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Bible edition preferences

I admit to being perhaps overly fascinated with high-quality bindings for Bibles and prayer books of all types. Fortunately, perhaps, my budget does not allow my fascination to translate into collecting, and of course what matters is the contents of these books.

A blog I follow, linked below, focuses on many aspects of Bible printing and binding, mostly having to do with the English Standard Version (ESV), a translation used by evangelicals as an alternative to the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV), which I prefer.

http://www.bibledesignblog.com/

One of the really exciting trends discussed on that blog is the idea of a "reader's edition" Bible that strips away the usual apparatus -- notes, references, even columns -- to provide a Bible that reads like a novel. There's also a project under way to produce a multi-volume reader's edition in a wooden case, but based on the old American Standard Version.

In comparison, publishers of the NRSV (and Revised English Bible, or REB, which I admire a great deal) seem not to be all that active in publishing and promoting interesting editions. A well-designed REB reader's edition would be marvelous. But perhaps I should give in to the idea of reading the ESV cover to cover, just to have the experience of a Bible designed for continuous reading.

Scott Knitter
Church of the Ascension, Chicago
Chicago, Illinois, USA
scottknitter@gmail.com
25 August 2014

My favorite is my BCP and NRSV all in one, leather and gold. I still refer to my Oxford study bible, and occasionally to William Barnstone's "Restored New Testament", but I use the all in one for the office each day, and take it everywhere. It reminds me of "Pilgrim's Progress" (another one of those best-sellers of all time), and Christian's role of directions that he carried everywhere, until the end.

Michelle C Jackson, ObJN
Trinity Cathedral, Sacramento CA
Elk Grove, California, USA
astraeus@accessbee.com
25 August 2014

I love the paperback NRSV large type Bible. It is beautifully bound, the paper is satisfying to the touch, and my failing eyes can read it.

Judith Guttman
Luther Memorial
Madison, Wisconsin, USA
judithword@gmail.com
25 August 2014

In the past I used many Bibles for prayer and study; the original New American Bible, the New American Bible Study Edition, the NIV, the New English Bible, the Good News Bible, the original Jerusalem Bible, and the latest incarnation of the Jerusalem Bible. However, my favorite Bible for prayer and study has been the NRSV Study Bible. I began using the NRSV during theological studies twenty years ago, and really enjoy using it today. I now have a leather-bound NRSV study Bible, published by Oxford University Press. My favorite version of the psalms is the Coverdale version in the 1979 American Prayer Book.

Sherman Smith
St. Paul's Episcopal Church
Cincinnati, Ohio, USA
kolya2899@mac.com
25 August 2014

Reading AO on Bibles I realize that I have favorites - each reminds me a different phase of my life. One very battered RSV was from when I first studied with EfM. A leather bound one that friends gave me when I went to seminary and that I was actually brave enough to mark up and use in exams (with permission). Now mostly read online and enjoy having it read aloud to me the YOU Bible (lots of translations and versions) is good as the books are read with a real reader. And listening to the psalms in the KJV is lovely. I started listening to the Bible last year in EfM - what a difference it makes to hearing things I did not know were in there. Even the genealogies are good read aloud.

The Rev. Ann Fontaine
Nehalem, Oregon, USA
St Catherine of Alexandria
25 August 2014

My preferred modern English translation of the Old Testament is the Jewish Publication Society’s 1985 edition of the Tanakh, which I admire for the succinctness, quality and sonority of its expression. I do loathe saying this but my dislike of the NRSV for liturgical illumination is intense. I consider that my dislike stems from this version having too many renditions which lean more towards transliterations and less to translations, to the extent where syntax of some verses yields baloney.

Contrasted with the vibrancy JSP version, the NRSV seems intrinsically resistant to effective public reading, with the former not only being tailored to liturgical use but also containing turns-of-phrase which fortify the essential meaning of the biblical Hebrew. The other feature of the Tanakh (which is a Hebrew mnemonic for ‘Law, Prophets, and Writings’) is the canonical order that, as with the Christian Bible, starts with Genesis but, rather ending in Malachai, it concludes with II Chronicles. The Jewish order makes one stop and think of the degree to which the Christian probably engenders, by osmosis, a Christian slant to Old Testament interpretation. The Tanakh also shows what a relatively large amount of spoken interaction God has had with patriarchs and prophets and how little, if any, he has had with the later authors.

Another translation I have had on my bookshelves for some decades - and symbolically value (especially as Assyrian and other Near Eastern Christians are facing possible genocide) - is the George Mamishisho Lamsa Bible, which is a 1933 translation of the Peshitta (Aramaic scriptures). Whilst acutely aware that the translator’s argument for the primacy of this body of scripture as most reflective of the autographs is far from compelling, this work’s existence is a visible reminder of how ancient and widely dispersed many Christian communions are, and how historically isolated these have lived until relatively recent times.

John Williams
St John the Evangelist, New South Wales, AUSTRALIA
bhopal@sydney.net
31 August 2014

Earlier letters

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