Mission Network News reports on the sickening amount of bibles we have laying around compared to other countries.
I’ve been using the same dark blue NIV for nigh on ten years. I cannot tell you the number of times I’ve looked at those cool duotone NRSV’s with a small modicum of jealously. And then I think, Is it more or less sinful if I’m coveting a bible over, say, a car? (neither is good)
All that to say, the cornucopia of translations contains the X-treme manga-fied, to the old school KJV, to the digital. Really though, people in other countries seem to just want one copy, why do we have—on average—nine?
Any of you have a few extra bibles laying around you wouldn’t mind giving away? Is our insistence on more and better bibles even biblical? Other thoughts?
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February 6, 2008 at 17:06
Notionally, I have a number of Bibles to allow me to get a flavour of how particular passages make the transition from their original language into English. However, it’s probably fair to say that the exotic and out-of-favour translations are merely functioning as shelf dressing.
On that basis, your post is a necessary challenge to me…!
J
February 6, 2008 at 19:18
capitalism, baby, yeah!
Plus, I got given a Good News Bible from Sunday School, I’ve got a Gideon New Testament, I’ve been given two New Living New Testaments from another Sunday School. The first Bible I bought myself was a KJV, then I got a Thompson Chain reference KJV, then I got a metal NLT, then a cheap NIV (actually cost almost as much as the metal NLT). Then I got another metal NLT cos I lost the first one (outside the house, so it’s really lost), then I got another cheap NIV because I lost the first one of those as well. Then I got a blue holographic Message Remix. I also have an electronic ESV for free via MacSword. Different translations are good for study and I often lend my Bibles to my Youth Fellowship for the night, because very few bring their own.
February 6, 2008 at 20:12
I agree with you Chris, it’s almost embarrassing how rich we are in the Word. I try to use one Bible at a time till it wears out. And then I have a second small travel Bible. And of course there are a couple of study Bibles in different translations that I have had for 25 years. But nothing too excessive.
Did you know that the largest Bible printer in the world will soon be China? “The new factory will be the world’s single-biggest producer of Bibles with the capacity to print 1 million Bibles a month – increasing the current output by a third.”
Every Jew in Deuteronomy was ordered to wear a collection of scriptures in a small leather box on their heads, on their hands and attached to their doors. Orthodox Jews still do this today. (phylacteries and mezuzahs) Plus they were supposed to talk about them everyday and many had scrolls as well.
“These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.”
February 6, 2008 at 20:30
Indeed the English-speaking world has a plethora of translations and editions. Want the NIV metal skater Bible? You can get that at a Barnes & Noble. Overseas in Croatia and Hungary folks are struggling with bad copies of Latin and French (I may have some of the exact facts wrong) editions. Only recently did Hungarians have a genuine translation from the original languages.
February 7, 2008 at 08:30
Man we have a lot of Bibles lying around. However, I can’t imagine pressing them into grateful 3rd world hands because some of them are just so unreadable.
Any Gideons Society leaders out there? Great stuff y’all but when you gonna switch to the NIV, The Message or something contemporary?
February 7, 2008 at 08:48
I have two: My NIV and my Good News Bible. I got the Good News Bible when I was in second grade. In my church we got our GNB’s presented to us in front of the congregation, so it has some sentimental value.
My NIV was given to me a few years ago by a friend. This also has intrinsic value to me, as well.
My husband, on the other hand, has quite a few, but he was also a youth pastor at one point. I think there is a difference between “collecting” Bibles and having them on hand for study and reference.
We are getting ready to move. Perhaps I will go through our stuff and see if there are any copies that we don’t use and could donate to charity.
February 7, 2008 at 09:38
i understand but I have to say I had a bible last me 10yrs when I was younger but now, bibles wear out so easy. Some of it is out of use but they should last longer than 2yrs.Come on whats up with the cheap bindings? Why does it seem that bibles are not lasting as long. I use my bibles until the binding breaks. What do you do with old broken bibles? My shelf holds them for now. Do you through them away? Do you give them to someone who doesn’t have one? (that doesn’t seem right). Here are my leftovers enjoy. that just seems wrong. We do have more than many countries and bibles are right up there. We are so fat. God help us.
February 7, 2008 at 11:00
I like to have different versions around in case I want some clarification on what a passage is REALLY getting at. Doesn’t always help, but sometimes it helps clarify some ambiguous prose.
February 7, 2008 at 12:58
What would you rather that we have nine of? TV’s? Game Systems? DVD players? Why aren’t you ragging on me for the 30+ pairs of shoes in my closet? Why should Christians feel guilty about having God’s Word around in several forms and translations? Should we all go without food tonight because there are others in the world who have no choice but to do so? Or die of appendicitis (sp?) because some people don’t have access to a doctor? There’s something faulty with the reasoning here. We should feel bad because we have access to an abundance of a GOOD thing?
I have a very beat up, epaired with packing tape, old KJV Bible that I received as a gift when I was 16 (I’m 53). That’s the Bible I use most and the standard against which I measure the newer translations. When I want to quote scripture in order to make convey a specific message, I often search for the translation that uses the words that evoke the connotations I’m looking for. I have a large print edition that I bought for my father years ago. Someday—all too soon—I’ll NEED it! I have a small New Testament in which I wrote a blessing for the baby girl I gave up for adoption as a teenager. I have “The Message”, because that’s the Bible of choice at church. I have a “Daily” Bible and a “Reference” Bible. Which of these would you have me give up?
Sure, there are people who collect them like figurines and lay them around the house in order to appear holy. They should maybe do some housekeeping (starting INSIDE and working their way to the coffee table). There are people who pick them up like souveniers from hotel rooms, who should give them back, or give them away. Otherwise, I’d say that if I am using my Bibles, or they have meaning for me, they are exactly where they need to be. If not, then yes, unload them somewhere they are needed.
If you feel guilty, (and even if you don’t) make a donation to one of the many missions that deliver Bibles to people and countries who are less blessed than we are. The idea isn’t that we should do without good things, it’s that we should do whatever we can to make it so that others are blessed as well. A donation travels much easier than a box of books.
February 8, 2008 at 09:00
I have too many bibles too, and I still want more.
And an odd thing is—I’d rather buy someone a new bible than give one from my hoard. Wha’s a matter with me?
February 9, 2008 at 08:15
First of all, let me say that I am a huge reader -it is my favorite hobby. So, for me, the best gift I can give someone is a story, and often I’ll wrap one up off my own shelves, as a sign – I loved this book and I want you to share the experience. I look for a book that I think will be significant to them and not just to me. I tend to be the same way about Bibles – you have got to read this, or this version really speaks to me, or when I was a teenager, this Bible (doodles in the margins and all!) really helped me grow. So far no one has returned a Bible or seemed offended that I didn’t hand them a gift card to a bookstore. I have a few around now (I just found a cool kids’ reader edition in the attic from Bible college!) that I have plans for, and I confess, a couple for personal study and professional writing (I’m a curriculum developer).
In asnwer to the question – should we all go without food tonight because others go hungry – of course not, but perhaps we should cook up a meal and take it to someone in need and have ourselves Cereal Extravaganza for dinner, instead of feasting and writing a check to assuage our guilt. Perhaps living with less, even in Bible count, to give more to others (giving away some of ours, even the sentimental ones; donating time and, yes, money to international Bible efforts; resisting the lure of the cool cover and finding practical, helpful ways to spend money, perhaps by supporting a missionary to those who do not have Bibles)is still a good idea. Just a few thoughts!
February 9, 2008 at 19:06
I have found that in some countries they scramble and hide from authorities protecting a mere piece of one page of scripture, maybe not even in their own language, but knowing that it is the Word of God. Bibles? What a novelty…
February 10, 2008 at 02:07
My Gideon husband has given out many thousands of bibles and financed many thousands more overseas. (And in the USA they have New King James Version now, which is more readable.) I consider God’s word better than fine gold or rubies. Better than bread. I cling to my bibles like a non-swimmer clings to a raft. Every memory of my bible reading is sweet from 7 years old to now, 56 years old. What would my life have been without it? I share bibles in bible studies; I give away bibles to friends, family, and strangers, I read and study and dream and pray and compare and analyze and synthesize its themes, I sing over it, and I kiss it sometimes with passion when I realize how God loves me through its words. Each bible is a treasure and I relinquish them as pearls not to be thrown before pigs. They are not wasted, they are loved.
February 13, 2008 at 02:24
First of all folks, Bibles like “The Good News Bible”, “The Message”, and others like those are not “translations”, but are “transliterations”.
Don’t know the difference… find out. Educate yourself and be informed.
I favor the MacArthur NASB Study Bible but the ESV and NKJV come in a close second.
For instance in the Mac NASB version, the use of the Greek word “Dulos” (which unequivocably is “SLAVE”, not “SERVANT”) is correct. No other Bible translation has used the correct translation since before the 1590 Geneva Bible. Slave was just not PC I guess. When someone says that the other Bibles are the inerrant Word of God, it might just be misleading. God’s Word is inerrant… but apparently not some Bible translations. Be a Berean and check things out for yourself. Better yet, take up Greek and Hebrew stdies and read the MSS yourself.