A Look At Bible Translations

With so many Bible translations available today which should we choose?  We should be aware of modern trends such as trying not to offend people, being politically correct, and making translations gender neutral.  A good Bible translation needs to be accurate and readable.  Of course accuracy in translation is most important.  It needs to be transparent to the original New Testament Greek and the original Old Testament Hebrew. 

There are three main groups of Bible translations.  There is word for word or literal, thought for thought or dynamic equivalence, and paraphrase or free. 

First the paraphrase is very readable but not necessarily all that accurate.  The paraphrases tend to get far away from the original.  Paraphrases should not be used as a main Bible version.  At best they could be used a study help.  Two examples of this translation philosophy are The Message and The Living Bible.

Next is the thought for thought or dynamic equivalence translations.  These translations strive for a middle ground between the paraphrase and the literal translations.  They are very readable but tend to lose some of the accuracy.  With dynamic translations the translators interpretive opinions play a major role.  They often tend to interpret through our modern culture and end up being politically correct.  Thought for thought translations are better than the paraphrase but are not the best to use. 
Examples include:
(New International Version) (NIV)-the 2011 edition is somewhat politically correct, not as good as the original NIV which is no longer published.
(New Living Translation) (NLT)-revision of The Living Bible, still not real close to original.
(New Revised Standard Version) (NRSV)-liberal translation, politically correct, avoid it.

Finally there is the word for word or literal translation.  This philosophy tries to stay close to the original languages and emphasizes accuracy before readability.  I believe the literal translation philosophy is the best one.
Examples include:
(English Standard Version) (ESV)-essentially literal, readable, traditional.
(Holman Christian Standard Bible) (HCSB)-somewhat literal, readable, less traditional than the ESV.
(New American Standard Bible) (NASB)-very literal, not as readable as ESV, HCSB.
(New King James Version) (NKJV)-update of the King James Version, not as readable as the ESV or HCSB.

I believe these are the four best English Bible translations:
(1) ESV
(2) HCSB
(3) NASB
(4) NKJV