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Review Summary: The NIV is not a Bible just for dummies |
Date: 2008-10-31 |
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Details: The New International Version is the most readable English translation ever produced. And if that doesn't make it a "Good Book," then I don't know what does!
Granted, I still prefer to read God's Word in the original tongues, not in a modern translation. (I've got nothing against the watered-down English versions sold today in Bible bookstores, but the ancient biblical scrolls are just a whole lot funnier.)
Most people these days cannot do that: they cannot read Scripture as it was first intended by the Author. Not to worry: Bible translators have saved you a headache and you can thank God for them. Many of the holy Ghost's original sentences are so ungrammatical and awkwardly constructed, and others so unintelligible, that the translators for Zondervan Corp and these other big Bible companies have graciously re-written the text so as to enhance Scripture's appeal to the 21st-century reader. And in the N.I.V. more than in any other, those scholars have done a truly wonderful job of tidying up.
If you prefer an English Bible that is halfway faithful to the original, then read the Authorised Version, better known in America as "the King James Version." The KJV/Authorised Version also has the most authentic prose style, with thee and thou and hath and dost and verily, which is how God actually talks, albeit in Hebrew. ([...]
But if it's a highly readable New Age paraphrase of the Bible you want, and if you cannot decide between the eighteen leading options in your local bookstore [..], then allow me to recommend Zondervan's "New International Version" (NIV). Here, at last, is an English-language Bible in which all obscenities and difficult words have been euphemised; God's curses, tempered, and His personality, softened; all theological conundrums, solved; all contradictions, removed; and all the howlers, corrected - which is also why the NIV is ideal for the younger generation, grades five and below.
Here's another thing you will love about Zondervan's New International Version: it is reader-friendly. The NIV makes the Lord sound like an affable American football coach, but with His bad words deleted, such as "piss" (Hebrew shathan) which is a word that God, in the Authorised Version, uses quite a bit (but only when He is angry, e.g., 1 Sam. 25:22, 1 Sam. 25:34, 1 Kings 14:10, 16:11, 21:21, 2 Kings 9:8).
And how's this for a major improvement? Almost every place that the word "Hell" appears in the Authorised Version, the NIV substitutes "the grave" or "the realm of the dead." (Where would you rather spend eternity - in "Hell," or in "the realm of the dead"?)
Then, too, in the NIV, every instance of the word, "Ghost" has been eliminated, and not just the holy one. ("Why should we scare people?" That's Zondervan's policy. "We're marketing Christ the King, not Stephen King! And if you can't tell the difference between those two, well then! - Don't blame us, but you can expect a warm welcome, someday, when you die and your aura gets sent forever to the realm of the dead!")
--L |
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Review Summary: Great Gift Bible |
Date: 2008-09-10 |
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Details: This is a great gift bible. The only complaint I have about it is that the print could stand to be a bit larger. It is easy to read and understand. Great for teens or someone just starting out wanting to get closer to God! |
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Review Summary: Great gift Bible |
Date: 2008-09-10 |
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Details: This is a great gift bible. The only complaint I have about it is that the print could stand to be a bit larger. It is easy to read and understand. Great for teens or someone just starting out wanting to get closer to God! |
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Review Summary: Very nice Bible! |
Date: 2008-09-09 |
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Details: For such a cheap Bible I was thinking it wouldn't be that nice, but it really is. The leather is so soft and the colors are awesome! Great buy for the buck! |
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Review Summary: Exactly the bible i was looking for |
Date: 2008-08-08 |
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Details: I ordered this bible for a friend who had difficulty w/ the King James Version. After a few weeks I called to make sure it was okay and he was very excited to be able to actually follow the words. The cover was perfect for a man. |
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out of 18 Reviews
