Paraphrased or Literal:
Does it have italicized words? (They should be all over the page not just in one sentence. Italics are used by some translations to denote Old Testament Quotes.)

Literal: They are there.
Paraphrased: They are not there. (A few exceptions to this rule but rare.)

Accuracy & consistency to the Greek:
 (Only in the literal versions, paraphrases by natural can not past any of these tests.) Does the translation take one Greek word and render it uniformly to the same English word throughout? Does it use a single English word to translate more than one Greek word? Are prepositions uniformly rendered to the same English words?  About the only way to see this is to look at the Greek Lexicon given with various translations and see how many different ways the Greek word is rendered into English. The worst Greek word is Strong's number 1096 ginomai in the KJV about 45 different English words and tenses, in the ASV about 13 and tenses, in the MLV 6 and tenses.

The following list is from worst to best: KJV, NKJ, NASB, Rotherham's, LY, MLV.
Other literal translations not ranked but worthy of noting, Darby's, Webster's, Worrell's (footnotes are detestable), Jay P. Green's King James II and Literal Translation of the Bible; the World English Bible (WEB) not exactly literal but close; maybe the NET, but I could not get pass all the footnotes and doctrinal problems.

Generally speaking the more accurate it is, the least likely to have doctrinal bias of the organization or church behind the translation. If you truly want to get to heaven use a literal version, don't trust your soul to other people's opinion of what the Bible says.

Premillennial slant:
Matthew 5:17 "abolish the law..."
  Correct: KJV & NKJ "destroy the law..."
  Better: MLV "tear down the law..."
  Note: When improperly translated causes a direct contradiction to Ephesians 2:15.

Revelation 20:3,5,7 "are finished" "are complete" "are ended" "were finished" (all but below)
  Partly correct ASV verse 3 & 5 "might be finished"
  Better MLV, YT  verse 3, 5, 7 "might be finished"

Faith Only and Calvinism slant:
  John 3:16 "believes in him will (or shall) not perish" (New NASB, NIV, NRSV others)
  Correct: KJV, ASV "believes in him should not perish"
  Better: MLV "believes in him might not perish"

 Romans 10:10    (NIV)
 Correct: ASV, KJV, NKJ
 Better: MLV " for* with the heart man believes to righteousness, and with the mouth confesses toward salvation. "

 Acts 2:38 "some read baptized because of forgiveness of sins."
 Correct: KJV, ASV, YL
 Better: MLV
The Greek preposition (not conjunction) denote forward action, "baptized" first forgiveness of sins next. In a conjunction baptized last, forgiveness of sins first or both at the same time as in the word "and."

 Ephesians 2:8 "faith"
 Better: MLV "the faith"
 (Note: this is a textual variant also, but the KJV & NKJ should have read "the faith".)

 First John (primarily end of chapter 2 & beginning of chapter 3) "do sin" (KJV, NKJ)
 Correct: NASB "praxes sin"
 Better: The Greek word  poiew is rendered in all of John's letters "praxes" for other translations' "do." 
 

Catholic / Church of England remnants:
 "Baptism" (KJV, NKJ, YL, ASV, lots more)
 Correct MLV, McCord's, Williams'

Justification for women preachers, deaconess, etc.
 Romans 16:1 "deaconess" (NIV)
 Correct "servant" KJV, ASV, NKJ, NASB
 Better "minister of my needs" MLV

Pentecostal:
 Acts 2:1 "The one hundred and twenty... " (New Living, NRSV) "They were ... " (Almost all but lists below.)
 Correct "And they were ... " (shows connection to Acts 1) KJV, ASV, NASB, YL.
 Better MLV "And they were ... " but footnote discusses the bad chapter break of Acts 1 & 2.

ASV ... American Standard Version, 1901.
KJV... King James Version 1769 standard.
MLV ... Modern Literal Version 2000 not in print yet, http://www.christianlibrary.org/bibles/bibles.mv
NASB ... New American Standard Bible, Lockman Foundation, two versions pre 1995 and 1995.
NIV ... New International Version (generally called the New International Perversion)
NRSV ... New Revised Standard Version
NKJ... New King James Version 1982 Thomas Nelson
Rotherham's ... Rotherham's Emphasized Bible
YT ... Young's Literal Translation, 1893.

This is to help you to beware using a particular Bible in refuting certain false teachings. 
 

Copyright 1999 by Butch Walker may be reproduced for non-commercial purposes at no cost to others unless otherwise stated. (Most unfinished works are still under copyright before release to the Public Domain.)