Ok, /lit/, I get it, the Bible is the single most important book

>>9033177
New Revised Standard Version, get the Oxford annotated edition, etc. etc.
Use the archive
Sage

>>9033177
new living translation

>>9031162

Stop ruining this board please.

>>9033177
K I N G J A M E S

>>9033177
>And no, I'm not accepting the KJV for an answer, because the language is out-dated and it is probably not the most accurate translation to begin with.

That's why you read the Norton Critical Edition of KJV, so you can notes about mistranslations and stuff while retaining the beauty and importance of KJV's language.

>>9033177
New International Version, probably some Confuciusy book

Get the Knox translation. Of all the versions I've read that one is one of the best. You even get a nice booklet with it called "Englishing the Bible" that explains in the translators own words why he made the decisions he did.

Get a KJV and NSRV Oxford

Read the KJV. Use the Webster's Dictionary 1828 edition for definitions. http://webstersdictionary1828.com/NoahWebster
Alternatively, read the expanded edition of the New Testament by Kenneth Wuest.
ps://www.amazon.com/New-Testament-Expanded-Translation/dp/0802808824

>>9033366

I wish there was an affordable version of this in publication.

>>9033339

NIV has none of the Apocrypha / Deuterocanonicals. That's not a fatal flaw, but it does mean that it excludes books that are canonical for a large number of Christians.

>>9033177
>language is outdated
The KJV and the works of Shakespeare collectively shaped English as you know it, dummy

>>9033550
You rang?

https://www.baroniuspress.com/book.php?wid=56&bid=60#tab=tab-1

>>9033177
>What's the most important book of Eastern civilization? The Analacts, the Tao Te Ching or something else entirely?
Do you mean Chinese-influenced civilization? Because the useless term 'Eastern' often includes South Asian and Middle Eastern cultures, and those are totally different.


For China, the foundational texts are the Five Classics, but that's a lot of unfun reading. Plus a lot of their implications for Chinese civilisation are in commentaries, which are even longer.

The Four Books (Analects, Mencius, Great Learning and the Doctrine of the Mean) continue/develop things from the classics and are far shorter and more accessible.

The Tao is more of a side branch really, though still highly important and a more fun read- the Confucians were generally quite self-serious. Moral didacticism was literally what they did.

History books were also very important for transmitting Chinese culture, and potentially more fun. Apart from the annals in the Five Classics, the model for later history writing was The Record of History by Sima Qian.