Remaking The Bible?

A few days back, I blogged about my hunt for a new edition of the Bible. I also, made some email enquiries and posted the same question on a couple of forums. The response has, I’m sorry to say, been a little underwhelming.

I am thankful for the convenience of the central column for cross references, but the simple fact is the two column format arose due to economic, not theological or stylistic reasons. We are accustomed to it, but that doesn’t make it right.

So here’s what I’ve decided to do – I’m going to make my own Bible. It seems like the logical extension from the advent of the press to today’s era of personal publishing.

At this stage, I’m not going to do my own translation, although the thought did cross my mind. When I was preaching regular series, I would work on a translation, with notes, for the passages in question. I would print these off (yes, in paragraph format) and bind them at home. In fact, I came across my old translations for Luke, Philippians and 1&2 Thessalonians while tidying up in India.

For now, I’m going to work with an exisiting translation (maybe the ESV), which of course raises copyright issues (I’ll address those in another post). Maybe this project can be handled with a print on demand service – I’ll have to see. Something in B format would be nice.

Actually, it would be interesting to see what others might come up with by doing this. I’ve always found interlinear and comparative Bibles bulky and akward, but it would be interesting to have one that was selectively so for some difficult passages, but clear for others. I’d be fascinated what some of my scholary friends might come up with designing their own notated “study” Bibles, maybe with references to commentators or theologians. What about some kind of remixed, best practice preaching Bible, with references to good sermon expositions?

OK, maybe I’m getting carried away with the idea. What is most important here is taking ownership of the text and working closely with it. The question of how the Bible looks, in an era when design and format are so important, is clearly theologically significant. Maybe there is something worth thinking about here?

[tags] Bible [/tags]