Your Favorite Bible.

[Sam]

This is from a blog by Dan Doran who said back in late 2008:

"I am a 4th generation Pentecostal preacher. I have been in the ministry for 38 years. Held various positions in several churches and pastored for 25 years. Currently I am evangelising. I am the founder of TEAM Ministries which means Together Experiencing Apostolic Ministries. I am married, 30 years, have three children and two grandchildren. I live in Conway, AR."

I know him from another Apostolic forum and I have his permission to post this:
-----------------------------------------

I was talking to someone the other day about an old Bible that I have which belonged to my Dad. My father started preaching at the age of eighteen in 1948. He preached his last message five days before he passed away. That message was preached from his hospital bed in 1999. During those fifty one years he wore out two Thompson Chain Bibles and used a couple of others.

The first Bible that I remember Dad using was a brown covered Thompson Chain. It is the only thing of Dad’s that I ever really wanted and he gave it to me a few years before he died. The cover is so worn around the edges that the leather is separated. The binding is coming loose in the back. The pages are wrinkled and marked from handling, preaching and studying.

I remember the Christmas that Mom bought Dad a new black Thompson Chain Bible. With this one she bought a case for protection. I remember him preaching from that Bible many times. It too showed the signs of much use when it was finally put into “retirement.”

I could have had the choice of either Bible, mainly because I asked first. However, I wanted the Brown Thompson Chain Bible. You see there were some special memories that I have with that Bible. Let me share a few with you.

On February 12, 1952 a twenty one year old man became a soldier upon invitation from Uncle Sam. Dad was an Ordained Minister of the Gospel. This should have disqualified him automatically. He said that President Truman liked him so much he come visit anyway.

Dad had flat feet and was born blind in one eye. Either one of those should have kept him out of the military, yet they took him anyway. When he arrived in Virginia for basic training the doctors examined him and asked, “How did you get in here with these conditions?”

Dad replied, “It wasn’t hard at all!”

At that time they wanted to send him home. He shouldn’t have been there at all. Yet Dad said, “No, I am proud to serve my country, let me stay.” He felt God had him there for a reason. They let him stay.

While at Camp Pickett, Virginia Dad was able to start a church on the base for the Pentecostal soldiers and their wives to attend. Through the years he talked to many soldiers who attended that church after he was shipped out. God had him there for a reason.

He was shipped to Korea. He was in the Medical Corp and drove an ambulance. Because of his beliefs he refused to carry a weapon. He wouldn’t even carry a side arm. He walked guard duty on the front lines, but refused to carry a weapon.

Several times his life was spared by the hand of God. One time he was helping load wounded soldiers on a train just behind the front line. As he returned from the train to get another patient his commanding officer handed him a piece of shrapnel. The officer said it had landed inches behind Dad and if it had hit him it would have killed him.

The Bible Dad preached from was the Brown Thompson Chain Bible. He carried it to Virginia and preached from it there. He carried it with him to Korea and preached from it there.

I remember as a young child seeing him carry it to the pulpit and preach from it. I remember him sitting and reading from it when he was grieving over the death of his father. I remember a few months later when he returned from the funeral of his young brother who was killed so tragically in an accident, he would pick up the worn Bible and read from it. It was like a friend.

In those early formative years I came to realize that it wasn’t “that” Bible that was so special. It was “the” Bible that was so special. The author and he were good friends. He could share his thoughts and sorrows with him and get Words of strength and encouragement in return.

I will never forget sitting with him one night, very late. It was a few days before his passing. He had called us boys to come and talk. Actually, it should have been to come and listen. My two brothers and my son Justin were with me. Dad shared a lot of things with us that night. One thing he said I will never forget. In essence he said he didn’t understand why he had gotten Parkinson’s disease. He was younger than most people are when they get it. He didn’t understand why he had been stopped from doing what he had hoped to do with his life. He had wanted to travel and preach. He had wanted to take care of Mom and enjoy his grandkids and great grandchildren. He said there were a lot of things that he didn’t understand. Yet he said he wanted us boys to know, if just one life was touched by his ten years of suffering, it was worth every moment of it.

I came across a passage today that touched my heart. The Psalmist made this statement, “I will make thy name to be remembered in all generations: therefore shall the people praise thee for ever and ever.”

Dad made the name of the Lord to be remembered to all generations. Eternity will only tell exactly who was touched. Only eternity will reveal whose life was changed because of a man who loved and served God first and foremost in his life.

This I do know. My life is different because Dad made the name of the Lord known to me. This I do know, I have two brothers who are also preachers of the Gospel because the name of the Lord was made known to them. This I do know, he has a grandson and grandson in law that are preachers of the gospel. This I do know three of his granddaughters are filled with the Holy Ghost and living for God, actively involved in the work of God.

I am encouraged to know as I deal with the cares that life brings my way, I can make the name of the Lord known to all generations. I can do it by placing my trust and confidence in God. As I do this, the next generation will hopefully realize that God is faithful and true no matter what we are dealing with.

Yes, I picked the Brown Thompson Chain Bible because it reminded me of the God of my Father. A God whose name he made known unto me.

God Bless!

[Sam]

The argument about different Bible versions is not new.

Below are three versions of the same verse of Scripture.

The first is from the King James Version. The second is from a quote by Justin Martyr. The third is from a prayer which quotes the psalm on a Coptic Church website. This prayer is still in use today by Coptic Christians.

The quote from the writings of Justin Martyr was probably written from Ephesus shortly after the Bar-Kochba rebellion of 132-135 A.D. He is addressing a Jew named Trypho and he accuses the Jews who did not accept Jesus as Messiah of deleting something in their version of the Scriptures that they were using. Justin Martyr, a Christian writer, quotes from the Septuagint Bible, sometimes called the LXX. The LXX was a translation of the Hebrew Scriptures into Greek begun around 282 B.C. by 70 or 72 Jewish translators. The reason for the translation was because the old Hebrew language was not in popular use but had been replaced by Aramaic and Greek. Jews who had been disbursed all over the Roman Empire could more easily read the Greek translation. The LXX was used by the early Church quite often. This is one reason why Old Testament quotes in our New Testament are some times different than they currently read if you check them out in our Old Testament. Our Old Testament is based on the Hebrew (Masoretic) version but the early Christian writers used the Greek (LXX) version.

This Psalm, which is number 95 in the LXX but number 96 in the King James Bible, exalts our God above the heathen gods. Our God is called Lord (Greek Kurios) in the LXX and is called LORD (Hebrew Jehovah or YHWH) in the KJV. Note that verse 10 states that God (the Lord or Jehovah) reigns "from the tree." The tree is seen as a reference to the cross. This was used as a proof text by early Christians to prove that the God of the Hebrews, the LORD Jehovah Himself, had come to earth as Jesus and even though He had been crucified was reigning triumphantly.

The Coptic Church denomination has its headquarters in Egypt. History/tradition says that the Church is the result of St. Mark (author of the Gospel) evangelization in Egypt. The Church organization or denomination that still exists there today traces its history back to the first century.

Here are the different versions of the verse.

10 Say among the heathen that the LORD reigneth: the world also shall be established that it shall not be moved: he shall judge the people righteously.(KJV)

10 Say among the Gentiles, the Lord has reigned from the tree. For he has established the world, which will not be moved; He will judge the people with justice. (LXX as quoted by Justin Martyr)

10 Say among the nations, “The Lord reigned on a wood: for He has established the world that it shall not be moved: He will judge the peoples in righteousness.”
(from the Coptic Church site)

[Sam]

Some thoughts on different versions or translations of
the Bible.

I have quite a few versions of the Bible. Some of these are Old or New Testament only. Some are included with others in volumes like The Contemporary Study Bible, The Layman’s Parallel New Testament, and The Contemporary Parallel New Testament. I have all of the following:

1. 1599 Geneva Bible
2. King James Version, of course, but I also have a 1611 version in that older style of English than the current KJV and it even includes the Apocrypha
3. Douay Version (Roman Catholic) which goes back to 1609
4. Septuagint, OT only, from 1851
5. The Bible, A New Translation by James Moffatt 1922
6. Syriac Peshitta from 1933
7. The Emphatic Diaglott, NT only, from 1942
8. Revised Standard Version, NT only, from the 1950’s
9. New Testament in Modern English (Phillips) from 1958
10. New English Bible, NT 1961, OT 1970
11. An Expanded Translation, NT only, from 1961
12. The Amplified Bible, NT in 1958 and OT in 1962
13. Jerusalem Bible from 1966
14. The Living Bible from 1971
15. New American Standard Bible from 1971
16. New International Version from 1978
17. New King James Version from 1979
18. New World Translation (JW) from 1984
19. New Century Version, NT only, from 1987
20. New Revised Standard Version from 1989
21. The Message, NT only, from 1993
22. Contemporary English Version, NT only, from 1995
23. New Living Translation from 1996
24. Complete Jewish Bible from 1998
25. International Standard Version, NT only, from 1999
26. Complete Apostles’ Bible, from 2003
27. The Apostolic Bible Polyglot from 1996

I have been a Christian for over 50 years and over
that time I have done most of my reading and studying
with the King James Version so it is the one with
which I am most familiar. There was a time when I was
one of those who considered any other version as
second class and not quite the real Bible. I no longer
feel that way. There’s an expression that says, “When
a man ages, his waist expands and his mind narrows.”
Well, admittedly my waist has expanded several inches,
and in some things I have become more conservative,
but I have also become more broadminded about some
other things. One of those things is different Bible
versions. Over the past several years I have become
more familiar with different versions and have been
able to read some through completely. I no longer am
KJV only but it is still my favorite. The Bible I
usually read and take with me is called the CJB which
stands for the Complete Jewish Bible. It was published
by David H. Stern, a Messianic Jew. I think it was
available first in the NT only and later the whole
Bible. I also use a NT called the Contemporary
Parallel New Testament which has 8 different versions
arranged four per page so that you can read and
compare all of them as you read.

The following is from an article titled “Confessions
of a New Version Addict” by A.W. Tozer. It appeared
in the October 1961 issue of Alliance Witness. He
wrote this in 1961. He died in 1963. I wonder what he
would think of some of the newer ones we have now like
The Living Bible, the NIV, the Message, etc. I don’t
know just what versions he had at the time but
evidently there were quite a few back then also. I
notice he makes light of the Amplified Bible. I like
the Amplified Bible. I first heard about it many years
ago when a nearby pastor that I had known in Bible
School got one from a book club and could hardly put
it down. I think at that time it was only available
in the New Testament. Some time later I got a paper
back Amplified NT and read and used it so much that it
just fell apart. That was probably some time in the
nineteen sixties. Now I have 2 copies of the NT only
and one copy of both the OT and NT and they are all
included in volumes with other translations. I still
read it some but only for comparison with other
versions.

Here is Dr. Tozer’s article.
----------------------------------------
Since shortly after my conversion to Christ as a
teenager I have been addicted to the habit of
acquiring and being disappointed with new versions of
the Scriptures, both revisions and new translations.

It is a habit I cannot shake off. In spite of a long
record of frustrated hopes and cruel disappointments,
to this day I have but to hear that a new version of
the Scriptures has come out and I am off to the
bookseller to pick up a copy.

So I continue to look for the new version that will
make any other new version unnecessary. But it never
works out that way. After pouring over the new book
for a few days or weeks and finding that it is just
one more version, I put it aside and return to my
first love, the familiar King James Bible.

It has been my experience that the new versions make
at least one mistake for every one they correct, so by
the time the trusting reader has reached the last
chapter of the book of Revelation he is back where he
stared, and just goes out by that same door wherein he
went. And in the meanwhile he has lost the
incalculable benefit of constant and intimate mental
association with the clearest, richest and most
beautiful English to be found anywhere among the
libraries of the world, the Authorized Version.

And this brings us to consider those translators who
think to do God service by packing into the English
text every possible shade of meaning the word will
bear in the original. The synonyms are put in brackets
and the reader, apparently, just takes his choice.

This would never do anywhere else. Imagine reading to
a child,
Twinkle, twinkle (blink, wink, shine intermittently,
sparkle), little (diminutive, small wee, tiny) star
(heavenly body, luminary, orb, sphere),
How I wonder (question, puzzle over, dubitate) what
you are (be, have identity with, belong under the
description of),
Up above (atop, opposite to down, contrary to
direction of gravity) the world (earth, the abode of
humankind) so high (elevated),
Like a diamond (gem, precious stone, crystallized
carbon) in the sky (the heavens, the firmament, the
empyrean).

Yet this is the latest religious word game in
evangelical circles and we are all urged to play at
it. For myself, I cannot keep serious while reading
such a version, so I just pass up these uncertain
translators and turn to one who can make up his mind.
I have a secret love for decisiveness.

It is quite natural for us humans to ignore the high
moral intent of the Holy Scriptures and get lost in
verbiage. “Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs
is the kingdom of heaven,” says the old version and
multitudes over the centuries have knelt in penitence
and tearfully sought to know true poverty of spirit;
lately the fad seems to be to try to find shades of
meaning for the words and to express them in more
colloquial language. I wonder if anyone benefits by
having the same thing said several different ways for
him.

All this is not to cry down true scholarship nor to
discourage honest attempts to put the Bible into
modern speech. It is rather to confess that I have not
become a holier man nor a better preacher by my
incurable addiction to new versions of the Scriptures.
I find that if I am failing to live in accordance with
the will of God I get no relief by reading about that
will in a new translation.

As I write I can see fifteen versions before me
without turning my head and there are many more
stashed about here and there. And they all say the
same thing to me; namely, that I must trust Christ
Jesus the Lord as my Saviour, love God with all my
heart, soul, and mind, and my neighbor as myself. They
all say that I must be holy, humble, obedient,
prayerful, pure, kindly, courageous and faithful. They
all say that God is my Father and the Holy Spirit the
inhabitant of my nature through the mystery of the new
birth. And they all end with the cry for Christ’s
returning.

I really don’t need any more new versions, but I’ll
probably buy the next one that comes out. Maybe
someday I’ll find something sufficiently different to
justify the expense. But I haven’t up to now.

[mizpeh]

I like the KJV. I like to cross check other translations at times and the ESV is probably my second favorite more so than the NASV. I rarely read from a Bible in book form anymore. I usually read and study on the computer.

I thoroughly dislike the NLT.

[Scott Hutchinson]

My intent for this thread,was not so much a debate on bible translations although it's quite ok with me to discuss this since I'm not KJV only however what I was aiming for was for folks to share about their special bibles much like what Bro.Sam posted about The Brown Thompson Chain reference bible.
Carry on.

[John Atkinson]

AcroBible KJV for iPhone, it is the bomb

[Scott Hutchinson]

Please tell me about the bible for the iphone.

[OnTheFritz]

KJV, ESV, The Message

[John Atkinson]

http://www.acrobible.com/iphone/bible.php

Pretty great, nice features, cost 3 bucks at the app store, once purchased several versions, mathew henry concise concordance and eastman dictionary and spurgeons daily is free. Also has a website that you can sync notes and stuff to.

[Sinatra]

Originally Posted by John Atkinson

http://www.acrobible.com/iphone/bible.php

Pretty great, nice features, cost 3 bucks at the app store, once purchased several versions, mathew henry concise concordance and eastman dictionary and spurgeons daily is free. Also has a website that you can sync notes and stuff to.

Acro, looks good. Does it access Strong's ? I have Bible Scope on mine. It has some of Acro's features but not all. But, you can look up words in Strong's w/ it. Think I'll go download the Acro and check it out.

Sinatra