I grew up in a King James Version Bible household. Anyone else? Anyone? That was what my parents used (and to my knowledge, what they still use) in their own study, so that's what they purchased for me as well. Clear up until high school, I was a KJV girl.
Even though the language is not terribly common for any of us anymore, I seemed to grasp the concepts. (Although I do have one distinct memory of memorizing a verse for youth group in junior high that included the phrase, "withersoever thou goest." I can pretty much guarantee you I was the only kid in youth group withersoevering.)
Once I got to high school, it was only acceptable in my gotta-be-cool mind to become an NIV girl, which I did, and for the most part, I've remained an NIV girl still to this day. I've had a few years of studying primarily from the New Living Translation and a few from English Standard Version, but I tend to memorize and teach from NIV.
But it's probably no secret that I have a bit of a love for Bibles. I have a decent collection of them, and they don't just accumulate dust on the shelf. I use them every single week as I study - personally and for teaching and writing. I have Bibles in various versions and translations and also with various study angles. (Women's Bible, archeology Bible, life Bible, etc.)
A few weeks ago I learned of one I hadn't seen called the NKJV Full Color Study Bible from Thomas Nelson, and I was a mixture of intrigued and unsure. Intrigued because...a new Bible? With full color? I wanna see! And unsure because...did you see those three little letters at the end up there?? KJV? Do I really want to return to withersoevering?
Intrigue won, and the Bible is now a permanent resident of my study collection. And. I'm. So. Glad.
* Quick disclaimer: I have not read through every single note throughout this entire Bible, so I'm counting on the group of scholars who compiled the study notes to have done their job well. My list below is based on looking through this Bible to see what it has to offer. *
1. So pretty. Totally not a requirement for a Bible, but if you're like me, you're probably fairly easily drawn in by pretty covers. In full disclosure, you can actually find this Bible (as is true for most Bibles) in a variety of cover and cost options, from leather to hardcover to even an e-book version. But mine is cranberry with gold edges and has two ribbons. You should ask Ryan how much I squealed over the discovery of two ribbons.
3. Print for normal people. They make regular print Bibles and large print Bibles, and I've always thought it would be grand to have a happy medium. This Bible, in my opinion, is a good happy medium. Remember, I'm 20/12 vision girl, so print size truly doesn't matter to me. But, when you have a ton of words on a page, and everything's black and white, even 20/12 folks can get a little bleary-eyed while reading. But the large print Bibles (at least for me) are a bit TOO large. And they tend to be even bulkier because they have to make room for all the print, you know. In this one, the Scripture text is a very pleasing size. Plenty big enough to read if the Bible is in your lap at church, but not so huge that the people five rows behind you can also read it. The study note text size at the bottom is a bit smaller, but I even think that is pretty decent. (Sometimes those notes can be crazy small!)
4. New information. I have noticed in my Bible study that some study Bibles match others in the content of the additional notes. This one appears to contain content that is worded differently from the other ones I have, so I'm excited to learn from it! I also love that the book introductions contain timelines and book outlines, so if you're looking for something in particular, you can find it quickly. This Bible also contains some articles on topics found throughout Scripture (such as miracles, sin, faith, etc.), cultural notes to help you understand things in context a bit more (like tents, shepherds, leprosy, etc.), charts, and even full color maps right in the middle of the Bible, not all the way back in the end - though you can find some there, too! One of my favorite features? Word studies. I love word studies, and while this Bible isn't comprehensive in that, it contains more than I've ever seen in a regular study Bible before. There are also full color pictures throughout, to help you envision the places about which you read.
5. Helpful features. Even though I can quickly look this sort of information up online now, I still like a good concordance in the back of a Bible, and this one has a great one. I'm learning that most Bibles don't anymore - probably because designers expect people to just look up the info. It also has cross-references throughout (which are easy to read at the bottom of the page and not crammed in a little column in the middle), and there's a good subject index in the back, if you need to look up a particular topic.
6. What's missing? The only thing I was surprised to NOT find in this Bible, given that it's a full color Bible - were the words of Christ in red. I like that feature, but I don't have to have it. But I just found that ironic, that a full color Bible wouldn't feature that. And this also is not something I need, but it doesn't have the books of the Bible tabbed out on the side. If you do need that, you can easily buy a tab set and add it yourself.
7. Now....about the NKJV thing. I stand surprised and corrected. I looked up some verses I know by heart and found that the language wasn't that different from what I learned in the NIV. The things about the KJV that can make it hard for some people to read (basically the Old English style) aren't present in the NKJV. I guess I have always had an incorrect interpretation of how it translated, and I stand pleasantly corrected. In the sections I read, I found it easy to understand.
So all of that to say...I'm excited to have this big, pretty, double-ribboned Bible in my collection. I will dive right in, consulting its pages as I study on my own and study for teaching purposes. I'm already knee deep in making notes in the Bible I'm studying daily this year, but I am going to move this one to the top of the list for my next regular study Bible, even though the version is a bit different than what I've been using. I need that. I need fresh perspective. And this copy is full of it - not just in the wording of Scripture, but in the study helps.
If you'd like to see a little trailer about this Bible, you can watch it here. And here's a link to the one I have, though mine looks more red than the purple-ish color on this page.
* The Blythe Daniel Agency and Thomas Nelson Publishers provided this copy of the Bible to me at no charge, and all the opinions above are my own. *
8 comments:
I have a KJV Bible that I've tried to read on a couple of occasions but I get too hung up on the unusual syntax and Old English words to feel that I'm getting much out of the Scripture that I read. I think it's neat how you grew upon the KJV and now have a Bible that's very similar to that translation. I love the pictures in your new Bible. Sounds like you will be enjoying your new Bible quite a bit :).
I’m a KJV girl through and through.
Maria - I plan to! And right now, it still smells really good, so I'll be flipping through it and inhaling deeply.
Odie - Maybe you can help me teach Ryan to say withersoever. It wasn't going so well last night on my first attempt. It may be a new word for his personal dictionary. ;)
What a gorgeous cover!
Tamar - it sure is!
Like Odie, I'm a KJV girl through and through. That's what I grew up with and what we still use today- at church and at home. I was raised thinking that's "the only" acceptable version, often hearing Rev 22:18 & 19 (KJV of course!!) quoted! Would sincerely love to hear your thoughts on this!
I think I'll stay anonymous on this one, lol!
Hi there, anonymous friend! I should preface by saying I'm answering this at 1:00 in the morning (possibly not my most articulate hour) and also, I do NOT claim to be a theologian. But you asked my thoughts, so I will tell you what I've learned from preachers and classes over the years. I was raised to take these kinds of matters very seriously, so please know it's not something I've taken lightly at all. When I made the switch back in high school, I did so mostly because it was the "new way," and not at all because I had researched it. But as I've studied, I've developed a deeper appreciation for the very hard work that translation involves. (I also don't speak multiple languages, so I am aware I can't FULLY and PERSONALLY appreciate how hard it is.) I've learned how some translations of the Bible are more literal and bring every single word over from the original languages as absolutely literally as possible. Others lean more toward translating the original thought, even if it means not a literal translation of the words. I've also learned from some books I've read recently that there are some concepts that simply don't translate in their richest, fullest form, from the original language into English, because English lacks an accurate word supply. I used to think all the English translations were made from the King James - and that they were changing words (as the verse you quote warns against) but then I learned that at least the most respected translations go back to the original language to try to pull over the truest meaning possible. As I've studied verses recently I've been consulting a wide variety of versions, comparing and contrasting how they word things to try to fully understand for myself the heart of the verse. (One other thing that really intrigued me in this journey was listening to a missionary speaker at church one time who devoted many years of her life/career translating the Bible into a language that actually didn't even HAVE a written language when she arrived among the people. She had to learn their language, then create a written word for them, teach them how to read it, and then translate the Bible. She talked about how some of that translation depended upon relating Scripture in a way they could understand it. It was fascinating. (Also fascinating to hear how eagerly they awaited the mere sight of the first copies arriving - by rowboat if I'm not mistaken.) So those are my thoughts. I hope you can hear my heart on this one and not feel that you're judged in any way or that I'm taking lightly the way I read and study!
This might be my favourite line of this post: "I can pretty much guarantee you I was the only kid in youth group withersoevering." Hahahaha!!!
Also, if I can add my two cents to the whole translation thing -- when I've done Torah (Bible) studies with people at the synagogue, we will often spend two hours on two verses because Jewish people have a huge sense of all the nuances of the Hebrew language.
So when a certain Hebrew word is used in the Torah, it can have five different interpretations so it's like "Well if we use this meaning, the verse says this but if we use that meaning then it says something different." I feel like it's a very rich way of doing Bible study, if that makes any sense.
Language is so alive and somewhat dependent on the context of the times as well. For instance, our first thought for the word "gay" does not necessarily mean the same thing now as it did in the 1920s. This was something my grandma often lamented -- "I can no longer call someone gay and have it mean the same thing."
Does this make any sense???
Caveat to all of this -- I am neither Jewish (just married to one) nor a scholar :)
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