One Year Later: Thoughts on The Books of the Bible
One year ago the International Bible Society published the first editon of The Books of the Bible, a TNIV Bible that had been re-organized in a literary and canonical way and with a text void of verse numbers, comments, sidebars, fun facts, and study notes. It is literally, the books of the Bible…that’s it.
The first edition made its way onto my birthday wish list, and ever since then it has been my primary Bible for reading. I wanted to share some of my thoughts with you on TBotB’s first birthday. The questions come from an informal questionarre I was sent by IBS staff to help them put together supplemental material for TBotB.
Hopefully, IBS will come out with a hardcover edition soon with extra wide margins and space to journal…just for me?
What new experiences have you had reading the Scriptures with The Books of The Bible?
When
I read using The Books of the Bible I am able to read "complete
thoughts" and understand how the passage works together as a whole.
Puncuation is incredibly important to any written work, and so it is
with the Bible. Unfortunately, for so long verses acted as foreign
punctuation that compartimentalized and fragmented passages into
ill-conceived snippets and phrases. Now, as I read with TBotB, I don’t
read the Bible as a laundry list of presuppositions but instead as
literature, as a narrative.
More importantly, I have been able to more fully experience the
different genres of the Bible like I never had before. The Psalms,
devoid of verse markings, headings, and notations, are presented as the
lyrics that they are. The multi-genre books, such as some of Paul’s
epistles with songs and doxologies, are also clearly defined and
presented as the voice of the work intended.
there ways in which you have begun studying the Bible differently as a
result of the format changes in The Books of The Bible?
have begun studying the Bible passage by passage instead of verse by
verse. As a person who has to read every foot note, end note, sidebar,
caption, etc., it has been refreshing to have the text at hand, and not
be bombarded with extra stuff all the time. What is so symptomatic of
the information age is that we constantly crave more and more
information. News and sports channels started with tickers roling with
information, and now they are debuting sidebars—and this is all
information that is beyond the central video feed giving even more
information! Unfortunately our Bibles have become as fragmented as our
information media, going beyond verse markings to now include sidebars,
fun facts, essays, definitions, insights, theologian’s thoughts,
primers on biblical studies, etc. Our Bibles are chock full of words
that are uninspired and fighting for our eyes. When we see so much
information surrounding the Scriptures we begin to treat the Scriptures
as just another piece of information, and instead of valuing the
opinions of others we devalue the Scriptures to the level of essay,
dogma, and "fun fact."
to TBotB. I don’t use a commentary, I don’t go through the lexicon or
Strong’s numbers and parse verbs. I sit with the Scriptures. I read
them over. I meditate on them. I stretch them out in my mind and
reflect on them.
Spirit, and not with information. Before, when I used study Bibles,
the Spirit had no place in my experience with the Scriptures. All I
had to do was glance over at what some professor or theologian wrote to
guide interpretation, and it became my interpretation. I am not
discounting the role of the Christian community in interpretation in
anyway, but there can be points when the Spirit is speaking to you
about a specific idea or thought found in Scripture and you can just
dismiss it and reply, "that’s not what so-and-so says this passage is
about."
What are your thoughts about new approaches to preaching and teaching that The Books of The Bible would promote?
I
think that TBotB works very well with lectio divina at an individual
level and corporate reading at a small group/congregational level.
I remember being astonished the first time I learned that the early
church read whole epistles at church services. I wondered at how far
we had changed, to go from reading whole books or passages to reading
three or four verses then hearing a man or woman, and not God, speak
the rest of the time. Maybe one of the reasons the early church heard
from God in services more often is because they actually heard God’s
Word and not the words of a pastor.
At the level of preaching, I think the TBotB will guide the pastor
to preach more thematically and with a narrative theology as opposed to
a close reading/exegesis of verses. It is far harder to preach
narrowly when one is presented with whole paragraphs of material
instead of just one or two verses to focus on (and thus distort).
As to lectio divina, it is a rewarding experience for me to read a
passage over and over, meditate on it, pray on it, pray through it, and
contemplate it thorughout the day. It was harder for me to do lectio
divina with a Bible other than TBotB because of all the clutter on the
pages. Like a Quaker going to meeting, I am greeted by a silence on
the page as I read, a silence that helps me hear the whisper of the
Holy Spirit.
Thomas–
Thanks so much for sharing this experience. I think reading for passage instead of by verse is a great byproduct of this approach. Have you sat down and read some of these works entire? That might also be a cool thing–to think of them not passage by passage but even book by book, and this lack of apparatus and distraction would be an ideal way to do that.
Greg, thanks for your comment.
I know I didn’t mention it in my reflection, as I had written it a couple weeks ago, but just this past week I did do exactly as you suggest: I read 1 Timothy and Titus in one sitting. My fondest memory of reading a book in the Bible had to be reading Romans through from beginning to end in one sitting.
Romans has to be the book in the Bible that is most dissected and ripped to shreds by commentators, pastors, and theologians. Not only do people quote verse by verse in Romans, but they start adding the phrase markers in as well (i.e., Romans 13:4b or 5:3a).
Reading whole books in the Bible at one time, or for the larger ones thematic passages (the Abrahamic narrative, the Noah narrative, etc.) is a way to re-orient oneself with the Bible as story instead of the Bible as rigid legal document made to be critiqued mercilessly.
Hey Thomas, I don’t mean this as a slam at all, but do you think you will still have the same uncluttered kind of reading experience when your own words fill the wide margin edition you hope for?
Haha…good point. Touche.
I couldn’t agree more with you comments. I’m on a personal campaign to The Books of the Bible in a high end edition of the finest leather. It deserves to be preserved this way. If you have any suggestions how or who I could contact I would appreciate your help. Thanks.
James, here is the contact page for the International Bible Society for information about The Books of the Bible edition: http://thebooksofthebible.info/contact/index.php
The Bible edition also has its own blog: http://blog.thebooksofthebible.info/index.php
I have been in contact with a member of The Bible Design Group for this edition and can put you in touch if you want. If so, please contact me through the Everyday Liturgy contact page so I can have your e-mail address.