Peter at Beauty of the Bible laments the fact that he went to a Christian book store and didn’t find any commentary on the Old Testament. Peter says, “I think this is evidence of the sad state of Christianity’s understanding and interest in the Old Testament. Unfortunately, Christians will never understand the New Testament as well as they want or need to without understanding the Old Testament.”

I always think of Romans 15:4 regarding how important Paul thought the OT is.

Romans 15:2-4
We should help others do what is right and build them up in the Lord. 3For even Christ didn’t live to please himself. As the Scriptures say, “The insults of those who insult you, O God, have fallen on me.” 4Such things were written in the Scriptures long ago to teach us. And the Scriptures give us hope and encouragement as we wait patiently for God’s promises to be fulfilled.

Obviously Paul was talking about what we call the Old Testament. Even the Gospels most likely weren’t written until after Romans. There’s no way we can know what he’s talking about or receive teaching, hope and encouragement from them if we don’t know the OT. If the OT wasn’t useful, it wouldn’t have been quoted so much by Jesus and the inspired NT writers.

Related post:

• Old Testament Education

Please stop commenting on Bible translations!

Many can obviously see this isn’t your area of expertise.

Thank you,
Jeff at Scripture Zealot

Barack Obama and the TNIV by John Piper

ESV onlyism and Sproul at Suzanne’s Bookshelf

Edit March 5, 2011: I now believe open letters are kind of dumb. I was going to remove the post–one reason being there’s a 99.9% chance they won’t even see this. But with all the comments, I think I’ll leave it. It still stands because they keep making blunders.

The Holman Illustrated Study Bible can be seen at Google Books. This will allow you to take a good look at it but be aware that the scanning is awful. For example, the footnotes at the bottom are in a nice yellow box but you can’t really see that in the scans.

This edition is out of print but it can be found used in both leather and hardcover. Right now my two main translations are NLT and HCSB. (I’m Reformed and I’m not a fan of the ESV–go figure.) I bought a hardcover and may use it as my main HCSB. I also have a nice HCSB crimson pew Bible. I like the fact that the The Illustrated Study Bible is single column. The photographs shouldn’t be too distracting and the dashes of color are nice (except for the red letters). Does anyone happen to use this as their regular Bible?

Also see:
HCSB Bible Translation Web Sites

I like to read commentaries all the way through. There I said it.

After reading a lot about Jesus (The Historical Jesus? Christology? I’m still confused on the terms.) and the Gospels, I started reading regular commentaries with Romans and went all the way through Revelation. A review on Keener’s great Revelation commentary is forthcoming.

Now I want to go back to the Gospels and read commentaries on those and Acts. I just got done finishing a read-through of Mark. I was mesmerized. Wow. I don’t know how to describe it. Mainly, the Holy Spirit illumined things that I hadn’t noticed before, as happens to all of us.

I was going to try to read as much as I could at once to get a good overview but needed to slow down to savor it. Just the first two chapters are so rich.

I also think that reading commentaries has helped me learn how to better read the Bible in some respects. To me it’s like reading the Bible in slow motion with a learned scholar leading me through how to look at the details, read things in context, think about what the author meant to say to his original audience etc. (And education of these things is sorely lacking in the church.) I can’t say how much this has helped. And I haven’t even gotten into hermeneutics proper yet.

Now I will be starting with a commentary on it by Alan Cole.

I’ve read about and heard from so many people who seem to have a hard time having a ‘quiet time’ (I prefer devotional time) every morning.

Even though morning is a common time for prayer (Psalm 5:3), maybe this isn’t the best way to go about it for those who have difficulty. Some might not be morning people. Some may have to get up very early and deal with little munchkins running amok. Some may have a really hard time concentrating.

For those who have a difficult time with it, there is no rule that you must have a 30 minute quiet time in the morning. For some people, feeling a need to “get right with God” by having a quiet time may be bordering on legalism.

If morning isn’t a good time, maybe it would be good to pray some Scripture before even getting out of bed.

Then it might be good to do Bible reading during lunch if possible.

A more concentrated time of prayer could be done after work.

Bible study could be done certain nights during the week and on the weekends.

Some of these things may not be feasible but you get the idea.

I have an hourly chime on my watch and also on my computer for memorizing Scripture. I briefly go over whatever I’m working on at the time. (This method works better for me than repeating something ten times, once a day.) If I start to get so used to the sound on the computer that I don’t hear it, I change it. This also keeps Scripture going through my head much of the day.

Then it’s good to pray right before bed. It doesn’t need to be a lot. I like the idea of praying three times a day.

If you need some inspiration on Bible reading you can find some quotes here.

Obviously this isn’t for everyone but I wanted to post some thoughts based on experience.

Do you have unconventional ways of exercising spiritual disciplines?

A few months ago I decided to mainly write positive posts pertaining to translations. The Message isn’t one of my favorites but I’ve learned it has its bright spots thanks to other bloggers. If you don’t like it at all please don’t comment.

Mine is Psalm 119:92 “If your revelation hadn’t delighted me so, I would have given up when the hard times came.”

I wrote about this in a previous post.

If you have a favorite verse or passage, or more than one, please post them here.

If you want to be cool this week, you need to write a post about how you mark up your books. So because of my need for acceptance and a daily affirmation (therapists say this is a good thing and I’m OK), I will show you a couple of my own.

I don’t take many notes in books. In commentaries I do some highlighting. It’s sparse enough so that if I’m looking for something that’s important, I can usually page through it and find the quote I’m looking for. Lately I’ve been writing themes or subjects at the top of the page in commentaries. I need to now go through all of them and write down the subjects and what book and page they’re listed on. I think I will put these in my Wiki.

If anyone else has a system like this I’d like to hear about it.

Here is an example from Schreiner’s 1-2 Peter, Jude:

Click for larger image

Marking up the Bible is more complex. If you don’t have an advanced degree you might not understand it, although I don’t have any degree, but I’m probably smarter than all of you but I’m also probably the most humblest person you’ll ever meet.

Anyway, green is memorized Scripture. If it’s a long passage it will be vertical next to the passage. Yellow is regular highlighting. If there is a word within the highlighting to be emphasized that will be underlined in pencil (not shown). Orange is for a definition or further comment. An orange dot below will have the definition or further comment. Corresponding words or phrases will be underlined in pencil. In this picture I’ve used colored pencils as a special example because there were so many corresponding terms. Cross references will be in the margins which is a really tight fit (none on this page). Other notes are in pencil.

Click for larger image

These are the cool bloggers I try to emulate:

• Writing Notes in Books – Bryan’s Thoughts
• Writing in Books – Mike Aubrey
• How I Mark My Books – Nick at Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth
• Writing notes in my books – Bitsy at Jack Of All Trades

THIS BOOK contains the mind of God, the state of man, the way of salvation, the doom of sinners and the happiness of believers. Its doctrines are holy, its precepts are binding, its histories are true, and its decisions are immutable. Read it to be wise, believe it to be safe and practice it to be holy. It contains light to direct you, food to support you and comfort to cheer you. It is the traveller’s map, the pilgrim’s staff, the pilot’s compass, the soldier’s sword and the Christian’s charter. Here paradise is restored, heaven opened and the gates of hell disclosed. Christ is its grand object, our good is its design and the glory of God its end. It should fill the memory, rule the heart, and guide the feet. Read it slowly, frequently, and prayerfully. It is a mine of wealth, a paradise of glory, and a river of pleasure. It is given you in life, will be opened in the judgement, and will be remembered forever. It involves the highest responsibility, will reward the greatest labour, and will condemn all who trifle with its sacred contents.

–Anonymous

Isaiah 43:4 NLT
Others were given in exchange for you.
I traded their lives for yours
because you are precious to me.
You are honored, and I love you.

With most of us living in a modern democracy we may have a tendency to expect God to be fair and democratic to our sensibilities and that He should make complete sense to us. If we always try to reason our way into making God fit into that criteria we will either be frustrated or misguided.

Isaiah 55:8-9
“My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the LORD.
“And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine.
For just as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so my ways are higher than your ways
and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.

Romans 11:33-36
Oh, how great are God’s riches and wisdom and knowledge! How impossible it is for us to understand his decisions and his ways!

For who can know the LORD’s thoughts?
Who knows enough to give him advice?
And who has given him so much
that he needs to pay it back?*

For everything comes from him and exists by his power and is intended for his glory. All glory to him forever! Amen.

Aside from the Gospels, Colossians and Hebrews are my favorites. John Calvin expresses my sentiments better than I could:

There is indeed, no book in Holy Scripture which speaks so clearly of the priesthood of Christ, which so highly exalts the virtue and dignity of that only true sacrifice which He offered by His death, which so abundantly deals with the use of ceremonies as well as their abrogation, and, in a word, so fully explains that Christ is the end of the Law.

For those who haven’t heard of it yet: Just a heads up that The Bible’s Buried Secrets will be on TV on PBS in the United States on Tuesday November 18th on Nova. I have no idea what the show will be like. I’m just letting you know about it.

It looks like it can be viewed online and the web site has quite a few articles.

The Bible’s Buried Secrets Web Site

Update:
Live Blogging ‘The Bible’s Buried Secrets’ – Dr. Jim West
Thoughts on ‘The Bible’s Buried Secrets’ – Biblia Hebraica

Ryan Burns from Logos Bible Software graciously sent me a review copy of Bible Study Magazine.

If you go to their Preview page you will find some sample pages of the first issue and a video with a rundown of all the articles in the magazine by John Barry, Associate Manager and Project Editor. I’ll try not to repeat what’s already covered there in this review. I also will not be critiquing the content of each article.

This issue is 49 pages long. There aren’t an inordinate amount of ads. The multi-page articles are continuous and not broken up by full page ads or continuation later in the magazine which is nice.

Their statement of faith is the Apostles’ Creed. The magazine doesn’t seem to have a theological bent as far as I can tell at this point.

It’s interesting to see what Josh McDowell is up to these days. The article mentions how he became a Christian, how he got into apologetics and how it’s useful in different situations, how he prepares for speaking engagements and how he uses Logos Bible Software. This article is a generous five pages.

Daniel Wallace writes an article on Bible translations. This is a very short primer for those who may have used only one translation and are curious about what else it out there. Wallace briefly explains the difficulty of translating a language, basic translation philosophies and why translations are different. He seems to prefer formal equivalence over functional equivalence.

A paragraph each is written for the N/KJV, N/RSV, ASV/NASB, NEB/REB, T/NIV, NLT, HCSB, ESV, NET and he pulls no punches on the New World Translation (Jehovah’s Witnesses). He seems to prefer the ESV and NET.

The magazine is sprinkled with links to areas on the Logos web site, like Resources on the Book of Hebrews and outside resources like DeadSeaScrolls.org.

A few of the questions that are answered in this issue are:

• What is the Great Isaiah Scroll?
• What is the Areogapus?
• How do I find out more about the Greek word used for power (dunamis) as it’s used in Luke?
• Who is Cyril of Alexandria?
• Why is John 5:4 absent in many Bible translations?

As you can see, some of these things can be found on the Web. For those who like to read in print, these articles can be good starting points and provide new ideas for subjects to look into further. Other material will tend to be more exclusive, like the interviews, which tend to be the more extensive articles—and multi-issue articles.

I hope I don’t sound like I’m gushing, but I can’t remember the last time I read a magazine where I was interested in nearly every article and read the magazine from cover to cover (although the latter is partly because I’m doing this review).

In these times it’s extremely difficult to launch a magazine and keep it going. I hope this magazine will be helpful in getting people interested in Logos software and be profitable enough for it to be sustained for the long term.

Bible Study Magazine Web Site

1 Timothy 6:17-19 Young’s Literal Translation
Those rich in the present age charge thou not to be high-minded, nor to hope in the uncertainty of riches, but in the living God, who is giving to us all things richly for enjoyment; — 18 to do good, to be rich in good works, to be ready to impart, willing to communicate, 19 treasuring up to themselves a right foundation for the time to come, that they may lay hold on the life age-during.

Sometimes the more literal, but seemingly more odd to us translation can make a lot of sense to me. I like the passage above.

Sometimes when I read the English translation in a Greek interlinear it really doesn’t sound that awkward. Except for when it does. I’m glad I got a regular interlinear instead of a reverse interlinear.

Thank God for a variety of translations.

That’s all.

• Liddell and Scott’s Greek-English Lexicon (1940)¹ – no accents or breathing marks allowed
• Unicode Classical Greek Inputter¹ – click on Greek Letters, click on each letter and then you can paste this into Liddell and Scott, a word processor or whatever you need
• StudyLight Interlinear Study Bible
• The Resurgence Greek Project
• Online-Bibeln – Novum Testamentum Graece (NA 27)² – Buch-Book, Kapitel-Chapter, Vers
• Institute of Biblical Greek
• Guide to Greek Pronunciation Conventions – see links at bottom
• Recordings
• Interlinear Scripture Analyzer (ISA) – standalone software
• Basic Greek And Exegesis – Sample Chapter (PDF)³

HT:
1. Suzanne
2. Esteban
3. Bible Geek Gone Wild

Any others?

See the comments for more.

This is Romans 3:25(a). As mentioned many times before, I like retaining the word propitiation, and the translation of the underlying Greek word is the subject of the comparisons. It’s a tricky subject in many ways. Here are wide variety of examples.

Interestingly, mercy seat is used in a recent translation shown below.

1. Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood,

2. God put forward as an expiation by his blood, to be received by faith.

3. whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith.

4. whom God put forward as a sacrifice of atonement by his blood, effective through faith.

5. God publicly displayed him at his death as the mercy seat accessible through faith.

6. whom God offered as a place where atonement by the Messiah’s blood would occur through faith.

7. For God sent Jesus to take the punishment for our sins and to satisfy God’s anger against us.

8. For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin.

Strong
ἱλαστήριον
hilastērion
hil-as-tay’-ree-on
Neuter of a derivative of G2433; an expiatory (place or thing), that is, (concretely) an atoning victim, or (specifically) the lid of the Ark (in the Temple): – mercyseat, propitiation.

Thayer
1) relating to an appeasing or expiating, having placating or expiating force, expiatory; a means of appeasing or expiating, a propitiation

Psalm 4:4
Be angry and do not sin;
on your bed, reflect in your heart and be still.

Ephesians 4:26
Be angry and do not sin. Don’t let the sun go down on your anger,

Ephesians 4:26 – Be ye angry, and sin not – That is, if ye are angry, take heed ye sin not. Anger at sin is not evil; but we should feel only pity to the sinner. If we are angry at the person, as well as the fault, we sin. And how hardly do we avoid it. Let not the sun go down upon your wrath – Reprove your brother, and be reconciled immediately. Lose not one day. A clear, express command. Reader, do you keep it?

–John Wesley

The Septuagint, which is copied by St. Paul, Ephesians 4:26, translate this clause, Οργιζεσθε, και μη ἁμαρτανετε; Be ye angry, and sin not. The Vulgate, Syriac, Ethiopic, and Arabic, give the same reading; and thus the original רגזו rigzu might be translated: If ye be angry, and if ye think ye have cause to be angry; do not let your disaffection carry you to acts of rebellion against both God and your king. Consider the subject deeply before you attempt to act. Do nothing rashly; do not justify one evil act by another: sleep on the business; converse with your oten heart upon your bed; consult your pillow.

–Adam Clarke

Psalms 37:8
Refrain from anger and give up [your] rage;
do not be agitated-it can only bring harm.

Ephesians 4:31
All bitterness, anger and wrath, insult and slander must be removed from you, along with all wickedness.

Colossians 3:8
But now you must also put away all the following: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and filthy language from your mouth.

James 1:19-20
My dearly loved brothers, understand this: everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger, 20 for man’s anger does not accomplish God’s righteousness.

I hope you didn’t think I was going to give you my top ten translations.

My top five reasons for not listing my top ten translations.

1. I don’t think others care or should care what my top ten translations are.
2. I’m not qualified to judge which ones are the best.
3. Related to number 2, it would mainly be my preference, which is what most top ten lists are anyway, which is what Douglas Mangum at Biblia Hebraica asserts.
4. I’m determined not to be a “fan” of any one translation which would be my #1 translation.
5. There are only two translations I’ve read all the way through.

I do think that for someone who is interested in choosing or switching, the top ten lists can be educational. Some that I have seen are:

• “This Lamp” favorite bibles via He Is Sufficient
• My Ranking of English Bible Translations – Biblia Hebraica

Any others?

Philippians 4:13 NASB
I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.

Philippians 4:13 NIV
I can do everything through him who gives me strength.

Philippians 4:13 TNIV
I can do all this through him who gives me strength.

I really like the TNIV rendering. Can you imagine if the TNIV was the standard rendering throughout the years how this wouldn’t be constantly taken out of context (shown below) and/or misinterpreted?

Philippians 4:11-13 TNIV
I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. 12 I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. 13 I can do all this through him who gives me strength.

I’m not only learning the importance of context but also that the word all or everything isn’t always “an amount or quantity from which nothing is left out or held back” even in English:

Everything
1.
a. All things or all of a group of things.
b. All relevant matters: told each other everything.
2. The most important fact or consideration: In business, timing is everything.
American Heritage Dictionary

I won this from commenting on the NLT blog. I was very surprised to get mine this early. Thank you very much to Tyndale.

The dust cover has been removed for these photos. I think they could have done without it. Having the design on the hardcover looks very nice and is similar to what the BECNT and NIVAC commentaries do for example.

The pages are very thin and there is quite a bit of bleed through compared to what I’m used to. I wouldn’t mind if the Bible was 15% thicker with heavier paper but I’m sure even more people would then complain about how the Bible is too heavy and thick. Since it’s a study Bible I think this is just fine and it’s not bad enough to reduce readability. I would trust the publisher knows what people want and struck the right balance. The photo below shows the NIV Thompson Chain Reference Bible and a typical pew Bible so you can see that it’s relatively compact.

I have two other very minor gripes.

The red letter text isn’t quite consistent in color saturation level from page to page. When it’s darker and more saturated it’s easier to read. Maybe in subsequent printings this will be taken care of. Most people probably won’t even notice this. (Sorry I pointed it out.) Of course this could be easily fixed by not having red letters! But we won’t belabor that point.

In the Hebrew and Greek Word Studies, transliterations of the Hebrew and Greek are used without the actual Hebrew and Greek words being shown. I’ve learned the Greek alphabet and would like to see the actual Greek words in addition to the phonetic English transliteration of the underlying word. I look forward to using this feature in any case.

One of my favorite features at first perusal are the Theme Notes. I call them little surprises. They pop up here and there and they’re like a box of chocolates—you never know what you’re going to get. For example, in the middle of Ezekiel you’ll find God’s Sovereignty and Human Responsibility. These are usually a few paragraphs at the most and include Scripture references to the left of the text. This can be seen on page 5 of the NLT Study Bible Features Guide (PDF file) in the lower left.

For a list of reviews please see the NLT Study Bible Reviews Roundup page.

I thought Suzanne McCarthy and TC Robinson would appreciate these.

From Buttons for Your Blog or Website

I am a neutral party just giving them a hard time.

Hopefully somebody will find them useful. Please go to the above link to copy the code if you would like to use them.