Jesus read mainly from the Septuagint ,a Greek translation of Hebrew scripture. We know this because his quotes are mainly from the Septuagint. The new testament was spread in it’s original language’s till it all was translated into Latin. The Latin vulgate became the official Bible of the Catholic church

John Wycliffe believed the Bible should be available to his congregation in English . His congregation were country ploughmen. He wanted them to know as much about the Bible as the priest. At the time the only bible available was the Latin vulgate. He risked his life to translate the Latin to English. By today’s standards his translation was very inferior, but during it’s day it was a renaissance .William Tyndale was the next to bring English translation to the bible. Tyndale made his translation under the influence of Martin Luther and was the first to translate to English based on original Hebrew and Greek around 1525. Tyndale said , “I had perceaved by experyence how that it was impossible to stablysh the laye people in any truth, excepte the scripture were playnly layde before their eyes in their mother tongue” .The king of England wanted an official translation of the English Bible so he commissioned a student of Tindale’s to head the translation. This translation was called the Great Bible ,or Authorized Bible ,later the King James version. The purpose was to make a Bible that was accurate in it’s translation and readable to the people of the English speaking world, and to have one bible for the entire church of England . These three separate times of Bible translation had the same goal. The availability of scripture to the laymen in his native tongue. and this is the overriding theme of my position on Bible translation. In my study of these men I’m impressed with their diligence to the truth. Their desire to be accurate. Their willingness to forsake all for their shared belief in the need for scripture to be available to everyone.

A common source of scripture for public reading of scripture has been an important part of the unity of churches.

This is a personal choice . I don’t believe deep bible study is complete without the use of many different translations. Why? The complexity of translation of one language to another language. It is difficult to understand every meaning of the original text from one translation. If it were simple we would not need preachers. We would just read from the Bible word for word line by line. The preacher is there to bring out the a greater meaning and provide context and application. In private Bible study commentaries and different Bible translations serve this same purpose.

Which translation should a church use as the official translation

Any translation that successfully follows the Luther, Tyndale model. Accurate rendering of the best copies of the original language into the tongue of the congregation.

For the time we live in and the people we are trying to reach . I believe the K.J.V. to be outdated. Therefore another translation should be used. For today I believe the New King James, and the N.I.V., are good choices. Tomorrow as language changes there will need to be further revisions to bring the Bible to the common man in his speaking tongue. If we hold to the model of Luther , Tyndale we will always have a Bidle that accurately reflects the word of God to the masses