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Sunday, October 18, 2015

Personalized Bibles: Love them or hate them?

I thought I had previously posted about personalized Bibles, but cannot find any such post. By "personalized Bibles" I do not mean those that have your name imprinted on the cover. Instead, I mean Bibles that replace pronouns in the Scriptures with one's name.  For instance, the Your Personalized Bible site has this sample:
The Lord is Chris’s shepherd; Chris shall lack nothing. He makes Chris lie down in green pastures. He leads Chris beside the still waters. He restores Chris’s soul. Psalm 23:1
This website offers printed Bibles or New Testaments with your name inserted for $89 (USD) for the NT and $119 (USD) for the full Bible. For $15 you can get a PDF of the King James or "Modern English" with your name inserted. I did not find any mention of what version is used for the modern English.

Another website (it isn't clear if it is affiliated with the site above) offers a free sample of Ephesians. That site's prices are much higher for the printed works. A more recent work, called the To You Bible offers an app for your device. Though it is only $0.99 (USD) I did not purchase a copy. After reading through the permissions that the app requires I decided it sounds like it includes targeted advertising.

All these Bibles include gender as part of the personalization. They can also accommodate a spouse's name. This is especially evident in the Song of Solomon and Ephesians 5.

Some love these Bibles saying it makes them feel that God is speaking directly to them. But one of my friends said that this process puts self above God and His word. Another said he is offended to the point of not including them in his exhaustive bibliography of Bible versions.

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