So last night I started reading through John. John is my favorite biblical author. When I read through John, I seem to get a great sense of the nature and character of Jesus.
So I read and read. I read through 2 chapters, then thought to myself, “Wo. 2 chapters. Maybe you should stop. That’s pretty good.” But I kept reading. I ended up reading 5 chapters and growing more and more frustrated with the tiny little numbers (chapters and verse references) that interrupted and distracted me.
So I went and bought this
This version (is this a different version?) of the Scriptures claims to de-verse-ify the Bible. All cross-references and numbers (chapter and verse) are removed. Also, books that have been separated and place back together. Also, they only use one column instead of two. Hopefully this Bible turns into something I can’t put down.
What versions of the Bible do you prefer? Why?
Ramblings of Passion 
Posted by Chris on March 2, 2008 at 7:27 am
My favorite Bible is just the opposite. I have a NASB Hebrew-Greek Study Bible. I love the the “direct” translation so I can try and figure out what it may have meant on my own. Also the lexical aids are great.
For some of us the ADD works the opposite way- I need the numbers and little grammar hints to distract me.
http://www.amgpublishers.com/www/docs/130.68/keyword-nasb
Posted by Andrew on March 9, 2008 at 11:24 pm
I love study bibles. I don’t have the attention span for King James. I take my Quest with me almost everywhere.
Posted by Matt Jones on March 30, 2008 at 7:04 pm
I think it totally depends on what you happen to be reading for.
Translation wise, I have a huge preference for the NASB because it is quite literal from the Greek and Hebrew manuscripts. BUT sometimes that will miss some of the idiomatic language of the authors and it will definitely miss some of the flow.
For more dynamic situations or times when the Bible will be read aloud, something like the NIV/TNIV or ESV or RSV might be more appropriate.
For reading like a story or narrative I would go with something like The Message. But the paraphrase isn’t the best for study.
For hard core study, something like a parallel or Greek/Hebrew interlinera is superb.
Hopefully the De-Versified TNIV will be a great resource for reading the Bible as story or as the narrative that it is. It puts it back into the literary context that it was originally written in.
Just a few thoughts.
(If you are interested, I wrote up one of my concerns about the De-Versified TBotB here.)