Greg Koukl over at Stand to Reason has a blog post on special-edition Bibles. He's a-gin 'em. I understand his point, but I think they have a place.
A Creation Bible highlighting all the passages dealing with creation -- there are loads of them outside of Genesis -- would interest me. A Prophecy Bible would be interesting. Add in commentary by experts and these Bibles would pack a whollup. When I read through the Bible, I often do with a certain theme in mind. I've thought of doing a Great Prayers of the Bible study.
A Bible that tallied the killings would be regrettably instructive. Reading through, one is struck by the amount of sheer death and mayhem entailed in getting from the first Garden to the Second. It is a bloody and brutal story -- definitely realistic and not pie-in-the-sky nor for the faint of heart.
So,
Do you have a favorite edition of the Bible?
14 comments:
I've never read it.
You owe it to yourself.
Most Christians suggest that we start with the gospel of John and/or the New Testament. You start reading the Old Testament, it's a tough slog.
Did you win a science award?
NKJV is my version of choice. I find it's the best "in between version" for giving sermons, as some will have the same, but others will typically have the NIV or the NASB within my circles... with a couple of KJV's still hanging around.
I decided not to read it early early on in my life when I realized that the stories in it were being understood as actual events rather than maybe fiction or an allegory. I'll more than likely never read it, as I don't see its importance that I do so.
I've never won a science award, why do you ask? My actual field of study is in Studio Art: Emphasis in painting. I have no college degree as of yet.
NKJV is very solid. I find the NIV a little bland. I attended a conference in Philadelphia in March -- two of the speakers were on the committee that produced the ESV.
Are you in Ottawa?
NIV is a bit bland, but it's still my preference. NASB sounds interesting, though.
Well, assuming you are the same Jonathan who has been posting these past weeks, I thought I had tracked you down to Little Rock -- there's a science-minded Jonathan Raney there.
NASB is the unbland Bible! It's the go-to Bible for persons with just enough New Testament Greek to realize it's a good translation.
My NT prof used to stare into his Greek NT, and read directly from it. I never quite made it.
"Well, assuming you are the same Jonathan who has been posting these past weeks, I thought I had tracked you down to Little Rock -- there's a science-minded Jonathan Raney there."
That assumption is correct, but finding another Jonathan Raney is definitely very interesting. What's his field of study? It would be interesting to see if he is related at all to my family.
http://www.lrcentralhigh.org/science/CARSF2009LRCHS.pdf
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/dir/Jonathan/Raney
jonathan, start here, a great version. It's free, easy to navigate, lots of cross-refernces, and interesting insight.
http://skepticsannotatedbible.com/
It helps that the Quran and Book of Mormon are right there as well.
Well having read the KJV, RSV, NIV, NKJV, Amplified, New English, NASB, I find my favorite remains the Jerusalem. The New Jerusalem is an abomination that should never have been published but the European "Jerusalem" translation challenges my North American view. That being said, over the years my taste has changed and much of my choice in Bible version has to do with the degree God reveals Himself through the translation I am reading.
Could you elaborate a bit on Jerusalem vs. New Jerusalem?
The Jerusalem Bible is a straight forward translation that attempts to render the biblical accounts as honestly as possible into the English language. The New Jerusalem approaches translation with a feminist agenda. For example it mistranslates Father as Parent and Son as Child.
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