Which Bible translation should my family read?

Last updated: 28 August 2026.

There is no single right answer, and anyone who tells you otherwise is selling something. But there is a right answer for your family, and it usually comes down to one question: who is going to be reading it out loud?

Here is how the main English translations actually differ, why the differences exist, and what we would hand to a seven-year-old versus a curious teenager.

The one thing that explains all the differences

Translators face a genuine trade-off on every single verse.

You can translate word for word, keeping the Hebrew and Greek sentence structure as close as English allows. You get precision, and you get sentences that sometimes read like a legal document.

Or you can translate thought for thought, asking what the original sentence meant and saying that in natural English. You get readability, and you accept that a human being has made a judgement call about meaning on your behalf.

Every translation sits somewhere on that line. None of them is cheating. They are answering different questions.

A worked example

Here is Psalm 23:1 in four translations, which is the fastest way to feel the difference.

> KJV (1611): The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.

> ASV (1901): Jehovah is my shepherd; I shall not want.

> BSB (2016): The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.

> YLT (1862): Jehovah is my shepherd, I do not lack.

"I shall not want" is beautiful and, to a modern child, slightly confusing — want here means lack, not desire. Young's Literal says "I do not lack", which is clearer and less lovely. That tension is the whole business.

The public domain ones, and why they are free

Some translations are old enough that their copyright has expired, or were released freely by their publishers. That is why apps can include them at no cost, including ours.

King James Version (1611). The most influential book in the English language. Cadence nothing else matches, and phrases your grandparents can quote from memory. Also 400-year-old grammar: thee, thou, whithersoever. Best for memorising and for reading aloud in a family that already knows it.

Berean Standard Bible (2016). Modern, careful, and deliberately released for free use. Sits close to the word-for-word end while still reading like English written this century. If you want one default for a mixed-age family, this is the one we would pick, and it is what KingLio uses by default.

American Standard Version (1901). Very literal, a bit wooden, and it renders the divine name as Jehovah. Useful for study, harder for bedtime.

Young's Literal Translation (1862). Extremely literal, to the point of preserving Hebrew verb tenses that English does not really have. Fascinating next to another translation, and genuinely difficult on its own.

World English Bible and New Heart English Bible. Modern updates of the ASV, freely available, readable, uncontroversial.

Douay-Rheims. Translated from the Latin Vulgate, and the traditional English Catholic Bible. One practical thing to know: its Psalm numbering differs from Protestant Bibles for most of the book, because it follows the Greek and Latin tradition. Psalm 23 in a Protestant Bible is Psalm 22 here. If a family member is reading a different translation, you will be on different psalms.

The ones you have heard of that cost money

NIV, ESV, NLT, CSB and NASB are all under copyright, held by publishers who licence them. That is why free apps often do not include them, and why apps that do include them usually pay for the privilege.

This matters more than it sounds. If an app shows you a verse in NIV wording but its built-in Bible is a public domain translation, you will search for the words you were just shown and not find them. We audited our own app for exactly this problem and found 26 quotations in the wrong wording. We fixed them.

So what do we actually recommend?

For children under about eight, readability beats precision every time. A child who understands the story will come back. A child who is confused will not. NLT is excellent if you are buying a physical Bible. Among free options, BSB read aloud with you explaining as you go works well.

For eight to twelve, BSB or NIV. Old enough for real sentences, young enough that archaic grammar is a wall rather than a feature.

For teenagers and adults, whichever one you will actually open. Seriously. The best translation is the one that gets read.

For memorising, pick one and stay with it. Switching translations mid-verse is the fastest way to lose it.

For studying a hard passage, read it in two translations from opposite ends of the spectrum — say BSB and YLT. Where they differ is exactly where the original is doing something interesting, and that is a genuinely good way to teach an older child that translation involves choices.

One honest caveat

Families sometimes argue about this with more heat than the question deserves. The differences between mainstream translations are real, and they are mostly about register and rhythm, not about what Christians believe. Every translation listed here tells you that God made the world, that David killed Goliath, and that Jesus rose from the dead. Choose the one your family will read, and do not let the choice become the obstacle.

KingLio includes seven complete public-domain translations — BSB, KJV, ASV, YLT, WEB, NHEB and Douay-Rheims — free, offline, and searchable, with no account required. Open the reader.