Many thanks to Harper Collins Christian Publishing for providing a sample of the product for this review. Opinions are 100% my own and NOT influenced by monetary compensation.
I’m not usually a huge fan of study Bibles — especially study Bibles for kids and teens. The ones for kids and teens are, in my experience, often full of “fluffy” content that isn’t always very timeless. And study Bibles in general tend to distract from the most important thing — the text of Scripture itself with all their commentary and flashy pop-culture sidebars. So I was really excited when I saw the description of this new study Bible for students: THE TEXT.
Designed with students (teens), young adults, and new believers in mind, this new study Bible does an amazing job being modern and accessible while keeping the focus solidly on the text itself — and avoiding being “dumbed down” or fleeting in relevance.
THE NET Bible Translation
The heart of this Bible is the NET Bible translation. That’s the one thing about this that’s a little awkward — because it’s not in one of the established major translations (KJV, NKJV, ESV, NIV, NASB…) it’s not likely to “match” whatever translation your family or church already uses. (I’d love to see this same thing come out for other translations. Hint, hint, Harper Collins. I’m partial to the NKJV, myself.) But the NET Bible is a pretty solid translation.
Not to be confused with the WEB translation, the NET Bible — which stands for New English Translation — was created by a group of scholars, initially and primarily online, with a goal of transparency in translation choices. If you’re reading it online, you can read all of the notes documenting why they made the translation choices they did for difficult passages. (There’s also a “full notes” edition available in print, but that’s not what we’re talking about today.)
I don’t like that they translate John 3:16 as “one and only Son,” and not “only begotten Son” — the only translation issue I personally consider a “hill to die on.” If you’re reading the translation notes, the notes provide the necessary added clarity; if you’re only reading the text, this, in my opinion, introduces contradiction within Scripture and represents inaccurate doctrine. The popular NIV has the same issue, though, so this is far from unique to this translation.
And that is the only quibble I’ve had with THE TEXT — that it uses a translation where I find the rendering of John 3:16 problematic. Full disclosure: I have not read every inch of this cover-to-cover. But I’m really impressed with everything I’ve seen in my exploration of it.
THE TEXT – What Makes it Special
What makes THE TEXT study Bible special is its focus on the text. It’s aimed at making a study of the text of Scripture accessible. All of the notes and “sidebars” are geared toward shedding light on the text — not so much as “commentary,” but as providing understanding of the actual words and phrases that are present — and of building fundamental Christian doctrine. In a society where reading comprehension is pretty low, help actually comprehending the text itself is a much more important way to make Scripture accessible than fun little articles about being a Christian at school.
It’s clear this Bible is aimed at being unpretentiously readable, right from the translation notes. In many Bibles, these read as a somewhat pedantic preface that no one expects anyone to actually read. In this Bible, it’s written as though readers might actually want to know what makes different translations…well, different.
The overall layout is clean, crisp, and easy on the eyes, with an easy-to-read font and a two-color design that enables notes and sidebars to stand out easily from the main text.
The running notation of the passage at hand that usually operates like dictionary guide words is not at the top of the page; it’s along the sides. For someone who’s accustomed to reading Scripture, this is a bit disconcerting and hard to get used to. Of course, for a reader new to the Bible, there isn’t anything familiar to contrast it with, so it’s probably less of a problem for the intended target audience.
Most of the sidebars are directly related to the content of the text itself. You can see a few examples in the layout image above. There’s also a clear and simple introduction to each book of the Bible.
“Terms” sidebars provide definitions or explanations for theological terms and for key phrases.
This is also where I found the only indication I’ve picked up on, so far, about the denominational leanings of this Bible’s creators; they clearly are baptistic and not Presbyterian, etc.
For the most part, though, I’ve found these notes to be impressively neutral (probably another artifact of focusing on the text!).
The one set of sidebar features that aren’t quite as directly related to the text are the Q&A notes. These read very much like catechism questions. Although they don’t appear to be straight from any established catechism (i.e. they aren’t pulled from A Catechism for Young Children or the Westminster Shorter or the Heidelberg), it seems apparent the writers have a strong familiarity with historical catechisms, because these very much have a similar “flavor” and will feel familiar to veterans of catechisms like those.
These questions are related to the texts they accompany, but they’re more about establishing orthodox Christian doctrine than illuminating the nearby text, per se. Although, as mentioned, I haven’t read all of these in detail, I haven’t seen any major denominational bias in any of the ones I have read.
The “follow the thread” feature you see helps direct readers to related passages they might be interested in for further reading. This is a helpful tool especially for newbies to the Bible. As are the reading plan charts located in the back of the Bible (where there are multiple options to suit the needs of different readers).
There is one chart in the back about spiritual gifts that might not be everyone’s cup of tea. It also seems that it might have a typo.
Reading THE TEXT
The clear goal of this Bible is to get people reading it. One way it does that is through the “TEXT” method of Bible study. This method is illustrated in the Who is God? features scattered throughout the text, starting near the beginning of Genesis.
T – Talk to God (about asking God to open our hearts to what He has to say)
E – Encounter God and humanity (about observing what the passage at hand tells us about God and about mankind)
X – eXamine Your Heart (about examining ourselves in light of what we’ve just read)
T – Talk to Others (about engaging with community about the things we’ve read)
The specific applications of these four elements are slightly different in each Who is God? feature, although the core is the same. And the focus is kept solidly on God because, although the “E” is for encountering God and humanity, there aren’t any Who is Man? features.
In Summary
Overall, I’m really, really impressed with this Bible; I only wish it were available with the translation we usually use at home (and/or that the NET Bible would make a different choice for John 3:16). I would be very comfortable handing this to a teen (or even a child who’s reading fluently) or a new believer.
Buy a Copy of THE TEXT
If you buy before Valentine’s Day, you’ll save 50%. (It’s not too early to stash things away for Christmas, even.)
Win a Copy of THE TEXT
You can win your very own copy of THE TEXT – NET Bible. Just enter via the Rafflecopter widget below. (If you’re reading this via email or something like that, you may need to click through to the actual site to view the widget.)
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