The Contemporary English Version Bible, first published in 1995, is one of the newest. This book explains why this translation was undertaken, how it stands out from others prepared for everyday use, and how it has been faithful to the very strict translation principles and standards which the translators of the King James Version Bible set for themselves four centuries ago. This book offers concise, focused discussions on what makes a translation easy to understand when the reader has no previous understanding of religious language, and explains the features that make a translation easy to understand when it is being read aloud by someone else. The chapter on "How to Evaluate the Readibility of a Bible Translation" explains why using a limited vocabulary list or relying upon short sentences isn't always the best way to make a translation easier for young people to understand. Each chapter offers insights that will help you or your church group discover ways the CEV can enhance and enliven your worship experience. --

FROM SPOKEN WORDS TO SACRED TEXTS is an introduction-intermediate level coverage of the text of the New Testament. Andrews begins by introducing the reader to New Testament textual studies by presenting all the essential, foundational details necessary to understand New Testament textual criticism. With Andrews' clear and comprehensive approach to New Testament textual studies, FROM SPOKEN WORDS TO SACRED TEXTS, will remain popular for beginning and intermediate students for decades to come. This source on how the New Testament came down us will become the standard book for courses in biblical studies, as well as the history of Christianity. FROM SPOKEN WORDS TO SACRED TEXTS is assured of becoming a reliable, clear-cut resource for generations of Bible students to come. The Greek New Testament was copied and recopied by hand for 1,500 years. Regardless of those scribes who had worked very hard to be faithful in their copying, errors crept into the text. How can we be confident that what we have today is the Word of God? FROM SPOKEN WORDS TO SACRED TEXTS introduces its readers to New Testament textual studies of the Greek New Testament. Herein the reader will find plain language as Edward D. Andrews gives the reader an in-depth view of the history of the New Testament. We will discover how the New Testament books were transmitted. The intentional and unintentional scribal errors that crept into the text for some 1,500 years of corruption by copyists, followed by over 400 years of restoration work by textual scholars who gave their entire lives to give us today a restored New Testament text. In this book, the reader will gain an appreciation for the vast work that has been carried out in preserving the text of the New Testament and finding renewed confidence in its reliability. Andrews' work on FROM SPOKEN WORDS TO SACRED TEXTS was carried out with an apologetical mindset to assist Christians in their defense of God's Word.

David Dewey offers an easy-to-use handbook for digging through the mountain of Bible translation options until you find the right Bible for the right purpose.

Outlines the historical development of biblical translation, including analyses of over fifty versions of the Bible.

This second edition of An Introduction to the New Testament provides readers with pertinent material and a helpful framework that will guide them in their understanding of the New Testament texts. Many new and diverse cultural, historical, social-scientific, sociorhetorical, narrative, textual, and contextual studies have been examined since the publication of the first edition, which was in print for twenty years. The authors retain the original tripartite arrangement on 1) The world of the New Testament, 2) Interpreting the New Testament, and 3) Jesus and early Christianity. An appropriate book for anyone who seeks to better understand what is involved in the exegesis of New Testaments texts today.

Michael V. Fox, long-time professor in the Dept. of Hebrew and Semitic Studies at the University of Wisconsin--Madison, is known both for his scholarship and his teaching. As the editors of this volume in his honor note, the care and sensitivity of his reading of the Hebrew text are well known, and he lavishes equal attention on his own writing, to the benefit of all who read his work, which now includes the first of two volumes in the Anchor Bible commentary on Proverbs (the next volume is in preparation), as well as monographs on wisdom literature in ancient Israel and elsewhere, and many articles. The rigor that he brought to his own work he also inflicted on his students, and they and a number of his colleagues honor him with their contributions to this volume. Contributors include: Menahem Haran, Kelvin G. Friebel, Cynthia L. Miller, Theron Young, Adele Berlin, William P. Brown, James L. Crenshaw, John A. Cook, Robert D. Holmstedt, Shamir Yona, Christine Roy Yoder, Carol R. Fontaine, Nili Shupak, Victor Avigdor Horowitz, Tova Forti, Richard L. Schultz, J. Cheryl Exum, Dennis R. Magary, Theodore J. Lewis, Sidnie White Crawford, Ronald L. Troxel, Karl V. Kutz, Heidi M. Szpek, Claudia V. Camp, Johann Cook, Leonard Greenspoon, Stephen G. Burnett, Carol A. Newsom, Shemaryahu Talmon, and Frederick E. Greenspahn. The book is organized around themes that reflect Prof. Fox's interests and work: Part 1: "Seeking Out Wisdom and Concerned with Prophecies" (Sir 39:1): Studies in Biblical Texts"; Part 2: "Preserving the Sayings of the Famous" (Sir 39:2): Text, Versions, and Method.

Book History is the annual journal of the Society for the History of Authorship, Reading and Publishing, Inc. (SHARP). Book History is devoted to every aspect of the history of the book, broadly defined as the history of the creation, dissemination, and the reception of script and print. Book History publishes research on the social, economic, and cultural history of authorship, editing, printing, the book arts, publishing, the book trade, periodicals, newspapers, ephemera, copyright, censorship, literary agents, libraries, literary criticism, canon formation, literacy, literacy education, reading habits, and reader response.

Early Americans have long been considered "A People of the Book" Because the nickname was coined primarily to invoke close associations between Americans and the Bible, it is easy to overlook the central fact that it was a book-not a geographic location, a monarch, or even a shared language-that has served as a cornerstone in countless investigations into the formation and fragmentation of early American culture. Few books can lay claim to such powers of civilization-altering influence. Among those which can are sacred books, and for Americans principal among such books stands the Bible. This Handbook is designed to address a noticeable void in resources focused on analyzing the Bible in America in various historical moments and in relationship to specific institutions and cultural expressions. It takes seriously the fact that the Bible is both a physical object that has exercised considerable totemic power, as well as a text with a powerful intellectual design that has inspired everything from national religious and educational practices to a wide spectrum of artistic endeavors to our nation's politics and foreign policy. This Handbook brings together a number of established scholars, as well as younger scholars on the rise, to provide a scholarly overview--rich with bibliographic resources--to those interested in the Bible's role in American cultural formation.

The Bible Cause chronicles the role that the American Bible Society has played throughout America's history, from its founding in 1816 to the present day, as it has met the spiritual needs of Americans through the translation and publication of the Bible.

Henry E. Neufeld writes about Bible translations from his knowledge as a student of Biblical languages, and his experience teaching them to laypeople and discussing them on the internet. Many people have questions about translations because they do not understand how translations are produced. Much of the material available is either polarizing, or is provided to advocate a particular version. What's in a Version? strives to provide a basis for lay students to understand how translations are made so they can understand the arguments and become confident of the Bible version they choose to use for reading and study.