A change of course
I’ve put away the Literary Study Bible, which was to have supplied half of my devotional reading for 2023 and 2024. The notes were too distracting and not insightful enough. Nuanced interpretations were closed off. Ham-fisted ones were asserted. But that may just be my own doctrinal bias rearing its head.
Put it this way, then. Seldom would the notes consider more than one interpretation. I don’t just mean that they’d fail to discuss contrasting theological approaches. I mean, they’d fail to do justice to literary disagreement as well. In a bible purporting to aid literary study, this is a disappointing feature.
Nevertheless, I’m continuing with the English Standard Version. I found a second-hand Lutheran ESV pew bible. The text is uncluttered. The back matter is by Señor Lutero himself.
Our family-time reading of the International Children’s Bible is going just fine. Do Karin & I pause to explain to Samuel and Daniel why the priests had to wear certain garments, or why the Israelites were supposed to sacrifice this but not that? Do we pause to explain these things to ourselves? We do not. We march on ahead. There is a lot of material to cover.
We gauge our success by whether Samuel latches on to a key phrase and repeats it a few times during the next days. Pleasing to the Lord is an example.
When that happens, it’s good literature doing what it’s supposed to do.
Put it this way, then. Seldom would the notes consider more than one interpretation. I don’t just mean that they’d fail to discuss contrasting theological approaches. I mean, they’d fail to do justice to literary disagreement as well. In a bible purporting to aid literary study, this is a disappointing feature.
Nevertheless, I’m continuing with the English Standard Version. I found a second-hand Lutheran ESV pew bible. The text is uncluttered. The back matter is by Señor Lutero himself.
Our family-time reading of the International Children’s Bible is going just fine. Do Karin & I pause to explain to Samuel and Daniel why the priests had to wear certain garments, or why the Israelites were supposed to sacrifice this but not that? Do we pause to explain these things to ourselves? We do not. We march on ahead. There is a lot of material to cover.
We gauge our success by whether Samuel latches on to a key phrase and repeats it a few times during the next days. Pleasing to the Lord is an example.
When that happens, it’s good literature doing what it’s supposed to do.