Bible Stories in Cockney Rhyming Slang

I can't remember if I've mentioned the Bible Stories in Cockney Rhyming Slang by Keith Park. But even if I did, I'll mention it again to direct you to this video so you can hear what it sounds like.

New Bible revision in the works

I ran across this new Bible version which is in the works. It is the Word of Yahavah--KJV3. It is scheduled to be finished in January 2010. The website states the changes are as follows: "Original Hebrew words are used in place of LORD (YHVH-Yahavah) and God (Elohim or El as indicated). Old English grammar was not altered, except in rare instances for clarity and is consistent with other versions. Words such as thee, thou, couldst, wouldst, etc., were changed to current (2009) English spelling."

The Scriptures

The Scriptures, by the Institute for Scripture Research, has been updated for 2009. Visit the ISR for more information and a sample.

Retsored New Testament

Willis Barnstone has made a translation of the New Testament now called the Restored New Testament. It's available at Amazon.com. It includes the canonical books as well as the "gospel" of Thomas, Judas and Mary. Portions of this were previously published as "The New Covenant: Volume 1: The Four Gospels and Apocalypse. Amazon's description of the Restored New Testament is as follows: "From acclaimed scholar Willis Barnstone, The Restored New Testament—newly translated from the Greek and informed by Semitic sources. For the first time since the King James Version in 1611, Willis Barnstone has given us an amazing literary and historical version of the New Testament. Barnstone preserves the original song of the Bible, rendering a large part in poetry and the epic Revelation in incantatory blank verse. This monumental translation is the first to restore the original Greek, Aramaic, and Hebrew names (Markos for Mark, Yeshua for Jesus), thereby revealing the Greco-Jewish identity of biblical people and places. Citing historical and biblical scholarship, he changes the sequence of texts and adds three seminal Gnostic gospels. Each book has elegant introductions and is thoroughly annotated. With its superlative writing and lyrical wisdom, The Restored New Testament is a magnificent biblical translation for our age."

Reader Friendly Edition Bible

A friend just e-mailed about a Bible I've not seen yet: The "Reader Friend Edition Bible" from Thomas Nelson. I can't find much information about it except that it came out this year. It is listed on ChristianBook.com where there is a short description. That description reads: "If you are new to reading, find reading difficult, or are learning English as a second language, this simply worded edition will open the door to comprehending God's Word. A faithful, accurate translation in clear, understandable language * Designed for every age and reading level."
Most other sites don't even have a description. I'll post more when I find out additional information.

Noahide Nazarene Bible

This version is just getting started. It is combined with commentary. Currently the author is working on Revelation and plans to turn to Daniel next. It is a revision of the World English Bible, Messianic Edition. I first read about it on his blog then found some chapters of Revelation at his main website.

Better Life Bible

In case you missed it (I did), the Better Life Bible is available for download in PDF on the "About Us" page. It is also available in print on Lulu.com

Massachusetts Bible Society and Internet Archive

Hopefully by now you've been visiting the Internet Archive. There are thousands (millions?) of books, movies and audio recordings there free for the downloading.

Recently there have been a great many posts on IA from a new source:

The Massachusetts Bible Society is scanning (or having scanned) many of the Bibles in their collection. You'll find most of the Bibles in English linked on my website. There are also many Bibles in other languages - too many to list. This is a great addition to the Internet Archive.

I will keep watch and try to post the English Bibles as they come available. There are many excellent Bibles now available - check them out!

Digital Book and Bible Archives

What are the repositories of Digital Books online? Here are a few, both facsimiles (digitized copies) and text format copies:

The Digital Christian Library

Europeana

Gallica, French National Library

Google Books

Internet Archive

Making of America Books

Project Gutenberg

Schoenberg Center for Electronic Text & Image

Universal Digital Library

Finally, http://www.ditext.com/etexts.html has a full page of links to sites that house digital books. Enjoy!

Digital Books...

If you are a reader, or just love books, then you should follow the debate going on about digitizing books: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8233324.stm

Google books is a huge project. They've got 1 million books on "full preview" and another million public domain. I've found links (available on my site) to 700 Bibles that can be downloaded for free (and that's not all). http://books.google.com

Internet Archive has different types of content (audio and video) but not as many books. I have found 190 different Bibles freely available for download. http://www.archive.org/.

I know a friend whose book is posted on Google Books as a "preview." Many times one can search and use his book (it is a reference) just as though one owned a copy. The preview is limited, but if it won't show the page you want today, simply try again tomorrow (the pages shown change from time to time).

It appears that the settlement is supposed to deal with this issue. But some question why the US Authors' Guild and the Association of American Publishers are assuming to speak for all published authors. And I wonder why my friend (who is the copyright owner of his work) had no say in this online publishing of his work!

For those of us who want to read out-of-copyright works, these online digital libraries are already a blessing. But clearly there are many ethical, legal and financial considerations in digitizing all the rest of the works.

Common English Bible sample verse

I haven't seen any samples of the upcoming Common English Bible. However, a comment on this blog has a tentative translation of Mark 8:33: “Get behind me, you devil! You think like a human being; that’s not the way God thinks.”

Another NIV is coming...

Yep, the producers of the NIV are at it again. Disappointed with results on the TNIV, they will be trying yet another rendition. I first read about it on USA Today. There is a little information on the new version's website, NIV Bible 2011.

The Committee on Bible Translation is still in charge. It will be published by Zondervan Publishing. And it is a production of Biblica. Who? Oh, that's what was formed when the International Bible Society and Send the Light merged. They were IBS-STL Global, then became known as Biblica.

Another interesting note: On the Biblica press release page, there is a short paragraph about the CBT. The link for more information leads to Michael Marlowe's Bible Research website.