Tags: Louisiana

"A New English Translation of the Septuagint may be quoted in nonsalable media (such as church bulletins, orders of service, liturgies, newsletters, etc.) without inclusion of a copyright notice, but the abbreviation NETS must appear at the end of each quotation."

NEB = New English Bible
NET = New English Transltion
NETS = New English Translation of the Septuagint

And, of course, none of these three translations have anything to do with the others. I wonder where all the creativity has gone in naming translations. I also wonder if the NET Bible was even on the radar of the NETS editors when they came up with the name. Although I personally consider the NET Bible a major translation (and my review is finally in the works), it has not received the exposure it deserves because it (to my knowledge) is only available through mail order.

Some might feel the nearness of the acronyms to the NEB is a non-issue because it is now nearly four decades from its last edition before the REB. However, I still occasionally come across NEW reference books that refer to the NEB--sometimes in EXCLUSION to the REB which has been available for almost two decades!

So, I see room for all kinds of abbreviation confusion, especially between the NET and NETS. And one would think that with 26 letters of the alphabet, we could come up with a few more unique combinations!

Tags: Translations

• A second edition of the HCSB will be released in 2009.
• Why "beer" is used instead of "strong drink."
• When the project first started by Arthur Farstad, there were parallel tracks for the HCSB in which there were to be two New Testaments, one based on the Majority Text and one based on the Nestle-Aland text. The Majority Text project was dropped after the death of Farstad.
• Southern Baptists (does he mean Lifeway here?) tried to BUY the NASB from the Lockman Foundation three times--and it almost went through!
• We finally get a better understanding of the relationship of the HCSB to the Logos21/Living Water Gospel of John.
• Blum explains the complicated history behind the name "Holman Christian Standard Bible" and reveals other names considered. Every name including the current one has legal issues, though.
• According to Blum, "Holman" is already being downplayed in the logo and will soon disappear altogether leaving the designation simply "CSB."
• Mounce sent Blum an email stating that the HCSB is the first translation to get John 3:16 right. (I think I said that, too, a while back!)
• Currently, the HCSB uses the designation "Yahweh" instead of the traditional "LORD" (all caps) 75 times. In the 2009 revision, that number will grow to 400.
• Awkward terms like "deluge" and "atmospheric domains" will NOT appear in the 2009 revision.
• Blum explains the decision to go with the half brackets around some words that are added for clarity, but admits he was not in favor of doing it.
• The HCSB translators hate red-letter editions, but publishers love it.
• Farstad was not a Baptist but was a Brethren. Blum is Presbyterian. Only about 1/3 of the translators were Southern Baptist. This hardly justifies the HCSB's reputation as the "Baptist Bible."
• Blum claims that the HCSB is outselling the ESV two to one.
• Agrees that the HCSB website is hard to use.

Tags: HCSB

Tags: Translations

“So she took some of the fruit and ate it. Then she gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it, too.” (Gen 3:6 NLT)

Yesterday, in our Bible study class, I taught on Genesis 3. During my preparation I came across an interesting bit of trivia--how the apple became associated with the forbidden fruit. You know what I'm talking about right? In most popular conceptions of the story, it's an apple that Adam and Eve partake of in violation of God's command, resulting in their fall from innocence and banishment from paradise. I believe I even had a Bible story book or two as a child that specifically said they ate an apple. But as soon as I could read the story for myself, I found out that nowhere is any specific fruit mentioned, let alone an apple (of course, I was also disappointed while still quite young when I couldn't find anywhere in the Bible that Jesus' cross was made from a dogwood tree). So how did an apple get connected to the story? Well it seems that the Latin word for apple is malum, while the word for evil is malus. The phonetic connection between the two words became the key to the association down through the ages. So much for keeping the doctor away...

Tags: Genesis

Tags: philosophy, Ethics

• Unpack it carefully. It's cold this time of year. So if your new Bible has been sitting on a mail truck for the last few hours or even days, be very careful when you first open it. Most Bibles, even those with sewn bindings, use glue to some extent. Cold weather can make that glue brittle. Opening a Bible that's been in the cold can instantly create a permanent crease in the spine where the glue will actually break. If your Bible has been out in the cold, it might be best to let it come to room temperature before laying it open flat. When examining your new Bible for the first time, gently and slowly open it.
• Inspect it carefully. All Bible publishers have generous return policies if you find a serious defect in your Bible. Be careful with gilded page edges as these will probably be stuck together. I've seen pages torn from being separated too quickly. There are actually methods for separating multiple pages at a time such as gently bending your Bible one way and then the other to let the pages separate. Also look for printing flaws. I've seen it all. Missing pages, missing books of the Bible, maps out of order, and printing defects. For whatever reason I regularly end up with printing defects in a new Bible in which a page has been improperly cut on a corner and is folded up into the Bible. Sometimes two pages were never separated. If you decide to keep a Bible like this rather than returning it, don't tear the pages apart, but use a sharp pair of scissors to separate them. Then, if the corner of the page is greater than the other pages, use the scissors to trim the page slightly shorter than the other pages. Any page sticking out will become ragged over time, but cutting the page a bit short will solve this problem.
• Use your hands. The best method for softening a bonded leather or genuine leather Bible is to simply hold it in your hands regularly. The natural oil from your hands (the stuff that leaves fingerprints everywhere) is what softens Bible leather. Keeping your Bible in a Bible cover/case at all times is actually one of the worst things you can do for a Bible, although many people mistakenly believe they are taking care of them this way. I've seen leather Bibles start to crack along the edges of spine because they were kept in protective Bible covers and never allowed to soften from regular use in someone's hands. If you live in an area with lots of bad weather and need to use a protective Bible cover, take it out of the cover when you are actually reading and studying from it. By the way, number of the newer imitation leather covers come already feeling so soft, they seem to already have seen years of use--kind of like buying pre-faded jeans. But no one really knows yet how these new kinds of imitation leathers will hold up after many years of use. If you definitely want the Bible to be around for a long time, select a leather cover.
• Keep your Bible out of the rain. You think this would be a no-brainer, but not necessarily so. If it's raining and you need to carry your Bible, try to hide it under a jacket or put it in a bag or even a Bible case (but take it out when you use it--see #3). Rain drops will cause those ugly looking spots on the silver or gold gilding your Bible has on its page edges. If you get caught in the rain and have no protection for your Bible, hold it spine up to keep water off the paper as much as possible. Not only does rain cause the aforementioned spots, it also will seep into the pages and cause wrinkles and possibly even create smears of ink if you've taken notes in your Bible.
• Don't leave your Bible on the dashboard of your car. When I see a Bible on someone's dash on Thursday in some parking lot, I know that its probably been sitting there since Sunday and the owner hasn't been reading it. More seriously, a dashboard is one of the worst places to keep your Bible. The windshield intensifies the rays of the sun and will dry out the leather. In the hot summer time, this is about like putting your Bible in an oven. In the wintertime, not only can it dry it out, but you also run the risk of hardening any glue in the binding, causing a break when you go to use it next (see #1).
• Use the right kind of pens and highlighters for taking notes. Never use wet highlighters or felt tip or fountain pens in your Bible as this ink will bleed through the thinner than normal pages. Instead, use dry wax highlighters that can be found in most Christian bookstores and some office supply stores. And for writing, employ a pen that uses archival ink such as the Pigma Micron series. These can be purchased at most arts and craft stores and on the internet.
• Tie off the end of your ribbon marker. Don't do this immediately, but if your ribbon marker starts to fray (most usually will eventually), tie the end of it off in a knot and it won't get any worse.
• Don't bend your cover over backwards. Not only will the librarian tell you this is a no-no for library books, I'll tell you that you should never do this to your Bible. I often see preachers bending a Bible all the way over to where the top and bottom covers are touching. This stretches the spine of your Bible and can possibly break it. This often leads to pages falling out, even from Bibles that have sewn bindings. Most Bibles are designed to lay open in one hand and feel limp. But it shouldn't be pushed back any further than this.
• Unfold curled pages. If the corner of a page folds over for whatever reason, unfold it as soon as possible. Inspect your Bible for this regularly because the turned down corners may eventually crack and come off. I've seen many missing page corners in older books and Bibles. Of course, it should go without saying to never fold over the corner of a page to mark your place. This is what a marker ribbon is for. Or use some other kind of bookmark.
• Don't stuff a bunch of material between your Bible's pages. Don't clutter up your Bible with 18 weeks' worth of previous church bulletins or even your current Bible study guide. The spine of your Bible was designed to support the number of pages within your Bible and that's it. Cramming a bunch of extra stuff in there increases your risk of breaking the spine. The librarian's rule is to mark your place with nothing thicker than a sheet of paper. Basic cardstock bookmarks are fine as well.
• Protect Your Bible from pets and very small children. You know how good that new leather smells? It smells even better to your pet! I've seen quite a few Bible covers that had become partial puppy snacks. If you have a dog, especially one that's under a year old or one with a tendency to chew on leather, keep your Bible up high and out of reach when you aren't using it. Also, I've seen very young children take great delight in tearing out those thinner Bible pages. Also, a child may not know the proper way to carry a Bible, and may drag it around by the pages or one end of the cover. Obviously, this isn't good for the health of your Bible. The best bet if pets and toddlers are around is to simply keep it up high.

The official word from Zondervan states that the TNIV Reference Bible's official release date is January 2008. However, Christian Book Distributors is showing availability "on or about" December 10 (as of this writing, CBD did not have any copies yet). The TNIVRB has been a highly anticipated Bible for a number of reasons. The complete TNIV translation has only been in circulation for about two and a half years, andI started teaching primarily from it in the latter half of 2006. However, my greatest complaint at the time was that I couldn't find a copy of the TNIV that didn't draw attention to itself. That is, I couldn't find one that wasn't in neon colors, let alone one with a simple traditional look and feel. Further, I had difficulty find a text layout that I liked. I prefer a single-column text with wide margins for taking notes. Yet, at the time, I couldn't even find a single-column edition of the TNIV.

Then, in September of 2006, I laid eyes on proofs for two different editions of the TNIVRB that were being circulated by Zondervan. One contained the single column text which resulted in the final copy, but the other was a two-column text with cross references in the middle. I quickly cast my vote with the editors at Zondervan for the single-column text. Of course, I made a number of other suggestions, too, including those elusive wide-margins and also suggested moving the cross references to the inside of the page. Zondervan hasn't taken those two suggestions to heart yet, but I'll keep pushing. Besides my vote for the single-column text, the only other influence I feel I had on this edition was to press for a non-thinline edition. Unfortunately, this change in plans pushed the publication of the TNIVRB from October to now, and raised the price by about $5. Nevertheless, after quite a bit of waiting, the TNIVRB in its final form arrived in my mail today, a generous gift to me from my friends at Zondervan.

Zondervan aims the TNIVRB at pastors, students, and teachers. Further, their goal was to make the Bible high quality but sell it as low of a cost as possible to get it in as many "gatekeepers'" hands as possible. Therefore, the TNIVRB does not come in the tradition box that most high-end Zondervan Bibles include, but rather a cardstock slip cover. But as for the Bible itself, it appears to be very high quality. Currently, there's only one edition--black bonded leather--but that leather feels quite solid. More importantly, the binding is smyth-sewn so that the user won't have to worry about chunks of pages coming unglued.

I suppose I was most surprised about the size and weight of the Bible. As already mentioned, I lobbied Zondervan strongly not to make the TNIVRB a thinline Bible. After gaining support from other TNIV fans in the blogosphere, Zondervan announced in May of this year that the TNIVRB would measure in at about 1.25" thick. Well, when I got my copy in hand this evening, I immediately thought it looked thicker than that, so I measured it. I can tell you that the TNIVRB is actually about 1.5" thick, and I can't tell you how excited I am about that. This means thicker paper was used in the TNIVRB which will allow for less bleedthrough of text from underlying pages or personal notations.

Further, the TNIVRB feels good in the hand. It has just the right weight when holding it open, Billy-Graham-style in one hand. I like the TNIVRB because it both looks like a Bible and feels like a Bible! As shown in the picture above, it lays flat when laid on a surface. I don't mean that it merely stays open; it lays flat. Does it lay flat at Genesis 1? Well, not quite flat, but it stays open, which is more than I can say for my TNIV Study Bible that I wrestled with while teaching out of Genesis at church last Sunday. And I'm sure given some time, and once the cover absorbs the natural oil from being held in hand, that it will even lay flat at Gen 1.

As mentioned already, the cover is a black bonded leather. This is complemented by silver lettering and gilding of the pages' edge. The spine itself doesn't contain hard corners, but is semi-rounded which contributes to its look of high quality. The text on the spine is fairly simple. "Holy Bible" runs sideways, while "TNIV" and the current three-tiered Zondervan logo sit perpendicular and occupy the bottom 25% of the spine's area. A single black ribbon is included for marking one's place.

According to the publisher's website, the TNIVRB runs at 1,408 pages. Some pages, such as those designating the Old and New Testaments, and even sections of books within those categories have been seen in some other editions of the TNIV. But most of the TNIVRB is brand new layout. The main text pages themselves contain layout and text that looks anything but rushed. Frequent section headers help to set off pericopes, allowing the text to flow with plenty of free space. The main text font measures at 9 points and is adequate for a Bible of this size. In comparing pages in the final product to the proofs I saw in 2006, it may be that Zondervan slightly enlarged the type from the original concept as slightly less text appears on the pages in the published TNIVRB. Such changes are always welcome.

Thankfully, all text is BLACK, meaning no red lettering (I can hear the applause coming through the internet now).

Cross references run along the outer edge of the page and a new feature, "Topical Ties" run along the bottom. The Topical Ties treat subjects in the text along 700 or so categories. The reader is guided by markers demonstrating earlier or later texts which focus on the same subject. Unfortunately, an index to these topics is not included, but I would think it might be helpful if something like this were made available online.

Heavy note-takers, such as myself will find the TNIVRB mixed for note-taking. Some pages have a lesser number of cross references in the margin allowing for notes, but more "well-travelled" passages contain a full margin of notes that often spill over into the bottom of the page. Poetic sections, however, offer ample room for notations.

Nevertheless, between the cross references, Topical Ties, and parallel passage notations under section headings, the TNIVRB is the ultimate reference Bible. According to the slip cover, there are over 100,000 cross references alone. And Zondervan is claiming that the TNIVRB is the most comprehensive reference Bible available.

Tags: TNIV, Zondervan

• The UBS Greek New Testament: A Reader's Edition (henceforth UBSRE), is similar in nature to Zondervan's A Reader's Greek New Testament (RGNT from this point forward) which has been published in two separate editions. The first was based upon the Greek text underlying the NIV, and the second is based upon the Greek text underlying the TNIV. All three of these New Testaments include a Greek text with a vocabulary apparatus at the bottom of the page containing definitions for all words that occur less than 30 times in the New Testament. The purpose of such an edition is to allow the reader with at minimum a basic foundation of Greek study to simply read the New Testament in Greek without having to constantly consult a lexicon for words not in one's working knowledge.
• As I explained in the previous review of the RGNT2, although I originally bought the Zondervan RGNT1 for the novelty of having the underlying NIV text, I actually found the volume quite useful, especially as a tool to throw into my book bag that I carry to church on Sundays. I found the idea of a Reader's New Testament in Greek with the vocabulary apparatus is extremely handy when I simply needed to consult the text and wasn't worried about text critical issue or didn't have the time to look up complete definitions in my BDAG lexicon.
• I was never fond of the italic text in the RGNT1, but it was bearable. I was extremely disappointed in the release of the RGNT2 in that although the text was changed to a non-italic font, it used a style with thinner character strokes that actually made the text more difficult to read in my opinion.
• Finally, about a year or so ago, a professor at a seminary extension contacted me wanting to know if I had heard whether the RGNT was being discontinued due to threat of a lawsuit from the United Bible Societies or the German Bible Society. I could not confirm any such lawsuit at the time or that the RGNT was being taken off the market (it was not). However, I did confirm from an off-the-record source recently that there was talk of an actual lawsuit, but it was deemed that since the standard eclectic Greek New Testament is based upon public domain ancient manuscripts, such a suit would not be able to stand up in court.

• Translation of all vocabulary items occurring 30 times or less in the New Testament at the bottom of the page
• Translations given according to context
• Definitions of idiomatic word combinations
• Grammatical analysis of all difficult verb forms
• Reader-friendly layout enabling the reader to transfer easily from text to dictionary and vice versa
• An appendix providing translations of all vocabulary items occurring more than 30 times in the New Testament
• The maps from the USB Greek New Testament.

One last thing. If you read my review of the RGNT2, you'll remember I lamented that a ribbon marker was missing, in spite of the fact that one had been promised in early promotions, and even listed as a new feature on early shots of the box cover. Well, potential purchasers of the UBSRE will be glad to know that it does, in fact, come with a ribbon marker. Admittedly a minor detail, but handy for any reader, nonetheless.

Tags: Greek NT, Zondervan, UBS

Tags: Greek NT, A. T. Robertson

From Emmy Award-winning writer-producer Kevin Falls ("The West Wing") and Emmy Award-winning director-producer Alex Graves ("The West Wing"), "Journeyman" is a romantic mystery-drama about Dan Vasser (Kevin McKidd, "Rome"), a San Francisco newspaper reporter and family man who inexplicably begins to travel through time and change people's lives. Along the way, he also must deal with the difficulties and strife at work and home brought on by his sudden disappearances.

However, his freewheeling travels through the decades reunite him with his long-lost fiancée Livia (Moon Bloodgood, "Day Break") -- which complicates his present-day life with wife Katie (Gretchen Egolf, "Martial Law") and their son. Reed Diamond ("Homicide: Life on the Street") and Charles Henry Wyson ("The Curious Case of Benjamin Button") also star.

Even if you've never seen Journeyman before, please check it out.

Links of importance. Sign the petition. Watch/download episodes:
- Journeyman on iTunes
- Online Petition to Save Journeyman
- NBC Journeyman Page
- NBC Direct Journeyman Page
- Amazon.com Unbox Journeyman Episodes (see box to the right).

Tags: Journeyman

Tags: Christmas