This week at the Soul Garage we talked a little about the spectrum of Bible translations. In the process I urged everyone to avoid altogether using the relatively new Passion Translation which critics argue is not even qualified to be referred to as a translation. Several youth asked me afterwards to help them better understand why I strongly discourage the use of the Passion Translation. Linked below is one very short video summarizing a few reasons why to avoid it. Linked below that is a much longer video going into much greater detail explaining what is wrong with this work.
Below is the chart showing the spectrum of some different categories of Bible translation I shared which came from God’s Word Bible Translation website.
THE SOUL GARAGE 
Out of curiosity, which translation do you prefer?
I prefer the Hebrew and Greek 😉 I believe there are numerous good English translations. I think it is important to understand the difference between various translations and where they fall on the spectrum (Word for Word, Meaning for Meaning, Thought for Thought, or Paraphrase). The three translations I probably use the most are the ESV, NIV, and NLT. I do have the privilege of having studied the Hebrew and Greek and there are very helpful, free resources like http://www.blueletterbible.org where people who have not studied Hebrew or Greek can still explore the original text. My regular reading is most commonly done in the NIV. The ESV is more word for word and is very helpful when studying to prepare a teaching or sermon. Devotionally, I sometimes will use the NLT. Often, I use websites like http://www.biblegateway.com to do side by side comparisons of various translations. Hope this helps.