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IgnorantRockFan
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« on: 16:10:37, 05-09-2008 » |
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A highly subjective question, I know, but it occurs to me that I don't have a Bible on my shelves and I haven't actually read the complete Bible since my teens. Something I think I need to rectify! So what, in member's opinions, are the pros and cons of the various editions over the centuries? Please take into account that I can only read English  |
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Allegro, ma non tanto
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martle
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« Reply #1 on: 16:27:11, 05-09-2008 » |
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Well, the tweedies over at TOP all seem to stick, limpet-like, to the Solti version. But to my taste it's a little leaden during Psalms and he spectacularly fails to bring the requisite 'oomph' to the Book of Revelations - those trumpets, honestly!
No, have a go at the Mackerras. Limpid, poetic Gospels and some real fire in the Book of Daniel. The only downside is the slightly dodgy print quality and some dodgy balance during the Babel episode.
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Green. Always green.
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IgnorantRockFan
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« Reply #2 on: 16:35:22, 05-09-2008 » |
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Er...... o....k....   |
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Allegro, ma non tanto
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harmonyharmony
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« Reply #3 on: 16:56:32, 05-09-2008 » |
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IRF
I have a New Oxford Annotated Bible, which I like very much. It has a running concordance and notes at the foot of every page.
Can't remember what the Bible of choice at C's training college but I could probably find out if you're really interested.
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'is this all we can do?' anonymous student of the University of Berkeley, California quoted in H. Draper, 'The new student revolt' (New York: Grove Press, 1965) http://www.myspace.com/itensemble |
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stuart macrae
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« Reply #4 on: 17:08:54, 05-09-2008 » |
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I like the King James version for its poetic content, but if it's clarity of communication you're after then the New International Version (NIV) is what the kids are using these days. That's what my other half likes best, and she should know  . If you're like me, you'll find a study bible best, as the footnotes and historical information are often quite as interesting as the contents of the main text (sorry, that sounds a bit snide, but I'm not being facetious...) |
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harmonyharmony
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« Reply #5 on: 17:12:30, 05-09-2008 » |
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...and often the contents of the New Testament (for example) are tied into things in the Old Testament with which contemporary Jews would have been extremely familiar. Having a running concordance to cross reference all of these things simulates that to some extent.
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'is this all we can do?' anonymous student of the University of Berkeley, California quoted in H. Draper, 'The new student revolt' (New York: Grove Press, 1965) http://www.myspace.com/itensemble |
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Antheil
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« Reply #6 on: 17:48:09, 05-09-2008 » |
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I have the King James version and, like Stuart, love the language but perhaps that it because it is the one I have been brought up with. I cannot comment on other versions but this is quite a good site, you can put in (say Corinthians 13:1) and compare The New International Version is: If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. The King James is: Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. The Contempary English Version: What if I could speak all languages of humans and of angels? If I did not love others, I would be nothing more than a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal It doesn't have hh's New Oxford listed but an annotated one sounds good otherwise I think it's case of which phraseology you prefer http://www.biblegateway.com/ |
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Reality, sa molesworth 2, is so sordid it makes me shudder
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Don Basilio
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« Reply #7 on: 18:36:12, 05-09-2008 » |
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The Bible is not meant to be read through consecutively. It is a library of books which the Jewish and Christian communities found encapsulated their communual experience. The churches were selective about which bits were used in public prior to the Reformation (the Orthodox Churches never read Revelation in their endless services to this day.)
You should get a version with the bits of the Old Testament (Hebrew Scriptures, to use the pc term) which only survive in Greek, known variously as the Apocrypha or the Deutero Canonical books. I am reading the book of Wisdom at the moment and it has some wonderful stuff in it. Until 1530 it was fully realised that a Bible with the Apocrypha was the Christian Bible. Its omission was a protestant innovation.
The preferred C of E version, which I use, is the New Revised Standard Version (Anglicised edition). The Authorised Version (PLEASE not the King James) has wonderful bits, but St Paul is even more opaque than need be.
The version of the psalms chanted at Anglican cathedrals is not from the AV, but Miles Coverdale's earlier translation in the Book of Common Prayer.
New International is from a fundamentalist American camp, does not include the Apocrypha on principle, and I suspect interprets St Paul in particular with a definite theological slant, of which I personally would not approve.
Skip Leviticus, Numbers, Chronicles, and the middle chapters of Proverbs at least.
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To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven.
A time to weep, and a time to laugh: a time to mourn, and a time to dance
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harmonyharmony
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« Reply #8 on: 18:54:57, 05-09-2008 » |
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IIRC, My New Oxford Annotated uses the NRSV translation and contains the Apocrypha.
My first bible was a Good News bible (that's just a 'modernised' adaptation of the Authorised Version isn't it?), but I grew out of it.
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'is this all we can do?' anonymous student of the University of Berkeley, California quoted in H. Draper, 'The new student revolt' (New York: Grove Press, 1965) http://www.myspace.com/itensemble |
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Antheil
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« Reply #9 on: 19:05:49, 05-09-2008 » |
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Why not the King James Don Basilio?  Two books I have about the making of the King James are God's Secretaries by Adam Nicolson and William Tyndale, If God Spare my Life by Brian Moynahan. Certainly revises ones opinion about Thomas More. |
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Reality, sa molesworth 2, is so sordid it makes me shudder
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harmonyharmony
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« Reply #10 on: 19:07:34, 05-09-2008 » |
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'is this all we can do?' anonymous student of the University of Berkeley, California quoted in H. Draper, 'The new student revolt' (New York: Grove Press, 1965) http://www.myspace.com/itensemble |
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Don Basilio
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« Reply #12 on: 21:41:26, 05-09-2008 » |
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The Good News Bible, IIRC, was the Bible in basic English so it could be read by those without English as a first language. When it first came out it was called something like Good New for Modern Man. Whoops. The NRSV makes a point of using inclusive language wherever possible. Paul is always saying "brothers and sisters" with a footnote "Brothers in the original". I don't mean to mock. It is probably a good idea. My Oxford Annotated was with the previous RSV, before they introduced inclusive language. A certain amount of apparatus is a very good idea if IRF wants to come to terms with the Bible. After all, you would hardly try to read the entire corpus of Anglo Saxon literature without some idea of the background, and the Old Testament is the entire corpus of Hebrew literature. For the readings the C of E recommends each evening try http://daily.commonworship.com/daily.cgi?today_ep=1 The psalm is a special liturgical translation. |
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To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven.
A time to weep, and a time to laugh: a time to mourn, and a time to dance
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Morticia
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« Reply #13 on: 23:20:58, 05-09-2008 » |
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The Good News Bible, IIRC, was the Bible in basic English so it could be read by those without English as a first language. When it first came out it was called something like Good New for Modern Man. Whoops.
We were given that one in our first year at the Convent school. Maybe the Sisters thought they were being 'with it'? I found the 'new' language a bit odd because I was more used to the traditional Bible. Not really sure if I gained a great deal from The Good News. The language is rather 'flat'. |
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Reiner Torheit
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« Reply #14 on: 07:18:13, 06-09-2008 » |
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What's the contemporary feeling towards the Jerusalem Bible?
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"I was, for several months, mutely in love with a coloratura soprano, who seemed to me to have wafted straight from Paradise to the stage of the Odessa Opera-House"
- Leon Trotsky, "My Life"
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