Confessing Evangelical

John H Saturday 20th October, AD 2007

Michael Spencer has appealed for bloggers to “devote a post (and maybe a picture) to a Bible that has a special place in your spiritual journey”.

Rather than single out one particular Bible, I’m taking a different tack: namely, looking briefly at a number of different Bibles that have been part of my life over the past 26 years, since I first owned my own Bible at junior school. The Bible has been with me in one form or another without a break ever since that time, even during my years as an atheist, so this is something of an exercise in personal spiritual archaeology. Let’s start with that first, junior school Bible. (All dates refer to the period when a Bible was in regular use).

1. New English Bible (1981 to 1991)

I’ve just taken this one off the shelf to type this post, and it really is a wonderful edition of the Bible (deservedly still in print). It includes the best illustrations I’ve ever seen in a Bible edition: attractive line drawings, which are used to particularly good effect in books such as 2 Kings or Isaiah, where standard images for Israel or Judah are used within the text to indicate which kingdom is in view in a given passage.

Another innovative feature is the use of a reduced typeface for sections that are of more “technical” interest (such as genealogies or laws). You may or may not think that’s a good idea (on balance, I think not), but at least it’s an idea. The edition also includes a helpful “family tree” of Bible editions, in a frontispiece entitled “How our Bible came to us”.

This is such a splendid edition I may use it for the next few days, for old times’ sake.

2. Revised Standard Version (c.1989 to 1993)

When I bought this, I was in the middle of my period as an atheist (1986 to 1994). Throughout that time I retained a great love for the Bible (and for the Book of Common Prayer, and church architecture, and choral evensong. I tended to lurch between spittle-flecked Dawkins-esque zeal at one moment, and membership of what Woody Allen would call God’s “Loyal Opposition” the next).

My favourite biblical book during my teens was Revelation, and the RSV’s translation of Revelation 4:1 remains definitive for me:

After this I looked, and lo, in heaven an open door!
 

The RSV remains definitive for my other favourite biblical book at that time, the (ahem) Song of Songs. Look, I was a teenager, OK?

3. Authorised Version (c.1989 to 1994, and intermittently since)

I’ve used a number of copies of the Authorised Version over the years. My favourite – which I subsequently gave to a friend – was a paperback edition with a picture of the solar system on the front, which I bought a few weeks before my return to faith.

My most treasured copy is a fake-leather zip-up copy that I bought with vouchers given to me by the church where I played the organ during my teens. This was for the inaugural “Bert and Elsie Hill Memorial Prize”, given in memory of my maternal grandparents. (Some might think it was a bit of a fix that the first award went to the late donors’ grandson, but that is nonsense, nonsense, d’ya hear?!)

Oh, and I only call it the “King James Version” under duress, or when trying not to confuse Americans.

4. New International Version (1994 to 2001)

In 1994, the Lord brought me back to faith, which I’ve written about here before. In the period immediately before and after my conversion, I was reading the Authorised Version.

However, shortly after my return to faith, another Christian at my college persuaded me that I ought to be reading a modern translation such as the NIV. (At that time, the “Now Indispensable Version” swept all before it among evangelicals. For all the NIV’s flaws, it saddens me that the biblical landscape among evangelicals is now so fragmented and politicised.) So I wandered down to Blackwells and picked up the copy you see gracing the top of this post.

I’ve since moved on from the NIV, first to the ESV and now the NRSV. But the slightly lairy, blue-and-yellow “Popular Cross Reference Edition” of the NIV sitting on the desk beside me was formative for my development as a Christian, and is a fitting choice for the picture requested by Michael.

The Christian who first suggested I drop the Authorised Version in favour of the NIV also proved to be an enduring formative influence on my life as a Christian, and indeed one that outlasted the NIV: I married her.

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