Help with buying a Bible

[Book Crazy]

In a previous post I asked about using Christian Studies by Memoria Press. I have decided that I will buy it and see how it goes.

 

I know that I have to use the Children's Golden Bible to make the most use of the student book, but I would like to have a regular Bible to use as well. Now as an Atheist, I am completely lost as to which Bible to buy.

 

I know that there are different versions, but which one should I get?

 

Help, please. Really unknown territory here.

[Dawn E]

Sarah,

 

This is one of those questions that will get many different answers. :001_smile: Personally, I use the English Standard Version. It is considered one of the most literal translations from the original texts while still being very readable.

 

If you take a passage, for instance a familiar one like Psalms 23--"The Lord is my Shepherd"--and enter it into the passage look-up section at www.biblegateway.com, you will be able to read it in many different versions. Just pull down the menu, scroll down to the English section and choose from there. This will give you an idea of each them and how they read. Also, it helps to browse at a bookstore so you can hold them in hand and check them out.

 

HTH,

Dawn

[momofkhm]

www.cokesbury.com/forms/BibleTransGuide.pdf

 

You will probably get as many different versions as you get answers. I use the NIV. My kids use the NIV. The Sunday school curriculum as church uses NIV. The pew Bibles in the church are ESV. The private school my kids used to go to uses the NIV until high school and then it uses KJV. The Bible study I went to uses NIV. I also have and use a paralel Bible that has KJV, NIV, Amplified and I think NAS.

 

NIV - New International Version

ESV - English Standard Version

KJV - King James Version

NAS - New American Standard

 

Wait a minute! This chart is better. IT included the word-for-word to thought-for-thought chart as well.

 

Most of us like the version we are used to. It sounds right to us, especially if we have memorized scripture. If you memorize it on way and then read i another, it just doesn't sound right, you know?

 

HTH

[Book Crazy]

WOW!

 

I didn't know that there were so many different versions.

 

Off to do some research.

[clwcain]

Since you're an atheist, at least get a complete one. If you're buying a Prottie translation, get one that includes the "Apocryphal" texts.

 

If you're buying a Catholic bible, it will include them in the proper places, but the table of contents may list them as "Deutero-Canonical texts" or otherwise denote that they are not recognized as "valid" by many Protestants. Long story, and well beyond the scope of your inquiry.

 

If you like the poetry of the KJV, but want a Catholic volume (so you don't have to figure out where the Deutero-canonical texts get placed) go for a Douai-Rheims.

 

If you want a more contemporary translation, may I recommend the Revised Standard Version--Catholic Edition, known as the RSV-CE. Published by Ignatius press and very affordable. Based on excellent scholarship, the translation was done in the 1940s and 1950s from a combination of the Latin Vulgate of Jerome and archived copies of original manuscripts.

 

Both versions, and the better Prottie translations, will eschew the so-called inclusive language that is popular in some circles. Regardless of one's views on the subject, if you looking at this academically it must be conceded that for 2000 years of Christian worship and belief there was no question about the Fatherhood of God or the masculinity of Jesus of Nazareth.

 

If you're educating your children, as presumably you are, to participate in the Western Tradition it is best to avoid more recent translations or interpretations that seek to "reconcile" the texts of the Bible with more recent Marxist-inspired politically correct notions of feminism, class-warfare, socialism, grammar and syntax, etc.

 

Feel free to PM me if you have any specific questions. :)

 

HTH