Amplified Bible (AMP)
A Bible that opens a word up instead of choosing one English equivalent for it, using brackets to show the other meanings the original could carry.
Most translations choose one English rendering for a Hebrew or Greek word. The Amplified often places several options together, using brackets and parentheses to mark the extra help. Frances Siewert began the work, the complete Bible appeared in 1965, and a major revision followed in 2015.
The effect is that a single verse can tell you what a translator would otherwise have to put in a footnote. If you have ever wondered why two Bibles word the same verse differently, the Amplified is often showing you both answers at once.
- How it translates
- Expanded — one verse, several possible renderings, with the additions marked.
- Reading level
- Hard to read at length — not because the vocabulary is difficult, but because the sentences are crowded.
- Best for
- Sitting with one verse or one paragraph and seeing what the words could mean.
Worth knowing: Seeing every possible meaning of a word on one line can suggest it means all of them at once. It almost never does: in any given sentence the writer meant one thing, and the surrounding verses are what narrow it down. Treat the brackets as options to weigh, not as meanings to add together.
Compare similar translations
- NASB 1995
- From the same publisher, and the opposite method: one carefully chosen English word per original word.