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One translation that is not on that scale but should be is the NET Bible.. or the New English Translation.  I have been using this translation for the last couple of years and it is one of my major sources that I use in teaching.  Now, how I discovered it was kind of a fluke.  No, you will not find it in a Christian Bookstore but hopefully that is going to change very soon.  I was surfing the internet looking for some good Christian study sites.  I came across www.bible.org.  When I got to that site, I found a major treasure of information.  But I also discovered the NET Bible which you can download the whole translation on your computer for FREE!  From what I read on their site, instead of having to pay royalties every time they did major teaching and used the NIV, NLT or ESV, they decided to create their own translation and make it free to people.  What is so interesting is that many of the people who worked on this worked on some of todays best translations out there.  And what you have is a wonderful translation and something very special –  the translators’ notes.

As they were working on this translation, they put down why they went with what word and other ways it could read helping the reader to better understand how a translation is made. These 25 translators used the most up to date Hebrew, Greek and Aramic documents available and gave us a very readable translation that is pretty much word for word but put in today’s language.  Man there is so much information that it will open your eyes to just how much work goes into translating the Bible.  I have a lot of respect for these people and what they do.  Ok you may ask me, well many notes are there in it?  Try, over 60,000 of them.  Yep you read right.  60,932 translators’ notes to be exact.  Go to their site and download it to check it out.

But let me tell you something else about this wonderful work.  I am a person who loves to have a Bible in my hands, and they make this translation available in print.  There are 3 versions of it available. The NET Bible with all the notes.. and this is a big Bible.  It comes in very many different types from bonded to high quality leather.  Then the next version is the Reader’s Edition.  This was made for people who teach or who wanted the translation without all the notes.  And then they came up with the Compact Edition.  Now I have all 3 or I did have all three.  I gave my pastor, who had never heard of the NET, my Reader’s Edition.  In the Reader’s and Compact there are close to 7,000 of the 60,000 translators’ notes.  But let me tell you about how wonderful these are made.

It is a shame that so many Bible publishers have gone to fake leather or poor grain leather and very thin paper.  Many of the Bibles today are not sewn together but glued and fall apart from a lot of use.  That is not the case with the NET Bibles.  These are made with premium paper, premium smyth sewn binding, full color satellite maps of the holy lands (these are really cool to look at) and gold gilded edges.  The font is very easy on the eyes – even the Compact is easy for me to read and I am 54 years old and these eyes need good fonts.

So, let me just say – if you want a great translation and if you want all of those wonderful notes… this is a great tool for anyone who is in the ministry – be it a pastor, teacher, sunday school teacher or just someone who loves to study God’s word, then you need the NET Translation. I promise you, you will not be disappointed.  Oh, and talk to Todd at Bible.org to see how your local Christian Bookstore can start carrying the NET.

Oh and check out the bible.org for all the wonderful teachings, studies and forums that you can join and be encouraged.  It is one of my favorite sites that I visit often.