I hope you enjoy this conversation with Melinda Bouma and Bob Gaudet who work for Zondervan/Harper Collins in their division that produces New Revised Standard Version Bibles. In the conversation, we explore some of the wonderful ways that professors and Bible publishers have worked together and can work together. I also asked them what the most bizarre suggestion for a new Bible was that they had received, and unfortunately they only recalled a couple of really good examples after we finished recording. I can’t go into details because they are not things that can be shared publicly. But some quite bizarre novelty Bibles have actually been published, and so I consider it to their credit that they didn’t pursue this sort of thing! It would have tarnished the seriousness with which academics can take their work – but I am also pretty sure that some of the ideas that were proposed to them would sell quite a few copies…
Of related interest, There’s a video about a new online Dictionary of Nature Imagery in the Bible. Steve Wiggins blogged about Bible literacy and awareness of extracanonical texts in the internet era vs. in the past. The Lead had a piece about troubling shifts on the part of the American Bible Society, and Beliefnet highlighted some persistent translation issues in English Bibles. There has been quite a bit of discussion of the teaching of the Bible in public schools, particularly in Missouri in response to a new legislative proposal. Bob Cornwall shared Sightings about the Bible as/and literature. Jordan Cardenas recommended reading the Bible slowly.
I live in a different world and so I have to think of God differently.
No part of my faith can steer clear from wisdom questions: “What is God like here and now?” “What do I mean when I say ‘God’”? “What does it mean to believe and trust in this God?”
I ponder these questions by taking seriously this ancient, ambiguous, and diverse Bible we have as well as honoring my humanity—my experiences, my reasoning, when and where I was born—and I try to get all these factors to talk to each other.
See also the following about Pete Enns’ recent book, How The Bible Actually Works:
Tuesday with Michael Spencer: Can You Study This Book Too Much?
Ed Gallagher shared some advice for Christians about reading the Old Testament.
Also, Andrew blogged about my podcast conversation with him and Adam:
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