Archive for the ‘Editions’ Category

Crossway has just published the ESV Children’s Bible. This edition contains the complete ESV text plus 214 illustrations and material geared toward kids at the beginning and end of the volume. Crossway designed the Bible to emphasize the Word of God.

The material at the beginning helps children learn how to read, meditate on, and apply the Bible. Read an excerpt from the front (130K PDF; the areas that look pink–technically, magenta–appear a deep red in the printed version. These excerpts come from proofs prepared for the printer and don’t have color-correction applied).

The 80 pages of material at the end introduce children to the message of the Bible. The material reviews key events and ideas found in the Bible and doesn’t shy away from tough topics like sanctification. It talks about some ways to study the Bible and how to apply it to kids’ lives. Parents can go through this material with their children. Read an excerpt from the back (469K PDF).

Here are all the topics covered in the supplemental material:

• The Bible, God’s Message to Us
• What the Bible Says About Itself
• How to Use the Bible
• About This Bible
• Who Is God? What Is God Like?
• God Makes Himself Known
• God Chooses a People for Himself
• The Ten Commandments
• From Old to New Testament
• Jesus: God’s Righteous Son
• Good News!
• The Gospel of Jesus
• What Is Salvation?
• Salvation Explained
• Sanctification: Becoming More Like Jesus
• The Fight of Faith
• Fighting the Fight of Faith
• Verses That Will Help Me Fight the Fight of Faith
• The Promises of God
• Go into All the World
• How Will You Respond to What You Have Read?
• Bible Reading Tips
• Bible Reading Plan
• Learning to Pray
• Bible Memory
• Dictionary

We’ll be giving away some of these Bibles to readers of this blog in the near future.

Here’s Crossway’s description of the Bible:

Kids—Here Is a Bible Just for You!

The ESV Children’s Bible is the whole Bible, created just for kids! Young Children will love the 200-plus full-color illustrations. All Children will love that this is a real Bible, the same as grown-ups read, not a simplified Bible or storybook that they will soon outgrow. Families will love to explore together all of the beauty and riches of God’s Word.

The ESV Children’s Bible is…

Ideal for Kids 6-7—to enjoy the pictures and begin to read along at home and in church.

Ideal for Kids 8-9—to read on their own and memorize key verses.

Ideal for Kids 10-12—to read and learn from the many features about…

• The Message of the Bible
• The Plan of Salvation
• Becoming More Like Jesus
• The Promises of God
• Introductions to Each Book of the Bible
• How to Read the Bible
• How to Pray

The ESV Children’s Bible is a real Bible for real kids—a Bible to cherish for life.

The Bible currently has a list price of $24.99. Find it at Crossway, Amazon.com, or Christianbook.com.

One question that arises from time to time is, “What does a reverse interlinear Bible look like?”

A traditional interlinear has the original language as the top line with English words lined up with the original. A reverse interlinear has English as the top line with the original words lined up with the English.

Here are two pages from a booklet Crossway produced last year that illustrate what we’re talking about. Note that these pages don’t represent the final form of the ESV Reverse Interlinear New Testament that’s coming out this fall.

Here’s a first look at the upcoming ESV Children’s Bible. It will contain over 200 full-color illustrations right where the stories appear in the Bible text. It also has a concordance, charts, diagrams, and features designed especially for kids. We’ll talk about these features more in the coming months.

In the meantime, here are three pictures from the inside of the Bible to give you an idea of what it looks like:

You can pre-order this edition from Crossway.

(This edition is different from the Kid’s Bible for Life, which will include more study helps and is coming in 2006.)

Crossway just published its “Truth” edition of the ESV. This paperback Bible is designed especially for non-Christians and new Christians; it drives readers to the ultimate truth of God’s Word. It has the following features:

• The Truth About Truth introduction to the Bible
• How to Read the Bible
• Favorite Bible passages
• Topical index of key verses
• Plan of salvation
• Verses to memorize
• Two Bible-reading plans
• Full Bible text with text notes

OK, so you can get that information just from reading Crossway’s ads. We want to go beyond the marketing and give you the inside scoop. To that end, we offer you three goodies:

First, here’s a PDF (265K) of the introduction to Truth. It contains “A Good Place to Start,” “The Truth About Truth,” “How to Read the Bible,” “What the Bible Says About Truth” (favorite passages), “The Truth About…” (topical index), a Forty-Day Bible Reading Plan, and the Contents.

Second, we asked Justin Taylor, who did some work on this edition, to write a little bit about what he did. He has a longer post on his blog. Go read it. Here’s an excerpt about the Bible memory plan he developed:

There’s nothing fancy about it. It is simply 52 Bible passages, one for each week of the year. Each passage has a corresponding “truth,” providing a broad overview of some key topics of theology. For example, for each of the first 18 weeks you memorize an attribute of God. In week 19, you memorize a verse on the Trinity. Weeks 20-22 cover Christ’s threefold office. Weeks 23-28 deal with six attributes of Scripture. Weeks 29-41 cover soteriology, weeks 42-45 deal with eschatology and eternity, and weeks 46-49 deal with ecclesiology. Week 50 is on the New Covenant, week 51 is on the Great Commandments, and week 52 is on the Great Commission.

He also has a great quote from John Piper about the value of memorizing Scripture.

Third, we’re making an RSS feed of the memory plan available. The feed updates itself every day to help jog your memory throughout the week, and you get a new verse to memorize every Sunday. New Testament passages include mp3s so you can both hear and read the passages. As Justin mentions above, these passages cover many of the key doctrines of the Bible. You can also download a pdf (42K) of the memory plan.

In case you don’t know, the ESV is available in a few parallel editions:

• The Evangelical Parallel New Testament. Includes the ESV, HCSB, Message, NLT, and TNIV. (Oxford, 2003)
• The Essential Evangelical Parallel Bible. Includes the ESV, NKJV, Message, and NLT. (Oxford, 2004)

A couple more non-English parallel editions are in the works. We’ll keep you updated when we can share more.