Arrived!

My copy of the NIV Thinline Reference Bible, Large Print (large print edition) arrived, and I encourage you to get one. The Committee on Bible Translation deserves our thanks for their care and their patience — fielding inquiries and pondering suggestions and making corrections and always with more than a few critics looking over their shoulders.

Anyway, this will now be the Bible I take to class and will preach from. It is thin, a center column, and a nice readable font. I have to say, too, that I prefer no red letters in the words of Jesus. It has a nice soft leather cover, but there are clothbound and bonded leather editions for a cheaper price.

I was a big fan of the TNIV but the days of the TNIV are now over. I’ve had months to get used to it coming to its end, and the changes in the NIV 2011 are not always the ones I would make, but this is an exceptional translation, designed to be read and heard and in an idiom that we can understand.

It is my hope that this Bible can be a uniting Bible. Bibles should not be tribal, and they should not be known for a given posture on politically hot theological topics, nor should they be used as a litmus test of who is the most faithful. They are designed so that we might hear a faithful word from God, and that we might be able to read it and teach it with confidence.

For all the changes, see this.

Yes, I got a free copy from Zondervan, but what I have said has nothing to do with that. I use a few translations, but my favorites are the NIV and the NLT and I am also using the new Common English Bible.