Welcome ...
Welcome to The Books of The Bible blog. I’m Glenn Paauw, Director of Product Development at International Bible Society/Send The Light, and a member of The Bible Design Group that produced The Books of The Bible. That’s a mouthful, so let’s break it down a little bit.
Way back in 1809 a group of folks started the New York Bible Society. Their basic belief was that people could encounter God through the sacred writings. NYBS distributed Bibles (in English and lots of other languages) on the streets and docks of New York City. They continued this strategy well into the twentieth century, having initiated all kinds of innovative outreach strategies (like putting Bibles into hotel room decades before the Gideons started doing it). Helping readers actually engage the words of the Bible has always been at the heart of their work. When they found people were having a hard time understanding the good old King James, they sponsored a new translation, the New International Version (NIV). The NIV went on to become the most popular English language Bible in the world. A short time later, the name of the ministry was changed to International Bible Society.
In the years that followed, IBS moved beyond New York City and became a worldwide movement. When IBS added Bible publishing to the things they did (rather late in their history, just thirty years ago), they did it with the idea that they would produce Bibles especially for those who were new to the Bible, not so much for people going to three Bible study groups per week. The idea was that someone should be able to get a Bible without spending $30. We’ve now sponsored hundreds of translations around the world and distributed millions of Bibles. But over all this time, our mission has remained the same: to help people encounter God through the words of Sacred Scripture.
In 2003, we started asking the question again: What can we do to help people engage with the Scriptures better? (It seems a lot of research shows that most folks are not engaging with it very well, no matter how many Bibles are actually laying around.) The result is this latest release, The Books of The Bible. The big idea this time is not the translation, but the visual presentation of Bible text. Very simple idea, really, yet it seems to be a radical step. We’ll talk more about this project next time. Until then, feel free to write me with your questions or comments.
yours, for mo betta Bible reading,
Glenn
Way back in 1809 a group of folks started the New York Bible Society. Their basic belief was that people could encounter God through the sacred writings. NYBS distributed Bibles (in English and lots of other languages) on the streets and docks of New York City. They continued this strategy well into the twentieth century, having initiated all kinds of innovative outreach strategies (like putting Bibles into hotel room decades before the Gideons started doing it). Helping readers actually engage the words of the Bible has always been at the heart of their work. When they found people were having a hard time understanding the good old King James, they sponsored a new translation, the New International Version (NIV). The NIV went on to become the most popular English language Bible in the world. A short time later, the name of the ministry was changed to International Bible Society.
In the years that followed, IBS moved beyond New York City and became a worldwide movement. When IBS added Bible publishing to the things they did (rather late in their history, just thirty years ago), they did it with the idea that they would produce Bibles especially for those who were new to the Bible, not so much for people going to three Bible study groups per week. The idea was that someone should be able to get a Bible without spending $30. We’ve now sponsored hundreds of translations around the world and distributed millions of Bibles. But over all this time, our mission has remained the same: to help people encounter God through the words of Sacred Scripture.
In 2003, we started asking the question again: What can we do to help people engage with the Scriptures better? (It seems a lot of research shows that most folks are not engaging with it very well, no matter how many Bibles are actually laying around.) The result is this latest release, The Books of The Bible. The big idea this time is not the translation, but the visual presentation of Bible text. Very simple idea, really, yet it seems to be a radical step. We’ll talk more about this project next time. Until then, feel free to write me with your questions or comments.
yours, for mo betta Bible reading,
Glenn
5 Comments:
Reading the new presentation is very refreshing. Not seeing the verse numbers everywhere renders a much more personal and personable experience. I feel less like I'm reading a 'formula', and more like I'm reading a letter (Paul's) from the heart.
This is good!!
Ralph (Toronto, Canada)
This post has been removed by the author.
Will there be more to come with other translations/versions?
We hope so! We don't have access to translations outside the NIV family (i.e. NIV, TNIV, NIrV), but if enough people want it, other publishers may pick up on the idea. As for us, it's too early to say whether or not we'll see an NIV version of The Books of The Bible.
Would anybody reading this entry seriously consider giving this bible away to a "pre-christian"? If not, why and when would you give a copy of this to somebody? Would you wait until you were resonably certain that you were dealing with a person who seems to display a love for Christ? I've read about as much as I can find on this bible and nobody's commenting on how they're going to use it other than read it for themselves. Surely somebody is comtemplating other uses for it than pure study and devotional reading, right? I own a copy and love it. Naturally, I'm curious how fellow belivers are going to use it. Thanks.
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