Links Update

Thanks to RT for slogging through dozens of links and finding many bad ones. I've updated with the Bible Museum links page with the corrections. Thank you, RT!

Two Important Bibles

Two important Bibles were uploaded recently to the Internet Archive. The first is a 1568 Bishops' Bible in the collection of Princeton Theological Seminary. The second one is a 1540 Great Bible. Both of these are scans of the actual pages of those originals.

The best page for reading both transcribed texts and scans of actual pages of historical English Bibles is Bibles of the Past. He has just added a link for scans of a Wycliffe Bible! (That's where I got the link I added to my links page on the Bible Reader's Museum.)

Adobe Reader for iPad / GoodReader

For those of you trying to read Bibles or books on your iPad there is now another option. Adobe has released a free acrobat reader for the iPad. I found out about it on the App Shopper website. There is an excellent description of the program there. I was able to open PDFs I had been reading in GoodReader using the "Open In" feature. I need to test it with some of the PDFs that crashed other readers. Oh, yes, the reader is available for the iPhone as well.

I will probably continue to use GoodReader. It is my favorite application on the iPad hands down. It reads pdf, html, txt, doc, images, audio and video. It has an easy to use transfer utility built right in (no cable needed). It can also sync with online file storage. Annotations are easy - including writing or drawing freehand. I am using it to edit the new version of my book, "The Encyclopedia of English Bible Versions."

New Bible Reading Site

I received a great link this morning (thanks, RT). This site has Bibles in many different languages. It also has 110 Bibles, Old Testaments and New Testaments in English. I've added the English versions to The Bible Reader's Museum links page.

Good News Bible

The Good News Bible has been released as an app for the iPhone and iPad. Visit www.goodnewsbible.com for information or search Good News Bible in the app store to get a free version (there is also a paid version with more features). The app appears to have been made for children. It has some neat interactive features such as a timeline, quizzes and a who's who.

The Voice Bible

According to an ad in the back of The Voice New Testament: Revised & Updated the full Bible is due to be released in April of 2012. It is available for pre-order on Amazon.com.

Heroes and Villains of the Bible

Heroes and Villains of the Bible. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2011. ISBN 978-1400316854.

The Bible text included in this book is from the International Children's Bible (ICB), a close relative of the New Century Version. It is very simple to read. I was surprised how much of the text was included. This is more of a selection of Bible texts with pictures that a story book. The ICB is not suitable for Bible study or adult reading. But since this is just selection of stories it should not be a problem.

The book consists of 50 Bible passages with devotional material. There are 16 Old Testament heroes, 9 Old Testament villains, 17 New Testament heroes and 8 New Testament villains.

At least one of the pictures could be considered borderline by some. There is a picture of Eve being tempted by the serpent. While it is not revealing, it is one of those that stops just short of being so. The picture of Daniel in the lions den has an amusing feature. It appears that Daniel and the male lion are looking at something together. The pictures are computer generated or designed. They do not look cartoonish, but almost like a real photo.

I would have like more insights and lessons along with the Biblical text. The extra material is very brief. It is a short devotional to accompany the text, not an actual study. But I was looking for a book to use in children's Bible study classes. This is obviously for a child's personal reading.

By picking out some of the heroic (and villainous) figures this might help capture the interest of children. It could be a good introduction to reading a full Bible. I plan to share this with some youngsters at church to see what they think about it.

I received a free copy of this book from Thomas Nelson Publishers for review purposes. This did not affect my review in any way.

Heroes and Villains of the Bible

Revised Douay-Rheims Bible ('you' version)

It looks like Msgr. Cormac Burke finished his Knox Bible ('you' version). Now he has started another project. It is a modernized version of the Douay Rheims Bible. As with his earlier project, he is changing mostly just the "thou"s and the resulting verb forms. It is called the Revised Douay Rheims Bible ('you' version).

The Expanded Bible

The Expanded Bible has been released. This is the entire Bible (the New Testament was published earlier).

The Brick Bible

The Brick Bible: A New Spin on the Old Testament has been released. This is the retelling of Bible stories use Lego bricks for illustrations. Some of the illustrations/text may be offensive. Many of the stories can be viewed online.

The Voice New Testament

The revised, updated version of the The Voice New Testament has been released. My copy is on its way to me, so I don't know what changes were made yet.

Christian Zombie Killer's Handbook

Jeff Kinley. The Christian Zombie Killers Handbook: Slaying the Living Dead Within. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2011. ISBN 978-1-5955-5438-3.

I'm not sure if I thought I needed something for Halloween or why exactly I picked this book for a review. I was given a complimentary copy of this by Thomas Nelson for providing a review. Their gift does not affect my review in any way.

I found the author's approach and honestly to the problem of sin to be refreshing. It isn't an easy thing to read because sin is not a delightful topic. But it is a very serious problem that the author deals with very clearly. His descriptions of various aspects of sin and salvation are wonderful. He describes the awareness of the devil as detecting "An invisible stench in the space we occupy." I would gladly listen to sermons by Kinley if he is a preacher.

The sections on the problem of sin and the solution of salvation are interspersed with a fictional story about a protagonist named Ben. Ben (and his friends) are dealing with a plague of zombies. The story is very graphic at times - not something I would normally read at all. Reading this part of the book threw me so off the book that I really didn't want to finish it.

Of course, the author ties it all together in the end. The tie didn't work for me. However, I am certain I am not the intended audience for this book. For those who like the horror genre and are unwilling to read other Christian works, this might be a good fit. Certainly I think the Gospel is presented well. If the zombie story draws them in and gets them to hear the message it may be worthwhile. Because of the graphic nature of the zombie parts I will not recommend it to my parishioners.

The Christian Zombie Killers Handbook

The Names of God Bible

This is a new version based on the God's Word Translation. The changes are to provide the transliteration of God's name and Jesus' name throughout the Bible. The names are written in brown ink to make them stand out. It is from Baker Publishing Group (this link includes a video from the editor, Ann Spangler) and Revell. It is available on Amazon. There is a sample on ChristianBook.com which shows how the names are incorporated into the text. There is also a sample chapter in PDF for download at Ann Spangler's website.

Tyndale21 New Testament

I found another new project today. It is called the Tyndale21 New Testament. It is a modernized version of Tyndale's New Testament. The website describes the process this way:

Not merely a simple word-for-word substitution, this is a re-visioning of the Bible as if Tyndale's version was newly discovered and put into today's English.

So far the Gospels and shorter letters are finished. A PDF of the Gospels is available for $2.99 (USD). Samples of the first five chapters of each book are available for free.