Monday, December 31, 2007

Bible reading project progress

Over the past few years, I have enjoyed reading through several different versions of the Bible, including
Today's New International Version [TNIV]
The NIV Archaeological Study Bible
The ESV Reformation Study Bible
The New Living Translation, 2nd edition
I am currently about 60% of the way through the Good News Translation, Australian Edition.

It has been a great joy to read each of these. I've found all of them helpful, and often wonder why some people can say such amazingly unhelpful and uninformed things about various versions of the Bible.
But I am looking forward to completing the Good News Translation [which is not a misnomer; I think Zondervan has recently changed its title from Good News Bible to Good News Translation], and reading through The Books of the Bible: a presentation of Todays New International Version.

This Bible removes verses, chapters and headings, places the footnotes at the end of each book as endnotes, and even rearranges the order of the books, partly chronologically and partly by author.
You will find that the first books of The First Testament are in the order you are used to, but that the books of Samuel and Kings have been restored to the original form of one book, not four.
But then The First Testament begins to follow the format of the Hebrew Bible to some degree, by having a section devoted to the prophets [but ordered mainly chronologically, not by book size]and finally a section of poetry, plus Chronicles-Ezra-Nehemiah [restored to a single book] and ending with Daniel, an apocalyptic work.
The New Testament begins with Luke-Acts as one book in two volumes, then has Paul's letters in chronological order, three books written to Jews, Matthew, Hebrews and James, Mark grouped with Peter's letters, and then John's gospel and letters and finally ending, like the First Testament, with Revelation, an apocalyptic book.
I'm finding it easier to read from this Bible when it is my turn to read in church [once I've found my place, as it only has verse locations at the bottom of each page].
The paragraphing is very well done, and I especially like the way it has been arranged in Ephesians 5:21-33. Despite the accusations about the TNIV, this arrangement is so obviously complementarian, I think.
The arrangement of this Bible is greatly superior to our current setup, but I wonder if it will catch on? I'm hopeful that it will, or else that it will encourage others to experiment with the order of the presentation of the books.

No comments: