Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)Although I'm a layperson who studies the Bible for my own personal faith and leading a Bible Study, I really enjoyed this book. I think that pastors and serious Bible students would probably get more out of it, but learned a lot from Dr. Comfort's discussion!
Dr. Comfort discusses how the Old Testament and New Testament were canonized, the impact of the Dead Sea Scrolls, and this history of Bible translation. I was especially interested in John Wycliffe's story and how he objected to many aspects of the Catholic church 150 years before Martin Luther's "95 Theses"! Wycliffe is often called "The Morning Star of the Reformation" and of course Wycliffe Bible Translators was named after this man who was the first to translate God's Word into English.
Tyndale lived about the same time as Luther and was killed because of his translation of the New Testament. He kept getting the Bible out to people in England, and the Catholic Church kept confiscating and burning them. Tyndale's dying prayer was "Lord, open the King of England's eyes!"
A student of Tyndale, Miles Coverdale completed the work that Tyndale started. He finished the translation of the Bible. About that time, King Henry VIII had broken ties with the Pope and was ready for an English translation of the Bible. Tyndale's prayer had been answered!
Dr. Comfort's book gives a detailed account of how each Bible version came into being, and whether the versions are word-for-word (KJV, NKJV, RSV), thought-for-thought (NIV) functionally equivalent (CEV, NLT) or a paraphrase (The Living Bible and The Message).
He recommends that today's Bible readers should use more than one translation to get a complete overview. Personally, I use NIV mostly, but I also really like New Living Translation. And reading The Message gives a fresh approach and is really good for pleasure reading.
I highly recommend "The Contemporary Parallel New Testament" edited by John R. Kohlenberger. This wonderful book has 8 Bible versions side-by-side (all 8 versions of a passage on a two-page spread).
Please see my other reviews for many reviews of different Bibles and check out my Listmania List "Great Bibles" for info on some of my favorites!
God bless you in your study of the Word of God!
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