A s you seek to root yourself more firmly in the Word of God, with or without a Bible-reading plan, the question remains: What version of Scripture will you choose? Do you have a solid favorite that you’ve read daily, year after year, filled with notes and highlighted passages that you are eager to keep using to encounter God? Or are you looking for something new to offer a fresh perspective? Whether this will be your first time reading through the Bible or you’re a seasoned veteran, here are a few thoughts to consider as you choose a Bible translation to read, study, memorize, or preach from.

Related: How to read the Bible and understand Scripture as the Word of God

Why translation choice matters

Language has the power to either strengthen or destroy unity and hospitality within the body of Christ. By intentionally choosing translations and using language that communicates biblical hospitality and respect for all people, we can actively pursue visible unity and avoid raising unnecessary barriers.

According to the Belhar Confession—a statement of unity out of South Africa that identifies racism as sin and focuses on reconciliation and unity in the church—as members of Christ’s body, our “unity must become visible so that the world may believe that separation, enmity and hatred between people and groups is sin which Christ has already conquered, and accordingly that anything which threatens this unity may have no place in the church and must be resisted (John 17:20-23).” Furthermore, “a refusal earnestly to pursue this visible unity as a priceless gift is sin.”

Related: Belhar Confession worship resources

If we are to fully embrace the truths expressed in this confession, we must give careful consideration to the ways in which we approach Scripture. Do we translate, read, study, teach, or preach God’s Word in a way that gives preference to one group over another, or in ways that ignore the experiences or perspectives of people who may have a lived experience that is very different from our own? Choosing a Bible translation that intentionally avoids harmful and inaccurate bias is one way to “pursue this visible unity as a priceless gift.”

What is bias in translation?

The goal of a good translation—for any book but especially the Bible, which Christians hold as God’s Word—is to faithfully and accurately communicate the content of an original language in a new language. Good translators strive to convey the original content without inserting their own ideas or agendas. A truly unbiased translation would accomplish that goal perfectly. Sometimes, however, the theological beliefs or opinions of the translators lead them to make a translation choice that is based on their own assumptions rather than on the content of the original text. This is translation bias. Unfortunately, it’s all too easy for human bias to creep into the translation process, so it’s important to be informed about the translation you use and make an effort to choose one with the least bias, one that faithfully communicates the intent of the original biblical languages without adding or removing ideas or information. 

Many cases of bias in translation relate directly to gender, race, or culture. These biased translations are harmful because they create division where there should be none, breaking the visible body of Christ that is revealed in a church full of people “from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb” (Revelation 7:9). This resource guide offers helpful tools to assist you as you strive to engage the Bible in a way that “pursue[s] [the] visible unity” of the beautifully diverse body of Christ.

Related: Revelation 7:9 resources and learning opportunities from the Reformed Church in America

Identifying bias in the ESV

Both the English Standard Version (ESV) and the New American Standard Bible (NASB) are biased translations. They consistently add gendered language where the original text contains none, reflecting the values of the translators rather than the content of the original text.

Most translations (including the NIV) translate Song of Solomon 1:5 as “Dark am I, yet lovely” (emphasis added). The Hebrew word translated as ‘yet’ in this verse can mean either ‘and’ or ‘but/yet’, and the meaning is determined by context alone. The Common English Bible and Contemporary English Version both translate this verse with the accurate phrase “dark and beautiful” (emphasis added).

This book review from CBE International gives a broader overview of some biased translation choices contained in the English Standard Version (ESV): “The ESV repeatedly avoids literal translations when Paul’s Greek supports women’s leadership. It adds ten masculine pronouns to the qualifications for overseers in 1 Timothy 3:1–7 and four to Titus 1:6–9, where the Greek (and the CEV) has none.” In addition, this 2016 Missio Alliance article by Carolyn Custis James helps readers see three unmistakable examples of gender politics in the ESV translation.

Understanding the translation process

• Inside the Bible Translation Room: “Dr. Joel B. Green, a seasoned Bible scholar and faculty administrator, underscores the necessity of diverse perspectives in translation teams, discusses common biases in Bible translations, and offers advice on how English readers can detect and overcome these biases.”
• In her article “4 Reasons to Use a Gender-Accurate Bible Translation” Gail Wallace explains the importance of gender-accurate translations.
• The summer 2024 issue of Mutuality Magazine covers the theme of Bible translation—how understanding translation helps us understand the Bible and how a corrected translation transformed a whole community.
• “Women and Words: Examining Different Translations with Dr. Hélène Dallaire” is a CBE podcast episode on biblical translation biases and the importance of accurately reflecting women in Scripture: 
• “Women and Words: How to Read the Bible Well” is a CBE podcast episode that explores the complexity of Bible translation, considering both challenges and opportunities facing translation teams worldwide (using Portuguese to illustrate the importance of cultural and language nuances). 

Translation recommendations for a Bible that is accurate and equitable

• The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) is the preferred translation for the Reformed Church in America because of its theological soundness, historical accuracy, and accessible language.
• The New International Version (NIV 2011 edition) also consistently avoids gender bias. This is a helpful choice for bilingual settings as it is also available in Spanish and can be used alongside the Nueva Version Internacional (see below).
• The Common English Bible (CEB), recommended by CBE International, is also an excellent translation that consistently avoids gender and racial bias. It is also available as a Study Bible.
• The New International Reader’s Version (NIrV) is a great translation for new readers or new speakers of English.
• Avoid the English Standard Version (ESV) and the New American Standard Bible (NASB), as they consistently add gendered language where the original text contains none. See the previous section for a deeper look at bias in the ESV.

Bible recommendations for all peoples, tribes, and languages

Here are some Bible translation recommendations that may resonate with different peoples, tribes, and languages as they engage God’s Word.

• Nueva Version Internacional is the Spanish equivalent to the New International Version. For the Reformed Church in America, this is the go-to for a Spanish translation of the Bible and is especially helpful in bilingual settings. 
• The First Nations Version of the Bible offers an Indigenous translation of the Good Story. The New Testament, Psalms, and Proverbs are currently available.
• The Common English Bible is my personal choice for both gender and race. It is as good as the NIV for avoiding gender bias in passages like 1 Timothy 2-3 and 1 Corinthians 11, but it also translates Song of Solomon 1:5 accurately and appropriately.
• The NIV Dramatized Audio Bible produced by Zondervan is nice because it highlights the female voices in the text. For example, in Proverbs, the words spoken by Wisdom are read by a woman, which is easy to gloss over or ignore in the written text.
• Dwell is an audio Bible app that makes the Bible more accessible for people with dyslexia or for others who find reading to be a barrier.
• NIV ReadEasy Bible provides God’s Word in large print, yet is a compact Bible that can easily be carried with you.
• HUM audio Bible app is designed with oral-preference learners in mind. The app also provides a plethora of “heart” (mother-tongue) languages.

Related: How to choose a historically accurate and theologically sound children’s Bible that will form faith for life 

Biblical exegesis rooted in Revelation 7:9

Choosing a Bible translation is the first step, but it’s also important to consider how we read and preach that translation. In the Reformed tradition, we strive to preach sola Scriptura, from Scripture alone. When we read Scripture, we want to hear the Word of God clearly, without allowing our own assumptions or presuppositions to get in the way. However, as human beings, we naturally tend to read any text through the lens of our own unique life experience. Therefore, it is imperative to become aware of the assumptions we may unconsciously bring with us to our biblical exegesis, and to consider the perspectives of those who have had life experiences that are very different from our own. The following resources will help you to become more aware of the life experiences and cultural preferences that inform your own understanding of Scripture, and offer insight into a variety of cultural perspectives that can help you gain a more accurate understanding of biblical texts.

• A Handbook to Old Testament Exegesis by William P. Brown guides readers on a journey of noticing their own presuppositions during the process of biblical exegesis and helps them consider how a text may be understood by other people from a wide variety of backgrounds. While not everyone will agree with every perspective offered here, it is vital to understand these perspectives in order to effectively communicate truth to those whose lived experience is different from our own.

Related: Recommendations for growing in diversity, equity, and inclusion

Bible commentaries with a multicultural lens

• The New Testament in Color: A Multiethnic Bible Commentary provides a one-volume commentary that is multiethnic, diverse, contextual, informative, reflective, prophetic, and inspiring. Edited by Esau McCaulley, Janette H. Ok, Osvaldo Padilla, and Amy L. B. Peeler. 
• In The Stubborn Invisibility of Whiteness, Ekaputra Tupamahu makes an accessible and scholarly case for normalizing the work of multicultural theologians. 
• Misreading Scripture with Western Eyes by E. Randolph Richards and Brandon J. O’Brien offers examples of biblical exegesis from a non-western perspective and reveals some of the pitfalls of bringing the unconscious bias of a western worldview into Scripture interpretation. This book is particularly valuable as there are increasing numbers of churches with a culturally non-western viewpoint. 
• Rev. Dr. Denise Kingdom’s 1 Corinthians 13 Bible study examines a common biblical measure of love and the lack of that love for America’s Black people, offering a more excellent way forward through a discipleship journey of love and justice.

Resources for engaging biblical gender equality in the Bible

• She Is Called Women of the Bible is a four-volume series that helps readers dig deeply into the stories of biblical women so that we all might be challenged, strengthened, and encouraged in our faith.
• Women’s Bible Commentary, edited by Newsome, Ringe, and Lapsley, is a “trusted, classic resource for biblical scholarship, written by some of the best feminist scholars in the field today. … This commentary brings modern critical methods to bear on the history, sociology, anthropology, and literature of the relevant time periods to illuminate the context of these biblical portrayals and challenges readers to new understandings.” 
• Tell Her Story: How Women Led, Taught and Ministered in the Early Church by Nijay Gupta is “a comprehensive look at women who built the early church.”
• Paul and Gender: Reclaiming the Apostle’s Vision for Men and Women in Christ by Cynthia Westfall is an excellent scholarly discussion of the Pauline texts that are most frequently used to exclude women from teaching and leadership, including 1 Timothy 2 and 1 Corinthians 11.
• Discovering Biblical Equality: Biblical, Theological, Cultural, and Practical Perspectives brings together scholars who provide the positive case for gender equality in the Bible, while remaining committed to Scripture’s authority.
• The Second Eve: Understanding Biblical Equality by Bette Boersma is a clear, concise, and accessible way to grow in understanding of gender equality in the Bible. The book includes the author’s own journey “from a limiting belief in traditional roles for men and women to the liberating belief in God ordained equality.”
• Building God’s Church Together is both a Bible study and a ministry of the Reformed Church in America. The four-session study helps individuals, small groups, and entire congregations intentionally create healthy, hospitable, holistic ministry environments where everyone’s gifts can flourish and women and men serve freely, fully, together.

Resources that increase accessibility to the Bible

• Jesus: A Deaf Film presents the story of Jesus entirely in American Sign Language. This historic feature-length film was produced for Deaf people by Deaf people. 
• Negotiating the Disabled Body: Representations of Disability in Early Christian Texts is an intersectional study of New Testament and noncanonical literature in which Anna Rebecca Solevåg explores how nonnormative bodies are presented in early Christian literature through the lens of disability studies.
• “Getting to Know Autistic Jesus” by Sarina Gruver Moore, a mom with a son diagnosed with level one autism spectrum disorder, who explores the possibility that Jesus was on the spectrum and what that means for Christians today.
• The Jesus Storybook Bible by Sally Loyd-Jones and illustrated by Jago is a great recommendation for younger readers or anyone who might appreciate full illustrations and a story narrative. The stories and artwork are also available in video format for people of any age who might benefit from an audio-visual Bible story format.

Pastoral care and counseling from a Revelation 7:9 perspective

The following resources will help you tailor pastoral care to the needs of the people you care for. Excellent pastoral care takes into account the life experiences of those we are caring for, including experiences that are informed and affected by culture, race, and gender.

• Trauma and Race: A Path to Wellbeing by Dr. Micah L. McCreary explores race and trauma, offering counselors a blueprint for addressing systemic racism and experiences of trauma so that people who have been racially traumatized might pursue healing.
• In her book Healing Racial Trauma: The Road to Resilience, Sheila Wise Rowe “exposes the symptoms of racial trauma to lead readers to a place of freedom from the past and new life for the future.”
• Survivor Care: What Religious Professionals Need to Know About Healing Trauma by Christy Gunter Sim is “written especially for Christian mental health professionals and students, counselors, therapists, psychologists, and pastors” to both provide a framework for healing trauma while also showing “why issues related to violence and abuse continue to plague our society.”
• Emmanuel Y. Lartey “stresses the importance of recognizing different cultural influences on individuals in order to effectively counsel, guide and empower them” in his book In Living Color: An Intercultural Approach to Pastoral Care and Counseling.

For further study

The following books are recommended as next steps for engaging more deeply the Bible and theology from diverse perspectives.

• Carroll R., M. Daniel. The Bible and Borders: Hearing God’s Word on Immigration (Grand Rapids, MI: Brazos Press, 2019).
• Charles, Mark and Soong-Chan Rah. Unsettling Truths: The Ongoing, Dehumanizing Legacy of the Doctrine of Discovery (InterVarsity Press, 2019).
• De La Torre, Miguel A., and Edwin Aponte. Introducing Latino/a Theologies (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2001).
• Harris, Antipas L. Is Christianity the White Man’s Religion? (Downers Grove: Intervarsity Press, 2025).
• Hays, J. Daniel. From Every People and Nation: A Biblical Theology of Race (Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2003).
• Kwok, Pui-lan. Introducing Asian Feminist Theology (England: Sheffield Academic Press, 2000).
• Martell-Otero, Loida I., Elizabeth Conde-Frazier, and Zaida Maldonado Pérez. Latina Evangélicas: A Theological Survey from the Margins (Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2013).
• McCaulley, Esau. Reading While Black: African American Biblical Interpretation as an Exercise of Hope (Downers Grove: IVP Press, 2020).
• Shin, Sarah. Beyond Colorblind: Redeeming Our Ethnic Journey (InterVarsity Press, 2017).
• Smith, Craig Stephen. Whiteman’s Gospel (Indian Life Books, 1998).
• Takaki, Ronald. A Different Mirror for Young People: A History of Multicultural America (New York: Triangle Square, 2012).
• Tisby, Jemar. The Color of Compromise: The Truth about the American Church’s Complicity in Racism (Zondervan, 2020).
• Twiss, Richard. One Church Many Tribes (Chosen Books, 2000).
• Yee, Gale. The Hebrew Bible: Feminist and Intersectional Perspectives (Fortress Press, 2018).

For more resources and opportunities for growing a Revelation 7:9 church community, visit our webpage and contact us!

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