NET Bible and Kindle: Now Better Together

Originally only available in noteless text form, the Kindle Net Bible is now available with notes and a working hyperlinked table of contents for books and chapters, according to Todd Lingren at bible dot org.

The direct Amazon download page for the Kindle NET Bible with Notes and working links is here.

Now I must go repent of coveting my neighbors’ Kindle.

Pocket Bible of Choice

The winner is this one, which is jacket pocket sized, attractive, and has a font that is quite readable for its size.

Why the NRSV with Apocrypha Compact? If I were being snarky I would say because it has something to offend everyone. Reams of Protestants and Jews don’t like the inclusion of the Apocrypha; Almost no denomination entirely likes the inclusive language and translation choices; Orthodox like the reliance on the Septuagint in the OT, Jews dislike the same. And so on.

But if you want to talk to Roman Catholics and Orthodox, you’ve got to have those pesky Apocrypha in some form. And if you’re doing serious bible study, you need them for the cultural background to the NT and the cross-references.

In short, I see this as the most useful Bible translation in a small size I could find. And did I mention it’s dark blue with silver edges and pretty?

It’s true I have entirely too many copies of NRSV bibles, but outside of finding a good cross referenced edition, this should about do me in that translation. If the NET folk want to get busy and produce a NET with the fuller NRSV apocrypha, I’d gladly adopt that, but that doesn’t seem likely to happen soon. Thus, this is the one I go with.

So while the summer months are questionable, in the fall and winter at least, whenever I have a jacket or overcoat on, this book is going with me from now on. I wonder if  it qualifies as “something sensational to read”?

Some Bible Study Books for the Original Language Impaired

Basically here are resources for compare and contrast.:

Parallel Bibles:

1. Essential Evangelical Parallel Bible: Two formal translations (NKJV, ESV), a middle translation (NLT 2) and a paraphrase (Message) in one big volume.

2. Today’s Parallel Bible: Two formal translations (KJV, NASB), two dynamic (NIV, NLT)

3. Evangelical Parallel New Testament: Out of print,  but the motherlode of recent translations: NKJV, ESV, HCSB, NIV, TNIV, NLT, NCV, Message

New Testament Textual Criticism:

1. NET Bible: The footnotes cover differences in translation in detail. Problem is the notes range from layman friendly to rather scholarly.

2. New Testament Text and Translation Commentary: Philip Comfort’s one stop eight hundred page discussion of why English translations of the NT often differ.

Apocrypha/Deuterocanonical Editions:

1. NRSV with Apocrypha: The standard bearer, with the most complete selection of apocrypha in its day.

2. ESV with Apocrypha: A reader’s edition of the popular conservative formal translation with the same apocrypha as the NRSV.

3. New English Translation of the Septuagint (NETS): Recent translation of the Greek OT, which includes most of the standard apocrypha, thus doubly useful for apocryphal study and examining the OT translation the apostles used.

Useless Entertainment Roundup

So I finished reading Eight Lives Down(salty language alert!) and The Apostolic Fathers and the New Testament. Two thumbs up for both.

Seeing as we are studying Psalms this new quarter in Sunday School, I’ve taken up Emmanuel Tov’s Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible again. It doesn’t seem so scary as last time.

I’m still on my Japanese jidaigeki kick in DVDs, but I’m about to switch over to the two Ghost in the Shell tv series.The two newest American Doctor Who releases are about to reach my door. And I’m contemplating an episode a day of Discovery Channel’s A Haunting in preparation for Halloween.

Oh, and did I mention I hanker to listen to some Celtic fiddle again? Amazon MP3 has quite a selection.

Now, how will I find time to work and do Sunday School notes with all this going on?

The Big Brown Truck Brings Didache

The latest UPS delivery was a mere two books, but there was nothing mere about the titles:

The Didache, Hermeneia Commentary, by Kurt Niederwimmer

The Didache: Faith, Hope, and Life of the Earliest Christian Communities, 50-70 C.E., by Aaron Milavec.

Niederwimmer is a traditional sort of commentary, and for many the leading commentary on this part of the Apostolic Fathers. Though with the mass of work going on in researching the Didache, it’s 1993 date is making it seem dated already.

Milavec’s book gives the impression of needing to reverse the parts of it’s long title for strict accuracy.  It is also considered THE book on the Didache by many– not the least because of its nine hundred plus page length!–  but it is made up of commentary sections and “excurses” in greyed blocks. It also spends no little time speaking of modern day issues along with interpretation of the text, which annoyed a few reviewers.

Next up for me will be Psalms commentaries for the next quarter’s Sunday School lessons.

Is this the Universal Punchline in Biblical Studies?

Or is it instead:

HT: Jim West

From the Big Brown Truck

Recent UPS deliveries include:

The Letter of James, Anchor Bible Commentary, by Luke Timothy Johnson

The Letter of James, Pillar New Testament Commentary, by Douglas Moo

The Epistle of James, New International Greek Testament Commentary, by Peter Davids

So there’s the list of commentaries for the next round of Sunday School Notes, through August. I’ve gotten so used to Ben Witherington III’s commentaries I may go ahead and get his James volume, too.  I’ve very little clue about Psalms commentaries for the quarter afterward, as they are either unrecommended or multi-volume.

Also from the big brown truck are some Apostolic Fathers:

Ignatius of Antioch, Hermeneia Commentary, by William Schoedel

Shepherd of Hermas, Hermeneia Commentary, by Carolyn Osiek

I will likely order Kurt Neiderwimmer’s The Didache to polish off my Apostolic Fathers commentaries (I can’t get into Apostolic Tradition or 1 Enoch 1 that much).

And in DVDs I received

Doctor Who: Attack of the Cybermen

Doctor Who: The Rescue/The Romans

I will likely soon order The Call of Cthulhu, which mixes my interests in horror and silent film. Of course, there are also Criterion re-releases I’m thinking about upgrading as well, but DVDs, like books, are so many, and time/money so slight….

More Books on Southern Baptists

About a year ago I posted some suggestions for books for and about Southern Baptists.

Again this year, just after the SBC annual meeting, I offer three more book suggestions on my denomination for your perusal, one edited and one authored by Union University President David Dockery and one theology:

Southern Baptist Consensus and Renewal: Dockery wrote this in 2007?. It is a call for unity among Southern Baptists, with chapters organized on brief expositions of the past, the current situation, and the needs of the future. Chapters include topics like Southern Baptist Identity markers (Scripture, Missions, Cooperation), Exposition of  Southern Baptist Consensus Theology, Worship, Education,  History of Southern Baptist Theology, and Qualities needed in Future SBC leaders.

Southern Baptist Identity: This is just out, and I’m about halfway through the book. This Dockery-edited collection of essays focuses on how the SBC has operated in the past and how it should operate in the future.  The essays focus on how the SBC can keep their –often out of touch with the larger culture– theology while meeting to challenges of the future. Fifteen essays from leading voices in the SBC, many of whom also contribute to the following book.

A Theology For the Church: This is edited by Daniel Akin, with chapters written by leading Southern Baptists, many of whom also contributed to “Southern Baptist Identity”. David Dockery co-authored chapter 3 on Special Revelation. The book is a systemic theology on the standard topics: Revelation, God, Humanity, Christ, Holy Spirit, Salvation, Church, Last Things, and a final section extolling the need for pastors to be theologians. Each section is organized around four questions:

What does the Bible Say?

What has the Church Believed?

How do the Doctrines Fit Together?

How do the Doctrines Impact the Church Today?

At  over 900 pages this is more a reference work than a straight read through book. And there is surely something in so large a work for everyone to disagree with. (Trinity as Model for Marriage? Get Outta Here!) But it is the most recent, multiple authored Southern Baptist theology out.

So there are three more to keep you busy and better informed about Southern Baptists!

In the Mail, Yet Again

Thanks to the generous contribution of an Amazon gift certificate from Nick Norelli, I was encouraged earlier this week to order two more collections of patristic excerpts:

The Roots of Christian Mysticism by Olivier Clement and Drinking from the Hidden Fountain: A Patristic Breviary by Tomas Spidlik.

I say two more because I recently purchased Readings for the Daily Office from the Early Church and They Still Speak: Readings for the Lesser Feasts, both by J. Robert Wright, along with a faded copy of The Desert Fathers by Benedicta Ward.

I purchased these readings collections assuming that they were better intros to the church fathers than trying to dive into those thirty-eight or more volumes, since a tour by a knowledgeable guide should teach more and better than being self-taught, as it were.

Nick’s gift certificate was originally intended to fund the purchase of Paolo Pandolfo’s new cd of Carl Friedrich Abel ’s viola da gamba works, The Drexel Manuscript. I am happy to report it is already available for download from classicsonline for less than half the cost of the cd. Would that Susanne Heinrich’s Mr. Abel’s Fine Airs was also so available. The two cds feature much the same music, but in very different performances, making them intriguing comparative listening.

So thanks to Nick for his gift certificate, and if you are looking for good classical music or an intro into the Church Fathers, give some of these a try.

Old Jordanville Prayer Book for Esword

In commemoration of Esteban Vazquez’s blog’s silence (yet again  ), I mention that the Russian Orthodox Prayer Book “The Old Jordanville Prayer Book” has come available for download as an e-Sword topic note recently at e-Sword users dot org, where I believe you will need to register to download files.

I’ve been skimming a number of prayer books lately. It’s interesting stuff from a non-liturgical background. And of course, you can learn a great deal from how people pray.