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May 20, 2009
Textbook Query
Yes, I'm late on this. I'm still on sabbatical until July 1 anyway!
So I'm choosing. I need to use a Bible* for European Studies 101 and for Art 270, the first half of Medieval.
I am relatively indifferent to versions / editions. I don't use anything not in Protestant versions in these courses, so they can use almost anything. I would like the book to be inexpensive and legible. I don't really care if it has good study notes or how the poetry sounds when read aloud (I'll bring in xeroxes of multiple versions of the Psalms we read, anyway).
The last time I taught 270 there was no course in Religious Studies that semester requiring a Bible (someone ordered the big Tanakh for one of the courses in Judaic studies, but that was as close as they got). I can not depend on the nominally Christian students having their own copies (you know, I found out I couldn't depend on the nice young ladies at Agnes Scott to have brought their Bibles from home, either).
Last time I used a paperback Jerusalem Bible that is out of print - or at least I can't find it. The book store carries a paperback King James Version in their trade section - that's almost unusable for modern students not raised with it.
Any ideas??
*Please don't tell me I need to say "Christian Bible." The things used by Jews have names other than "Bible."
Posted by CrankyProfessor at May 20, 2009 12:31 PM
Comments
We used this one when I was in college
Posted by: Another Damned Medievalist 
at May 20, 2009 5:35 PM
I find the New Revised Standard version very appropriate for students wanting a clear translation that's suitable for academic use. (One student brought in a "Hip Hop" translation to share with the class the day we were discussing the King James version.)
There's a Harper Collins Study Edition of the NRS that's not too expensive. But I give the edge to the New Oxford Annotated -- about the same price and a bit better production values. (Plus, you can find a lot of used copies in slight variants of the New Oxford.)
Posted by: Janice at May 20, 2009 7:14 PM
If you don't care about how literary it is (so you don't want the KJV), your best bet is probably the NIV (New International Version) or the NASB (New American Standard Bible).
I'd stay away from the NKJV (which is what the Gideons use) and the Oxford Study Bible (which I hate on oh-so-many levels) ... but really, why bother selecting the translation for them? They all use the same chapter/verse divisions, so why not just require "a Bible" and leave it at that?
By the way, BibleGateway.com has a variety of translations all available online for free, if you want to see which you prefer.
Posted by: Richard Scott Nokes at May 20, 2009 11:45 PM
Last time I taught Bible As Lit a year or so ago there was a New American Standard edition in paperback that was a mere $12.
The Great Nokes mentions Biblegateway, a good site. I personally prefer Baylor's unboundbible.org that also has the text of many English translations(and other languages including Hebrew, Greek, and Latin!), but allows one to place them in comparative columns.
I've also done what Scott suggests, and required a *modern* English translation and listed those acceptable for class (NAS, NA, JB, NJB, RSV, NRSV, NIV, NEB, NET) and those not (KJV, NKJV, DOUAI, Good News, Living Bible, etc.) and that has worked fairly well except in a couple cases where I want to examine a particular turn of phrase.
Posted by: Larry Swain at May 21, 2009 4:47 PM
Well, if the RSV (not the neutered, but the original) isn't too linguistically difficult and/or antiquarian for the students, it's a decent translation. If that language is too elevated, the NIV is good excepting the Psalms and Canticles. A real shame that the Douai or KJV is lost to them.
Posted by: Gregg the obscure at May 23, 2009 1:37 PM
Several editions mentioned would work fine, but one question - if you are teaching a time period and location wouldn't it make sense to use the Bible that was used at that time?? Meaning, not sure why the desire to use a strictly Protestant Bible. History is history.
Personally I prefer the New American or New Jerusalem Bibles, but neither would completely time accurate.
ThomasNelson specializes in Bible versions, such as a Bible for divorced women, Bible for teenagers, etc. - I believe all are Protestant versions. They may have exactly what you are looking for.
.....Well, nothing is accurate in that way. That might involve buying the Tanakh for the Hebrew parts, a Septuagint translated when we talk about the way Jesus used the Old Testament, and the RSV for the New Testament (my favorite version, all in all). This is for class work - I need a single volume. I have no particular interest in using a Protestant version - but the fact is that I'm not going to teach anything this semester that shows up in Catholic versions and not in Protestant versions. SO... --MCT
Posted by: Mary O'Brien at May 25, 2009 3:50 PM
New English Bible, clarity and poetry. Not perfect, KJV a good counterread.
Posted by: ellen at June 5, 2009 7:38 PM