Thou shalt remember that the Bible was written in foreign languages. This should be self-evident, and yet when Herbert W. Armstrong was alive he attempted to equate Saxons with Isaac's-sons (pronounced beNEY yitzKHAAK in Hebrew) and to find the name Armstrong in Ps. 89:10.
Your translation is not the Bible. This is forgotten by those dear ignoramuses who call their Bible the ``Saint James Version'' and not the ``King James Version.'' We pity them when they fail to see that ``Jesus'' is actually Joshua in Hebrews 4:8. They do not realize that by elevating the King James Version to canonical status they are doing what they condemn Roman Catholicism for doing: letting its ``authorized translation,'' the Vulgate, over rule the original Greek and Hebrew.
The original Greek and Hebrew are the Bible. But you say, I can't read Greek or Hebrew. How can I be sure?
Just remember that a translation is a witness. If you want to be sure of anything, ask two or three witnesses. Although I read both Greek and Hebrew, I can get almost as much information -- sometimes more -- out of a four column Bible. You should however, try to find a church body where the original languages are carefully studied. After all, the pastor is a man of the Book. He should be an expert in that Book. Take for example the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod. You don't have to agree with their theology to see that their Biblical-languages program is outstanding. Most of its pastors have studied Greek for seven years and Hebrew for five. This is a little different from the Jehovah's Witness policy training their ``ministers'' in seven words of Greek and five of Hebrew to confuse simple Christians with.
Since translations are witnesses, choose reliable ones. For example: The Living Bible makes a nice story book for children, but I wish I could trust it as far as I can throw it. (I threw mine quite some distance once, when Kenneth Taylor translated ``Those who believe for awhile'' as ``Those who sort of believe for awhile.'' I suppose they'll sort of be damned.) Then there is the Revised Standard Version. It is a first class ...uh ...counterfeit. It is completely accurate, except where it counts, namely in prophecy, Messianic prophecy and the deity of Christ. In these areas it is as bad as the Jehovah's Witness translation, otherwise known as the ``reversed sub-standard perversion.''
The King James is time-tested. Unfortunately, it is also time-worn. During my last year at the seminary, one of my fellow-students, who had spent twenty years in Lutheran schools and has studied Elizabethan English, made it obvious that there were parts of the KJV that even he didn't understand; I doubt that most laymen will do better. The language of King James is rapidly becoming a foreign dialect, just as Chaucer's English is to us Americans. There are words in the King James Version that now mean nearly the opposite of what they used to, words like meat, prevent, brass, and naughty. Hundreds of words are misleading: in Ac. 28:13, we read ``From there we fetched a compass and came to Rhegium.'' In 1611, ``fetched a compass'' meant ``made a circle, circled around.'' In 1611 you kept your purse in your wallet, and it was mostly men who carried purses. Today a wallet is kept in a purse, and only real and would-be women carry purses.
The Good News Bible is bad news in all its incarnations. It has nice drawings. It is simple. And it is cheap. But since the NIV is just as cheap and Beck's AAT is just as simple, and both are more faithful, I'd say leave it in the store.
Most conservative Christians would endorse these recommendations: Dr. Beck's AAT is ``a Living Bible you can trust,'' and the NIV is what you'd get -- both strengths and weaknesses -- if the King James translators with all their strengths and weaknesses were alive today. The NASB is accurate but wooden. The Amplified gives more of the flavor of the Greek. I recommend getting the AAT for personal and devotional use and Zondervan's Comparative Study Bible for serious study -- it is a four-column whole Bible that contains the KJV, NASB, NIV, and Amplified. With the AAT on the side you almost don't need the original languages.