Sue's Musings

The first is called Bible Illuminated: The Book: New Testament. What is different about this is it looks like a magazine. It is a very different reading experience. The cover is literally “eye-catching” with a closeup of an eye on a black background. When you open it up it is the Good News Translation, four columns to the page. I noticed two things immediately. First – there are no chapter and verse numbers, which, I don’t know about you, but I find VERY refreshing. My brain is much more ready to read it like a story and not parse it by verse. The second thing I noticed was the pictures. Throughout the bible are modern photos interpreting scripture verses. The pictures themselves become a conversation piece challenging us to think about what pictures from today’s world we would use to illustrate the scriptures. Click on the link below to go to the book on amazon.com and you can read more about the thinking behind this format. We’ve also got a copy of it at the presbytery office if anyone wants to borrow it or come in and look at it.

The second bible is called The Green Bible. It is a much more traditional type bible – nice size to carry, New Revised Standard Version, and it does have your chapter and verse markings. What makes it different is that it is made out of 100% recycled material, and verses that relate to the environment are – yes – in green. You’ll find a link to this one below too.

Another Bible you may want to check out is the new Discipleship Study Bible. This also is the NRSV translation. Like many study bibles, it has some scholarly background on the various books, although if you read the reviews some like it and some don’t. What I like about it is in the notes it raises questions that prompt us to think more concretely about how what we read speaks to our own socio-political situations, as well as to our own spiritual growth. In other words, the comments grow out of our 21st century society, not the mid or early 20th.

Each is very different, each was published with different goals. If you’ve found other bibles you use that you’ve found helpful or thought-provoking, please share them with us.