Comprehendable Bible

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Hi.

Are there any issues of the Bible that are in comprehendable, modern-day English?

It'd be nice if there was one which had images & graphs as well as the stories (instead of the "he begat him, and lived 900 years" (repeat 50 times in the same paragraph, slightly altering the names and numbers...).

As long as it contains the original information, the entire original information and nothing but the original information. (So maybe that's asking a lot - but you get the point).

Even better, if there is one like this that is free & online (I know, I know...I'm part of "Generation: Now!").

Thank you.

Sort of, but there are many study aids available. First, I'd recommend either a New King James version or The Living Bible.
The NKJV is as close of a translation to the original Greek manuscrips of the New Testament (The Textus Receptus) and the Old testament Hebrew writings (The Talmud) as you can get because it alkso changes the sequence of the words in a sentece as little as possible to form a coherent English sentence. The living Bible uses a more naturally flowing English senence structure and the translation still remains the same.
The New International Version (jokingly called the Non-Inspired Version) is more of a transliteration of the English text than a translation of the ancient texts. Sentences are phrased differently from the NKJV that most pastors use and the use of capitalization isn't as good. I personally woudn't want to use one in a theological debate.

Most Bibles from a Chrisian bookstore have maps in the back, and many have study notes and cross-refrencing (to show where a particular scripture is supported by other scriptures) to help explain passages that may be difficult, especially ancient near-eastern metaphors from the Old Testament. For additional study recources, I would recommend the Stong's concordance which has every word found in the KJV/NKJV Bible and where it's found, and the Interlinear Bible if you want to compare the original Greek, Hebrew, or Aramaic texts with the modern English text.

Last edited by Sean on 18 Apr 2005, 2:01 am, edited 1 time in total.

http://bible.gospelcom.net

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I like the site that queerpuppy linked-- it's particularly nice because you can view parallel versions of a passage from several different translations, and pick the one that is easiest to comprehend. I've found that different passages may be clearer in different translations-- there's no one version I found that clarified things the most.

And it works as a concordance too-- just type any word into the search box and it'll find all the passages where it appears. Quite handy.

The aforementioned Living Translation is an interesting beast-- it's a paraphrase that attempts to convey the ideas rather than a word-for-word translation. In some cases, this can be a very good thing, but I don't think it should stand alone; I think the best way to use it is as a sort of 'Cliffs Notes' to be used alongside a more literal translation.

You should try the NAB- The New American Bible, instead of thou shalt not... it reads You will not... and so on. It is much simpler. That is what the Catholic Church uses

I like the New King James version myself, any Christian book store should be able to help you. My son just got a bible that looks like a magazine, it's a New Testament called "Revolve" it's in the New Century Version. They have one for Teen boys and one for Teen girls.It has additional articles in it, my son loves it.I use King James because I am use to it, and I have a Strongs Concordance that has each and every word in the Greek,Hebrew and Aramic that you will find in the King James Bible, I use it when I do research. I like Youth Bibles even though I'm 44 because I do work with youth. so any of those should help. There are study bibles to, I recommend the "Open Bible" but there are others. Find a good and a larger Chritian book store, they should have plenty to look at.

Although this doesn't have much to do with the Bible itself, there is a lot of historical evidence that King James was gay. Just a bit of trivia.

I'd like to know where you found this information.

It dosen't relly matter anyway. King James had nothing to do with writing the King James Bible. He only authorized the Bible to be printed in english for the Anglican church in 1611.

I am fully aware of this. I only though it was an interesting piece of information.

Here is a copy of a love letter King James I wrote to one of his male lovers.

Here is a passage that quotes King James I and shows that he believed Jesus was a homosexual. Note that King James I mentions his lover George Villiers. For anyone who doesn't want to click on the link this is what King James has to say: Jesus had his John, I have my George.

King James I and George Villiers were actually quite open about their relationship. King James called Villiers his 'wife' and called himself Villiers's 'husband'. Earlier in the 1580s, King James openly kissed Francis Stewart Hepburn, Earl of Bothwell in a sexual manner. When he became the monarch, it was commonly joked that 'Elizabeth was King, now James is Queen!' He is buried in the Henry VII chapel in Westminster Abbey, with one of his favourite male suitors on his right, and another on his left.

I have no trouble using a King James vesion of the Bible. I actually quite enjoy the challenge. I have no problem understanding most Old English.

Now I wish I hadn't asked for proof of King James' sexuallity. Discusting.
I never cared for British monarchs, so I'm not going to bother trying to defend their honor, assuming there ever was one that had some.

What's important is the accuracy of the Bible.
Here are some statistics:

Number of books in the Bible: 66
Chapters: 1,189
Verses: 31,101
Number of different authors: 40
Number of years to complete: 1,600 (1,500 B.C - 100 A.D.)
Number of verses with distputed accuracy: 30

Margin of error: 0.09645%

No disputed verses apply to the doctine of salvation.

you can get something called the "street bible", which is supposed to be written in trendy hip hop slang. I flicked through my brother's copy, it was really cheesy!

You are of course aware of the fact that King James did, however, insist on a number of changes be made to his Bible to fit in with his own beliefs and prejudices? For example the famous passage "suffer not a witch to live" was added at the insistence of James I as he had a great personal fear of witches and wanted a passage in the Bible to advocate their destruction (despite there originally being no mention of witches in the Bible at all - the actual original passage was "suffer not a poisoner to live")....

Anyway, you all carry on with your "accurately" translated Bibles containing nothing but God's literal words and meaning, won't you?......

Last edited by TAFKASH on 20 Apr 2005, 6:01 pm, edited 1 time in total.

The King James version of the bible isn't in Old English. Do you actually know Old English? It is a foreign language.

There are numerous passages that order those who practice the occult to be pout to death. However do you ave a chapter and verse so I can compare it against the Talmud or the Textus Receptus?