I’m the kind of person who likes to use things until they can no longer be fixed. I don’t like to upgrade until whatever I’m using passes the point of being inconvenient but workable to being totally useless, even dangerous. Admit it: we all have something that’s “good enough” for what we need to do. And if we’re just as honest, we also have to admit that when we do upgrade we wonder why we waited so long.
That’s how it will be with the NET Bible.
What’s the NET Bible? Close your eyes and think about the study Bible you’re using. Can you see the tiny footnotes scattered through your translation here and there? They direct your attention to a few words at the bottom of the page, maybe a suggestion for another translation or something about a manuscript. There aren’t that many, but they’re useful. Got that fixed in your mind? Now give your study Bible a performance-enhancing drug, maybe a growth hormone. The NET Bible is what all other study Bibles want to be when they grow up.
I’m not kidding. The NET Bible is a freely available translation created by dozens of scholars experienced in Bible translation. It has over 60,000 notes, most of which explain specifically why the translators did what they did or how a different manuscript reading might affect translation. The preface to the NET Bible explains why it’s distinctive:
The translators’ notes make the original languages far more accessible, allowing you to look over the translator’s shoulder at the very process of translation. This level of documentation is a first for a Bible translation, making transparent the textual basis and the rationale for key renderings (including major interpretive options and alternative translations).
There’s no other tool that comes close to it for English readers who don’t know Greek and Hebrew. If you are growing in your Bible study skills, at some point you need to breach the English translation. The NET Bible has an unparalleled focus on the biblical text and the decisions the English translators made.