NET Bible
Jordan Kurecki said:
What Hebrew Old Testament Text and What Greek text would you say is the most accurate and why?
The original. Arguing about copies is pointless; there's no way to compare them to the original to see which is most 'accurate'.
Jordan Kurecki said:
What Bible translation do you use and believe to be the most accurate and why?
Two questions here, of course. I currently use the NET; it is readable and was translated seriously by people who wanted to serve God's purpose. I'm rather fond of the NEB as well; I just can't find it in the cover I prefer.
I'm not sure which is the 'most accurate'. Nor am I sure if anyone can objectively show one is 'more accurate' than another - EXCEPTING those translations that are intentionally mis-translated in some serious doctrinal statement.
Allow me to give an example: The "Syriac Bible" was translated from what was considered authentic manuscripts into the Syriac language (What was once Assyria and now - more or less - is Syria) very early on; somewhere close to the final compilation of what we know as the Bible. In the 1980s (I'm remembering from the introduction to the Syriac Bible so allow me a bit of vagueness in the dates) or so, the Syriac Bible was translated into English, sponsored by a wealthy member of the Syriac Orthodox Church (in the U.S.)
Not surprising to me, it reads very similar. One minor difference is in Genesis 30:8. In short, the two wives of Jacob, Leah and Rachael were both trying to bear children - sons, of course - to Jacob. Rachael sent her maid Bilhah to act as surrogate and thereby had a son. In the text mentioned, the King James Bible reads:
And Rachel said, With great wrestlings have I wrestled with my sister, and I have prevailed: and she called his name Naphtali. The Syriac version translates the word 'wrestlings' as 'disputed' or 'argued'. (Again, memory.) The NET reads:
Then Rachel said, “I have fought a desperate struggle with my sister, but I have won.”
I suppose the possibility exists that Leah and Rachael actually got physical and fought over this, but I think more likely this was a 'fight' of wills rather than close combat. In context, the three renderings give the same information and flavor.
So which is the 'most accurate' translation? Some could argue endlessly about how this should be so, but not such; while the other fellow insists with great fervor on something else. They all end up meaning the same thing in dog years.
As long as the doctrine and intent is correct, a hoot I give not. The doctrine and intent can be contentious, I agree. But God tends to guide in such matters.