2.09.2016

un-formatting the Bible {The Books of the Bible: New Testament}




The Books of the Bible is a fresh yet ancient presentation of Scripture. It strips away centuries of added formatting so you can read and enjoy the Bible. No more chapter and verse numbers. No more study notes. No more cross references or footnotes. No more red letters.

Form matters. When you experience God’s Word in a presentation that honors the original literary form, it can transform the way you read.

This is a Bible for those who want to get lost in the story.
(from Biblica.com)




I love my study Bible -- I like to read the notes at the bottom of the page when I have questions, without having to go searching through a separate reference book. I appreciate being able to find and reference specific passages according to their chapter and verse numbers. But, as the description above says, The Books of the Bible: New Testament is "for those who want to get lost in the story." And that is a beautiful thing.

The lack of chapter and verse numbers, absence of section headings, and single-column format made the text smoother to read -- like a novel --  and therefore easier to understand. Acts, for example, a book I hadn't before paid much attention to, suddenly became a fascinating story that held my interest as well as any fantasy novel. And the brief introduction at the beginning of each book provided context and helped make sense of the more confusing books, such as Revelations.

Even the order of the books is different, to aid in understanding and flow. Paul's letters, instead of longest to shortest, are presented in chronological order. Acts follows Luke, since they were originally two volumes of a single work, without John sitting in the middle. I love this. It is so much easier (and more enjoyable!) to read through the New Testament when it flows well.

While this book can be read in any time frame at any pace, my copy included a bookmark with a suggested eight-week reading plan that breaks the New Testament into manageable 15- to 20-minute chunks (about 12 pages). Naturally, I fell behind and took way longer than two months to work my way through it, but, for the most part, I kept to the suggested daily readings (there were just a few days in-between sometimes).

I'm still struggling my way through The One Year Bible, but I might try the full version of The Books of the Bible next. I have a hunch that the Old Testament might make a little more sense with a few numbers removed...


5/5 leaves!






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Do you have a favorite version of the Bible? Have you ever read straight through the whole thing, or one of the two Testaments? How did you do it, and would you recommend that method? I've tried a few different ways, and I'm curious what you think!




10 comments:

  1. Ill have to check this out! THanks for sharing darling!

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    1. You're welcome! It's definitely worth looking into.

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  2. Oooh this looks SO INTERESTING. ♥ like, gah. I am really in love with the idea of stripping away the formatting (especially those section headers! Like is it just me or do they totally mess with the flow?? I think so anyway.) It really is fascinating -- and so much more like a sweeping story than any of us have been taught to read it. :)

    Some of my current favorite translations are The Heart of Paul (which obviously just focuses on Paul's letters) and the Wuest Translation of the Bible. Those are both sooo yummy.

    Thank you for sharing, girl!! I might just need this in my life. ;)
    love,
    abbiee

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    1. Thanks for sharing your favorite translations! I'll have to look those up. And yes, it's like the editors put in section headers to make the Bible simpler to understand, but in reality, they just made it harder to read!

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  3. This sounds amazing! I love the idea of reading the Bible without it being cut into chapters. It would be a really good way to get a fresh look at the Bible. I was raised on the NKJV version of the Bible, but recently I switched to a HCSB, and I like it!

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    1. Oh, I've never heard of HCSB -- I'll have to check it out! I was raised with the NIV, but I'm starting to get curious about other versions. Thanks for sharing!

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  4. OH MAN THIS LOOKS AWESOME! I am an absolute translation junkie and i don't think I have heard of this one. I love the sound of the chronological-order concept and taking away the boarders, numbers, footnotes, etc. I will definitely have to get my hands on a copy. Thanks for sharing this, Serena!

    Also, request! I know you mentioned the idea of writing gratitude lists in comments on my blog a couple of times (which I think is an awesome idea) and it really aligns with thing I have been talking about on my blog lately. I was wondering if you would be into the idea of doing a guestpost for my blog about it? Shoot me an email if you're up for it!

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    1. I'm certainly no expert on gratitude lists, but I would be honored to write a guest post on your blog! I'll send you an email.

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  5. Wow, this is so cool. I feel like I might've heard about it a long time ago? Maybe? It sounds slightly familiar. Regardless, I'll need to get my hands on something like this soon.
    Thank you for sharing! :D

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    1. Hmm... I might have mentioned it in a previous post? Or maybe you saw it on Goodreads when I added it or rated it or something. In any case, I definitely recommend it! :)

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