Guest Review: The Bible Experience Companion Bible

02/07/2008 01:14 Filed in: Faith & Reason
My ongoing review of The Bible Experience audio Bible has sparked a lot of discussion both on This Lamp as well in private correspondence. A couple of weeks ago, a youth minister in California contacted me with some questions about the TNIV. After our discussions, he went to his local Christian bookstore and not only bought his first TNIV Bible, but also a copy of The Bible Experience. Since he bought the TNIV Bible Experience Companion Bible, I asked him if he would review it here since I don't have a copy. He's asked to remain anonymous, but his thoughts on the Bible Experience Companion Bible are below.

Being my first TNIV purchase I mainly picked up The Bible Experience Companion Bible because it had (IMO) the best looking cover of all the Thinline versions. Hey, I'm a 20-something year-old youth pastor. It matters. Having said that, the text setting is exactly that: a regular TNIV Thinline Bible. The differences are minor: On the top inside corners of each page there are corresponding Disc/Track info. I'm finding this very helpful because while I'm reading, I would grow curious as to how they might have dramatized this scene and I can quickly pop in the correct CD and hit play. And in the evening I would continue my Bible reading by picking up where I left off, except I would listen to it -- drifting into sleep under God's "voice." Then, in the morning I can look in my Companion Bible and pick up reading where I had left off on the CD (dozed off?).

[I wouldn't recommend reading along while listening to the Bible Experience. Since your eyes take in the words faster than they're reading, it "feels" like they're reading it very slow.]

I also appreciate that the Companion Bible comes with a written intro as to how the Bible Experience project came about. I like the thorough listing of who read what part -- the Talent Index. The pro's of this feature is that if I want to quickly locate a Psalm or a Proverb read by my favorite preacher, I can quickly find it. The downside? I don't want to know that it's Cedric the Entertainer reading a part, because it makes me ROFL and I have trouble suspending my disbelief. Same goes with Samuel L. Jackson. Yeah, remember his Scripture-quoting-hit-man in "Pulp Fiction" ?

I guess the only thing missing from this Bible is that the Talent Index replaces your traditional Concordance. But, hey, that's what you have the Internet for, right?

One final observation: In all my previous Bibles, the scripture printed on the Dedication Page has been "The flowers fade and the grass withers, but the word of the Lord stands forever." In this Bible it is: "Go, and make disciples of all nations." Any observations? Is it a recognition of the shifting motives of the new generation, who are more likely to engage with a Cause rather than a Study? The first quotation has a sense of tradition, and Bible-study, etc. While the latter has a ring of action and a call to adventure. I would love to hear people's thoughts on this blog.

Thanks to Rick for inviting me to write a guest blog. And most of all for kindly answering my questions about the TNIV so that I could make the wise choice. I can now say that I'm an NIV-to-NASB-to-ESV-to-TNIV "convert." You could say, I've come full circle.

- R.S., Los Angeles, CA


Related Reviews:
- The Bible Experience: Pentateuch
- The Bible Experience: Historical Books

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