Daily Verse | Nehemiah 9:17
“But you are a forgiving God, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love.”
Wednesday’s Reading: Nehemiah 11-13
Wednesday and a bit of rabbit trail this morning. Usually, I’m posting my latest take on Brandon and the nutters in Washington who are driving this country off a cliff while listening to Beyonce’s Formation. Not today.
I believe that politics is downstream from culture, and culture is downstream from faith. Our faith individually and collectively reflects our spiritual life, and our spiritual life reflects, to some degree or another, our interaction with scripture.
One of my kids is on a focused search for her ‘forever’ Bible, one that she can get now and use for a lifetime. We’ve talked a lot about what translation to use, what kind of features she’d like, and what ‘trim level’, (i.e. quality) she’d like to have.
As we’ve been researching Bibles, it amazes me what’s available. According to this 2006 story in The New Yorker magazine,
[T]here are distinctions within each category. There are study Bibles that focus on theology, on historical context, or on practical applications of Biblical teachings. There are devotional Bibles for new believers, couples, brides, and cowboys. On an airplane recently, I saw a woman reading a surfers’ Bible very similar to the proposed skaters’ one. The variety is seemingly limitless. Nelson Bible Group’s 2006 catalogue lists more than a hundred titles.
They also write, “The familiar observation that the Bible is the best-selling book of all time obscures a more startling fact: the Bible is the best-selling book of the year, every year.” Estimates of Bibles currently in print worldwide are between 5 and 6 billion.
We’ve initially settled on a leather-bound New International Version (NIV), wide margins, Jesus’ words in red text, cross-references, and a concordance. It’s similar to my everyday bible, which is a Zondervan NIV Wide Margin Bible, published in 2001 with the 1984 text. I had it rebound after the cover and spine began to fall apart. I write, underline and highlight in my bible, so it was important to me to keep it and extend its life.
Coincidentally, I’m putting together a ‘Bible Basics for Beginners’ course for my church this fall and one of the topics we’ll cover is “How to Choose a Bible.” There are so many variations and features to choose from that I’m thinking of creating a matrix that would help someone figure out what’s important to them and what Bibles meet their criteria.
All of this leads me to wonder what kind of Bible you read and why. If you’re so inclined, I’d love to hear from you in the comments. What version do you use and why? What format do you use? What features are important to you? Why did you choose the Bible you use?
Hey Dave, I use an NASB Bible. It’s the version I began using in Bible College. I had to get anew one in 2019 because my other one had really fallen apart. It took me a long time to find one. NASBs are hard to come by. I wanted one with leather, single columns, wide margins, red letters, and wasn’t able to find one. I had to forego the red letter. I, too, write, underline, mark with color pencils all that I read.
I am surprised to hear that the NASB is hard to come by. Do you mean it’s not sold very many places? I thought that was one of the more popular versions. Here’s a link to the most recent update: https://www.lockman.org/nasb-2020/ . Thanks for commenting!
Hi Dave, I use NIV 1984, red letter, I’ve had it since 1985 and had to have it rebound, it is my forever Bible!
I’d love to hear more about the class you are developing on the Basics!
Thanks for commenting, Sherri Jo! I’m still in the early stages of development, but it will be four sessions: 1. You can trust the Bible. 2. How we got our Bible and the central story of the Bible, 3. Reading the Bible, including how to select one, and 4. Sharing what you’ve learned. Happy to share more as it comes together!
Good morning, Dave. Thanks for your continued thread of wisdom and insight. I’m curious what company you used to revive your bible. My 1983 NASB is falling apart as well.
Blessings!
Hi Kevin, thanks for commenting. I used Leonard’s Book Restoration (https://www.leonardsbooks.com/). They did a terrific job on rebinding Bibles for me and a few other people I know. It’s not cheap but it was worth the price to keep using the bible I was familiar with and that had so many notes, rather than starting over. If you go to their site, just hover over “Services” in the top nav and you’ll see the first two are Bible Repair and Bible Rebinding.
I use a leather-bound ESV that has space for writing notes on the sides of each page. I liked having the extra space to write out notes and observations instead of trying to squeeze it where I could. Other than that it’s a pretty straightforward Bible without a lot of extra notation. Only thing it’s missing is red text for Jesus’ words. If you’re interested in quality Bibles, I got mine from Paul’s Leather Company online.
Thanks for commenting, Andrew, and thanks for the tip on Paul’s Leather Company!
The Bible I use the most is the ESV. I find it easy to read and the one which stays closest to the original meanings. I stay away from the NIV because of its tendency to change meaning sof the original text by the way it presents the text. That was probably as clear as mud. LOL. Excuse an old pilgrim.
Lawrence I am also a fan of the ESV. If I was looking for my first Bible these days, I would find it hard to choose between the ESV and the NIV. Both are excellent translations, but I agree that the NIV lost some of my trust after they published the TNIV. I like the text of the 1984 NIV, so that’s what I stick with. It helps if you know some of the original language and the words that tend to be problematic for translators. Thanks for commenting.
This year I am using the Bible App- NIV, yearly plan. Sometimes I read on my own and sometimes it is nice to listen while I am folding laundry or doing some other mindless task. There is a feature to compare versions and also teaching clips that further explain the meaning of the verses/passage. You can also highlight, bookmark, create verse images, and track with friends.
I’m also working through the whole Bible again this year. I think digital offers some really great options that are hard to get in a printed Bible. Thanks for commenting Stephanie!