Posted on March 9, 2008 - by Calvin L. Smith

Englishman Near New York (8)

Entry from Saturday evening (uploaded Sunday afternoon local time). It has been very busy today, so apologies for not posting anything sooner. But more about church and what happened today later. I just wanted to bring you up to date first with my hunt for a new Bible. At the Christian bookshop the choice was truly incredible. Every version in your choice of size and binding: leather, hardback, paperback, denim, two-tone plastic, trendy multicoloured cover, even metal casing (honestly!). Then there is a choice of print styles: easy-to-read, tiny (can’t be read, even with a magnifying glass), super-large print (can be held up in New York facing the sea and read on a clear day from Wales), and so on. Then, there are the various sizes: thin, slim, ultra-thin, ultra-slim, super-chunky for those for whom a large Bible is a sign of spiritually etc. They have every kind of reference and study Bible you can think of – it seems every well-known American preacher has a study Bible named after them. Meanwhile, there was a range of Bibles designed for people in certain professions (these are real, not made up): the Marine’s Bible, the Fireman’s Bible, the Police Officer’s Bible, the Military Bible, the Nurse’s Bible ad infinitum (but no Theologian’s Bible, which seemed not to make much sense, I felt). Each has “promise verses” listed at the front, designed to speak into the challenges and demands of those particular professions (I kid you not). They even had a Sportsman’s Bible, designed for the hunter (Stephen Vantassel would no doubt like this one), designed in green camouflage of all things. Looked a bit like a gas mask case. Not sure what the promise verses would be listed at the front of that one (any suggestions?). And all this in one Christian bookshop. In the end I spent an hour and a bit just at the Bible section. Never even got around to the myriad of books, CDs, stationery, fridge magnets, and various other items on sale.

So which Bible did I choose? Well, I couldn’t make my mind up between the pink camouflage Urban Teen Girl Power Bible and the three cubic yard, doubles-up-as-television-stand, super-spiritual Dake’s Bible (only kidding, I would never buy a Dake’s). In fact, I decided it was time for a change, as I am increasingly noticing my NASB is a little choppy in its language. I always go for a word-for-word, or literal equivalence, like the RSV, NRSV, NASB, and ESV, and given all Andy Cheung’s comments and interview on the blog I checked out the Holman Christian Standard Bible, which is related to the versions listed above. I was pleasantly surprised at how it keeps the literal equivalence, but with a more polished up-to-date English, together with footnotes with details of where they have updated the text. This version was ultra-thin, leather-bound with centre-referencing and concordance, just one-and-a-quarter inch thick. Lovely! But my problem was it was not an ultra-slim Bible… believe me, once you have seen one of those you never look back. And they had one, an NASB, the entire Bible, leather-bound with fabulous Moroccan paper, and just three-quarters-of-an-inch thick! So I bought both. (How about that for indecision?) At the shop the staff thought I was quite mad… I must have opened every box a dozen times before making my choice, by the end of which I had quite a mad-eyed stare. And the cost for two leather-bound, very expensive looking Bibles? Just twenty seven pounds.