But is it practical? (Part 4)
It has been asked how editions of the Bible without chapters and verses (and we hope to see many versions appear in this format) could be used in discussion groups whose members were all encouraged to bring their own different copies? Here are some observations and suggestions.
- The feedback we've been hearing from many people is that once they get their hands on a visually coherent presentation of the Scriptures, they simply don't want to go back to using a visually disintegrated one. Thus, even if they first get a copy of The Books of The Bible thinking it's going to be a "reading Bible," pretty soon they start taking it to church and Bible studies. And so practices will have to be adopted that will accommodate editions without chapters and verses in those contexts. Indeed, the process that will create them has already been initiated. It will be fascinating to watch this process unfold and see what practices develop. What might some of them be?
- If a member of a study would like to bring in a passage for consideration, this member could be asked to read the passage out loud, in its immediate literary context. Other members wouldn't have to take the time to turn to the passage themselves, if this would hold up the study and break the flow of discussion. Instead, they could check the passage in their own edition afterwards, and there could be a follow up the next week if necessary. (We don't need to limit our conversations about a particular point to one meeting only.)
- Many difficulties can be avoided through anticipation and preparation, such as I describe in the case of Scripture reading in worship services in "But Is It Practical? (Part 3)." For example, if a Bible study leader would like to bring in supporting passages to provide a wider canonical perspective on a given text under consideration, or to do a topical rather than an expository study, a list of passages could be sent out for participants to look up and consider in advance of the study.
No doubt other approaches will be developed in the future. Or perhaps they're already in use, in a living room near you.
Chris Smith
Chris Smith is the pastor of University Baptist Church in East Lansing, MI and author of "The Beauty Behind the Mask: Rediscovering the Books of the Bible" from Clements Publishing.
Chris Smith is the pastor of University Baptist Church in East Lansing, MI and author of "The Beauty Behind the Mask: Rediscovering the Books of the Bible" from Clements Publishing.
2 Comments:
I've been reading my BotB one book at a time. It is still solely a personal reading book. I have not found adequate ways to briefly introduce others to the idea. Only those who are willing to hear that their numerical designations are not in the original text are generally able to immediately appreciate their absence. The harder part to explain is why the books should be reordered. Most people don't quite understand the need. For this reason, I still like the individual books presented in independent volumes ... again, more as they were originally presented.
Just want to say I appreciate your posts and the discussion. We just started a discussion group in our home this week on Kingdom Come, Kingdom Go: Luke and Acts, so this discussion is very relevant to us.
One thing we did is to designate one person as the Study Bible Keeper who can keep track of the verse numbers for reference purposes and throw in tidbits from the study notes if needed -- cross references etc.
We didn't have enough copies our first night so some just listened to the reading rather than following along in their other Bibles. We thought that was probably more faithful to the Word's oral tradition and how it was for the 1st century saints.
In our quest to be as historically authentic as possible, we may even throw a toga party. :)
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