Tuesday 27 May 2008

And I just bought a new Bible

It's my first new Bible since before my kids were born, so it took a lot of thinking about what features I wanted. Almost as much thought as Jeff put into the computer purchase, which is so bizarre, that I live in a country where Bibles come with "features".

I wanted an NIV. With a concordance, and I thought I wanted verse references but the first one I bought distracted me with all the extra superscript reference marks in the middle of the verses. So I returned it and swapped it for a second choice. I wanted large print but not a big clunker because I carry it around a lot. I took my second choice back because it was just too thick and heavy to fit in my bag. So now I have my third choice and I think I’m going to stick with it happily for the next five or ten years. Not least because I cannot face the 45min drive across the city again.

While I was there, I bought a NIV for Joshua as well. It has Anglicised text. (Hooray! Australian spelling for Saviour!) Also large print so it is easier for him to read. It has a concordance and lots of helpful things like maps. Inside the front cover, there's a picture of a bookshelf with the books of the Bible on it in order, seperated out into their classifications (eg history, minor prophets). Actually, I was tempted to get one the same for me as well. In the end it came down to not wanting to pick up the wrong Bible all the time, because as this is a new release from the Bible Society, it doesn't come in too many colours yet.

Joshua's Bible will be his reward for reading through all the Bob Books (when he finishes the last set). At this stage, he'll only be reading it with Jeff, not carrying it to church or anything. I bought this one to last - well, that's the plan.

4 comments:

Andrea said...

My J got his own bible from our church when he started 1st grade this year - ESV. He just loves having his own and in 6 short months has gone from us reading it to him to reading it on his own. I am just thrilled! I love to listen to his little voice reading the Word and you will too!
Andrea

Anonymous said...

Yay for you and Joshua!

BTW, where did you get your Bob books from? I looked into them years ago (when Brits was learning to read) but they weren't available in Aus.

Could you e-mail me your answer, please? I'm trying to cut down my surfing. (Ha!)

In Him

Meredith
x

Sharon said...

Hi Andrea, Yes, the ESV is held in very high esteem among some people at Jeff's theological college and I was tempted, but we've got the NIV on MP3 for in the car and have already started learning so many bible verses from the NIV. Jeff suggested we get Joshua a TNIV or NIrV to start with, but the same thing applies. I think if the ESV had been released 3 years earlier, we might have used that for our family bible translation, especially since we used the NRSV when we were first together, and the ESV is superior to that but still in the same translation heritage, if that makes sense.

I want him to be able to read the same words consistently - not that different translations don't have their place, for example in the study of logic-stage and rhetoric-stage students. To start with, he'll be reading it with Jeff. I think if Jeff can manage to keep his expectations low so he doesn't get frustrated with Joshua's reading speed, it should be a wonderful experience for them both.

~ Sharon

Sharon said...

Meredith, I can't find your email address on the new Mac. Can you email me and I can reply? But short answer is I borrowed them from a friend who got them off amazon.
~ Sharon