German Bible translation like NKJV, ESV, NASB.. etc

As a German I know which is the best. Easy to read but not as accurate as Elberfelder to the basic-text is the Luther 2009.

The most accurate Version of German Bibles is the Elberfelder Bible.

The Elberfelder is the only German version that is accepted by the Catholic Church.

If you would like to compare versions You might try downloading the following free Bible study program with which you can also download many German and multiple other language version and compare them side by side with the NKJV, however the NKJV version is a version which you must buy, but many others are free to download. The site for the download is;

www.theword.net

You might check it out and see whether you are interested or not.

thanks for the many answers. In the end, I found a small Bible store on my trip and gave a few of them a quick read, and went with the "Elberfelder" (2006) translation because it was in the exact size format (travel size, 5 inches x 4 inches) I was looking for, and it seemed to not have any obvious translation problems. I had not heard of this version, so I looked it up and it seems it is the equivalent of the Darby Bible in English, which I am not familiar with, but what I did find about it sounded promising. If you have any feedback regarding my choice, I would love to hear it as a comment here.

Thanks again, and for the curious, here's a link to it on amazon for your convenience:

Elberfelder German Bible "mustard seed" edition on Amazon

Just a tip for those who would like to alternate between some online translations, there is a website with 9 different German translations namely:

• Schlachter 1951 (SCH51)
• Schlachter 2000 (SCH2000)
• Neue Genfer Übersetzung (NGU2011)
• NeÜ bibel.heute (NBH)
• Hoffnung für alle (HFA)
• Albrecht NT und Psalmen (GANTP)
• Elberfelder 1871 (ELB71)
• Elberfelder 1905 (ELB)
• Lutherbibel 1912 (DELUT)

Link to the site https://www.bible.com/ and they also have a handy mobile app version called "Bible"

The Einheitsübersetzung is a version that I haven't seen mentioned here. Due to copyright, it is not available on most sites where you can make comparisons, or free apps. But it still exists. I use it and think it is good, and easy enough to understand.

It is an attempt at an ecumenical version used by both catholic and protestant churches, not sure whether that succeeded. The New Testament translation in the Einheitsübersetzung is AFAIK a collaboration effort of catholic and protestant scholars, the Old Testament mostly catholic (and contains the deuterocanonic books).

I would suggest the "Hoffnung für alle" translation.
"Hoffnung für alle" is very commonly used in Germany (especially by young people, because it's easier to read than for example Luther's translation)

Greetings from Germany ;)

Compare Elberfelder John 1 :

3 Alles wurde durch dasselbe, und ohne dasselbe wurde auch nicht eines, das geworden ist.

...

6 Da war ein Mensch, von Gott gesandt, sein Name: Johannes.

to Luther 1984 John 1 :

3 Alle Dinge sind durch dasselbe gemacht, und ohne dasselbe ist nichts gemacht, was gemacht ist.

...

6 Es war ein Mensch, von Gott gesandt, der hieß Johannes.

(my emphasis).

Normally, I wouldn't use "wurde" as it is used in the first example, Luther's expression is more natural. Also, Elberfelder has a change in tense in John 1:3, which would count as a mistake in a German exam. However, probably the reason that it is there is that it is there in the Greek, and Elberfelder wants to reflect that, since someone who knows Greek can find additional meaning in the Greek use of the tenses.

In the second example, John 1:6, again Elberfelder uses a phrase which is understood, but breaks the German sentence structure, which would expect a verb in the final clause.

This is, as far as I know, intentional. Elberfelder makes it a point to reveal the Greek grammatical structure and use of vocabulary. This makes it an ideal translation for people who know Greek, but have German as their mother tongue and want to understand the text easily without having to translate it themselves.

For someone who wants to read a German Bible in order to improve their German, it might be less than ideal, since it is more Greek written with German words than plain German, in places.

If its for trying to learn German, you should probably buy a parallel. And probably the easiest to get your hands on would be the ESV-Luther 1984 Parallel from Crossway.

If you want a German Bible by itself, you can get the 1912 revision of Luther's translation from the Trinitarian Bible Society. That would be more archaic German, and its sold by TBS because they consider it to be the closest to the KJV.

Without actually knowing German it would probably be pretty hard to find any others. Although once you figure out you should search "Die Bibel" rather than "German Bible" it makes it easier.