This looks intriguing. I appreciate the box set approach, but I hope they come out with a single volume. I assume this is just the first publishing step.
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Do you expect the Modernized Geneva Bible to be a relatively good one, competing with NASB95 and NKJV?
Will it be missing bad feminism/egalitarianism?
Will it be missing good modern scholarship?
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I really don’t know what to expect. It will certainly miss what comes with the modern critical text, relying on the received text. I wish they’d put more examples online so we can compare.
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Considering the source I think they’ll do a pretty bang up job. We’ll see.
These artisan Bibles are all the rage right now. Quite profitable. If they charge for the OT at the rate of the NT, the list price of this full set will be over $150. And if they continue to discount it, the price will still be close to $100 and this without paying any royalties and with only a paperback binding. Too, do they claim copyright and would that be sustained, or are they releasing the text to the public? If they claim copyright, it would be interesting to see whether the courts would uphold it? Would the courts sustain copyright claims for a text that changes a tiny fraction of the words of a Bible text that’s been in the public domain for centuries now? If anyone buys one, let us know what they claim for copyright, pls.
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I just did a quick Amazon scan and I’m surprised at how expensive a Geneva Bible (not NGB) is given that it’s out of copyright. Must be a very niche product. There was a Kindle edition for $2, which seemed reasonable, but there was another Kindle edition for $10, a paperback for $20 and a hardcover for $50.
They basically give away KJVs (I found two paperbacks, $2 and $5), but clearly that’s not a comparable product.
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Maybe I’m just reading my own vanity into this modern multi-volume Bible craze (NIV, ESV…) but it seems the only reason you’d buy one of these is because you like people to know that you have it.
If you don’t regularly read a Bible now…how vain to think a multi-volume with fantastic typeset is going to change your commitment level?
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I’ve got to defend those who like reader bibles and multi-volume bible sets! First off - I tried a reader bible (meaning a bible without chapter and verse, notes, etc. presented within the text, and with a more standard typeset and format) and I was surprised how much different the reading experience was without the text being broken up in the customary manner. I hadn’t realized how much I used the supplied chapters to inform my own reading in ways that are often not natural to the underlying text, and I found myself reading the narrative portions of the bible more like a story in a more engrossed fashion, and less like a academic treatise. It isn’t the best for every type of reading, nor in every setting, but it is a far less distracting way of presenting the text.
Second, multi-volume bibles are great for a number of circumstances. I often read lying on my back, or sitting up in bed. With a full sized bible (even one with loathsome India paper or onionskin paper) this is difficult to do because of the weight and the lack of rigidity. Plus for those of us who are bibliophiles a nice cloth over board smyth sewn binding with heavy opaque paper which fits perfectly in the hand does make the reading experience more pleasurable. Why should all of my other books be well bound while my bible has glued pages falling out after a couple of hours of use?!
I would certainly not pay a premium for the kind of paperback bound multi-volume bible that Canon appears to be putting together with the modernized Geneva bible, but bibles should get hard use and getting a well constructed volume is worth it, if you can afford it.
/rant
[Edited to fix a couple of typos… Also, I realize I conflated reader bibles and multi-volume bibles, but in my experience reader bibles are often multi-volume as well, and they are both “unconventional” designs that I find helpful in some circumstances.]
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I don’t often read from the readers bible I received as a gift in college, but I agree with all your praise of it. I remember the first story I read was David getting bread from Ahimelech. I thought to myself, “Huh, why did it mention Doeg the Edomite?” So I kept reading to find out! I had always devoured novels, but it never occurred to me to keep reading for more in a book like 1 Samuel.
The readers bible is also great for our 8-year-old to read aloud to the family. No verse/chapter numbers, added headings, or cross references to distract him.
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I’ll add my love for Reader bibles as well. It really did change the way I was reading for the better. Removing the chapter and verse numbers is nice, they don’t bother me too much if they are discreet (like the New Cambridge Paragraph Bible). But I don’t ever think I’ll purchase another bible that has two columns of text on the page. Single column from here on out.
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As @Dani.McN said, we really like having an ESV Reader’s Bible at home. Part of that is its utility, part of it is my enjoyment of good typography and design, which includes pride and snobbishness.
As they keep outdoing themselves (now the ESV with “illuminated” multi-volume sets), it seems grosser and grosser. I don’t really want to buy a Bible and have the reason I want to show it off be: Isn’t it just so nice to look at? There’s a point at which it becomes self-indulgent, self-congratulatory, and distracting.
He has no stately form or majesty
That we should look upon Him,
Nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him.
He was despised and forsaken of men,
A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief;
And like one from whom men hide their face
He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.
(Isaiah 53:2–3)
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I think we should distinguish between readers bibles and artisan bibles, the principle distinction being all it takes to be a readers bible is paragraph by paragraph, one column per page. It’s what I require in a bible, now.
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Yeah, but I do think at least the ESV Reader’s Bibles were a precursor to their new illuminated ones. The multi-volume sets of their reader’s editions really moved in the direction of Doesn’t This Look Pretty On My Shelf.
I just can’t wait to see their beautifully illuminated illustration of Zephaniah 1:18:
In the fire of his jealousy, all the earth shall be consumed; for a full and sudden end he will make of all the inhabitants of the earth.
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I missed the action. But, I think most of us are in agreement to your first point. A good single-column Bible is a good innovation. Taking out verses/chapters can also be helpful. And, I finally broke down and bought my first expensively leathered and bound Bible a few years ago, it’ll be nice to have it when I’m old.
To your second point, I own several collected works. I’d be lying if I didn’t just like people to know that I have the collected works of BB Warfield – not because I’ve read much of anything in them, but because people will know what kinda man I am if I have it. But, maybe others have never purchased books for the shelf for show…
How strong is that impulse in me? I wanted to list more than Warfield because, even now, I don’t want you to think that’s the only collected works set I have. Which brings me back to my opening line “maybe I’m just reading my own vanity into this.”
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Collected works aren’t artisan, and it’s artisan hype these Bible publishers have been channelling with endless discussions of paper, font, binding, etc. My collected works of this or that author aren’t anything special paper, font, and binding-wise. Anyhow, hard-copy books have become more show than use given their unplanned obsoletion by way of online sources. Now if someone will bust historic Christian works loose from the Logos monopoly, making them available integrated well with the text of Scripture and offline, too.
Actually, the single paragraph and one column with verse relegation is not innovation. We used the Jerusalem Bible for family devotions back when I was a child and that was its design. Then I used Robert Alter’s new Hebrew translation of the Pentateuch and 1Samuel for our own family devotions, and it was the same.
I can’t speak to this with any authority, but my sneaking suspicion is that moving away from address (chapter/verses) to text is happening partly because no one studies the Bible any more. Or, to put it more directly, we don’t believe in the inerrancy of Scripture any more, so being able to talk about the address of a text is old and in the way. We want flow. Narrative. Conversation. General idea. Love,
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The timing here can’t be coincidence. Which one of you told Bob I wasn’t a fan?
(For the record, I do love and appreciate Bob and Sovereign Grace. My wife and I nearly attended the Pastors College in Louisville with them.)
The World English Bible is an update of the American Standard Version of 1901 - and since I do like the ASV I want to like the World English Bible. But I have not had much of a chance to use it and see how it compares to the ASV and the NASB. I do see the ASV (for certain) and the World English Bible (possibly) being viable alternatives as some of the other versions are overtaken by the spirit of modernity.
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Speaking of Robert Alter; have you read Everett Fox’s translations? What do you think of them?
I have found them to be incredibly helpful in understanding the underlying wordplay in the Hebrew, and they are a joy to read.
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Not read them, but that’s what Alter is helpful with. Thanks for recommendation
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1 Corinthians 6:9-10
Ye Old Geneva 1599:
“Be not deceiued: neither fornicatours, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor wantons, nor buggerers, 10 Nor theeues, nor couetous, nor drunkards, nor railers, nor extortioners shall inherite the kingdome of God.”
Canon’s Modernized Geneva:
“Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor catamites, nor sodomites, 10 nor thieves, nor covetous ones, nor drunkards, nor railers, nor extortioners shall inherit the kingom of God.”
Poorly done. I’d argue that “wantons” is closer to malakoi—stylized effeminacy, softness—than Canon’s change to “catamites”, whether they use that term to mean a pederast’s boy or the receiver in the homosex act.
I’d have to do more study on “wantons” ca. 1599 but I don’t have an OED.
Regardless, why not leave it?
[Thanks @Jadams07]
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