infact very hard) for 21st Century readers (and even scholars) to comprehend easily or correctly.

Those who profess Catholicism as their religious mantra on the contrary believe in the doctrinal thesis as espoused by' Douay-Rheims (and imposed by the Vatican) in his own version of the Bible from that same era. Protestant leaders out of a spirit of rebellion against Catholic dogma and certain archaic religious practices decided to organize the Old Testament material according to the official canon of Judaism rather than the Septuagint. They moved the Old Testament material which was not in the Jewish canon into a separate section of the Bible called the Apocrypha. So, Protestant Bibles then included all the same material as the earlier Bible, but it was divided into two sections: the Old Testament and the Apocrypha. Protestant Bibles included the Apocrypha until the mid 1800s until the King James Version was originally published with the inclusion of Apocrypha. However, the Apocrypha was considered less important, and Bible publishers eventually dropped it from most Protestant editions. The books of the Apocrypha are also known as the deuterocanonical books. In 1917 Jewish Publication Society Tanakh added a new element to the already confusing Bible stories (the Hebrew-based term for what Christians call the Old Testament).

Herewith a few (and there are many) controvertial quotes from the Bible. Read and draw your own conclusions.

• She lusted after her lovers, whose genitals were like those of donkeys and whose emission was like that of horses. Ezekiel 23:20 NIV
• You will be pledged to be married to a woman, but another will take her and rape her. You will build a house, but you will not live in it. You will plant a vineyard, but you will not even begin to enjoy its fruit. Your ox will be slaughtered before your eyes, but you will eat none of it. Your donkey will be forcibly taken from you and will not be returned. Your sheep will be given to your enemies, and no one will rescue them. . . . The Lord will afflict your knees and legs with painful boils that cannot be cured, spreading from the soles of your feet to the top of your head. Deuteronomy 28:30-31,35
• Do not wear clothing woven of two kinds of material. Leviticus 19:19
• Ye shall not round the corners of your heads. Leviticus 19:27
• Thou shalt not boil a kid in its mother's milk. Exodus 23:19
• When a woman has a discharge, if her discharge in her body is blood, she shall continue in her menstrual impurity for seven days; and whoever touches her shall be unclean until evening. Everything also on which she lies during her menstrual impurity shall be unclean, and everything on which she sits shall be unclean. Leviticus 15: 19-20
• When men fight with one another, and the wife of the one draws near to rescue her husband from the hand of him who is beating him, and puts out her hand and seizes him by the private parts, then you shall cut off her hand. Deuteronomy 25:11-12
• Early in the morning, as Jesus was on his way back to the city, he was hungry. Seeing a fig tree by the road, he went up to it but found nothing on it except leaves. Then he said to it, "May you never bear fruit again!" Immediately the tree withered. Matthew 21:18-22 NIV
• Now therefore, kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman who has known man intimately. But all the girls who have not known man intimately, spare for yourselves. Numbers 31:17-18
• Slaves, obey your earthly masters with deep respect and fear. Serve them sincerely as you would serve Christ. Ephesians 6:5 NLT

There are key substantive disagreements inherent in the various Bible versions and the major differences involve the political philosophy behind the translations and, to a lesser extent, the reading skills of the intended audience.

Check out the following "English language Bibles" to see for yourself the bastardization of the so-called original "Greek" version: the Revised Standard Version, English Standard Version, and somewhat more literalistic New American Standard Bible, the Jewish English translation by Everett Fox

It is amazing that the hallmark of the 1989 New Revised Standard Version, is the degree their Bible strangely uses gender-inclusive language.

Religious affiliation shapes some preferences. Evangelical Protestants embrace the best-selling New International Version. The Southern Baptist Convention sponsors the Holman Christian Standard Bible. And the U.S. Catholic Bishops authorize the New American Bible. Jehovah's Witnesses publish their own unique Bible whose anonymous editors adhered to their faith's doctrines, such as downgrading of Jesus' divinity in John 1:1: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was a god."

Popular paraphrases such as Kenneth Taylor's Living Bible, Eugene Peterson's The Message, or J.B. Phillips' elegant New Testament in Modern English aim for literary flow more than accuracy and are not true translations. Such loose versions cannot be helpful for fresh thinking minds and only help to overshadow the confusion that it engenders.

Is there any reason why there are 50 different versions of the Bible in the English language?

King James Version (KJV)
New International Version (NIV)
New American Standard Bible (NASB)
New King James Version (NKJV)
English Standard Version (ESV)
New Living Translation (NLT)
Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB)
New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)
New Century Version (NCV)
What is The Voice translation of the Bible?
New English Bible (NEB)
American Standard Version (ASV)
Good News Bible (GNB) / Today's English Version (TEV)
Amplified Bible (AMP)
Today's New International Version (TNIV)
New English Translation (NET)
Revised Standard Version (RSV)
Contemporary English Version (CEV)
God's Word Translation (GW)
Common English Bible (CEB)
What is the Recovery Version of the Bible?
New International Readers Version (NIrV)
Easy-To-Read Version (ERV)
Complete Jewish Bible (CJB)
Bible in Basic English (BBE)
21st Century King James Version (KJ21)
What is the Modern King James Version (MKJV)?
What is the Modern English Version (MEV)?
World English Bible (WEB)
Revised English Bible (REB)
Jerusalem Bible (JB)
New American Bible (NAB)
The Living Bible (TLB)
The Message (MSG)
Young's Literal Translation (YLT)
The Bishops' Bible
Douay-Rheims Version (DRV)
Tyndale Bible
Geneva Bible