Presentation

Bible translations on screen: choosing, comparing and the verses that go missing

By Mambo Mutinda · Founder & CEO, TajiCast

7 August 2026 · Updated 8 September 2026

The translation on the screen is a decision most churches make once and never revisit — usually by whichever one happened to be loaded. It is worth more thought than that, because the screen either supports what is being preached or quietly argues with it.

Show what the pulpit reads from

The first rule is the simple one: display the translation your church actually preaches from.

When the screen says something different from the voice, the congregation has to decide which to follow. That is a small cost, paid at exactly the moment you were trying to help.

That said, keep a second translation loaded. Preachers quote from other versions — for a phrase that lands better, or because the passage is more transparent elsewhere — and being able to follow them is worth having.

Which second translation

Choose for contrast rather than similarity. If your main reading is a fairly literal translation, a more idiomatic one gives you something genuinely different when a preacher reaches for it. Loading three near-identical versions gives the operator a decision to make and no useful difference to choose between.

Compare where nobody is watching

The awkward moment: a preacher says "another translation puts it this way", and the operator needs to find that wording — live, with the passage already on the wall.

Doing that comparison on the screen makes the congregation watch you work: one wording appears, then another, then perhaps the first one again. It reads as indecision even when it is diligence.

Do it privately instead. Look at both wordings on your own screen, decide, then send the one you chose. The congregation sees one deliberate change rather than the search that produced it.

When a translation does not have the verse

This catches people live, so it is worth knowing before it happens.

The numbers came later than the text. Chapter and verse divisions were added centuries after the manuscripts were written. Where the earliest manuscripts do not contain a passage that later copies do, modern translations often omit it, or keep it in brackets with a footnote explaining why.

Ones you will actually meet:

• Matthew 17:21 and Matthew 18:11 — absent from many modern translations.
• Mark 9:44 and 9:46 — same.
• Acts 8:37 — commonly bracketed or footnoted.
• 1 John 5:7–8 — the wording differs substantially between older and newer translations.

What that means in the booth

If a preacher reads one of these from a translation that has it, and your screen is set to one that does not, you get a blank or an error at the worst possible moment.

Two practical responses. Keep a translation loaded that contains the disputed passages, so you can always show what is being read. And use software that tells you the verse is missing rather than showing an empty screen — silence looks like a technical fault, and the congregation assumes the operator has made a mistake.

Should you show it at all?

If the preacher is reading it, show it. The screen's job is to support what is being said, not to adjudicate textual criticism in front of the congregation. If your church's position is that a passage is doubtful, that is a matter for teaching, not for a blank screen.

Two languages on one screen

Bilingual services are common, and the screen is where they either work or fall apart.

Side by side. Two columns, one language each. Both congregations stay together, and nobody waits. The cost is space: each column gets half the width, so it only works with short passages and a genuinely large screen.

One at a time. The operator switches languages as the reading moves. Full width for each, so longer passages stay readable, but one group is always waiting.

Keeping them in sync

The practical difficulty is that the two translations do not always divide the text identically, so verse three in one may not align with verse three in the other. Check your pairing on a long passage before Sunday rather than discovering it live.

Practical notes for multilingual booths

• Use the same theme for both languages, so switching does not change the look.
• Watch the text length: some languages run considerably longer than English for the same verse, and a layout that fits one may overflow the other.
• Make sure whoever is operating can read enough of both languages to tell when the wrong passage is up.

The takeaway

• Match the screen to the pulpit; a second translation is for following the preacher, not for variety.
• Compare privately and send once. Comparing in public looks like indecision.
• Know the bracketed passages before one appears in a reading, and prefer software that says a verse is missing rather than showing nothing.

Related: Display scripture without building slides · Show a long verse without shrinking it