Holy Bible New Living Translation

Rating:
Summary: Nearly Perfect in Packaging
Review: First, to set the record straight: This is a review of the New Living Translation (NLT) Bible, Personal Edition, Black Bonded Leather, ISBN: 0842354484 . Some of the reviews for different Bible products have been lumped together and somehow caused confusion.

This Bible is nearly perfect in terms of "packaging": compact, light, beautiful, and yet the typeface is amazingly readable. It is not much bigger than the palm of your hand, but its print/font is clear and easy on your eyes by any standard, complimented with adequate line spacing. It is even much more readable than most of the regular-sized Bibles that I own by other publishers.

Not everyone I've shown this Bible to is a fan of the New Living Translation, but they all love this Bible for the above stated reasons. It is a beauty inside and out AND it is practical and useful - now that combination is a rarity.

Now, unto the translation itself: I have studied most of the major translations available (NIV, NASB, KJV, NKJV, NRSV, ESV, NLT, and HCSB) and found that each translation has its strengths and weaknesses. Personally, I love the NLT translation and for now use it as a supplement to my study of the other versions. I find its writing style beautiful and the rendition inspirational ,even though the language is thoroughly contemporary. If I can someday find enough reasons to use it as my primary Bible, I will do so.

I would say that, if you are looking for an NLT Bible or an addition to your existing collections, and you don't "need" cross-references or study notes, then this Personal Edition in Black Bonded Leather is "absolutely" a keeper, whether you intend to use it for long study at home/work (and therefore desire comfortable print) or for occasional reading on the road (and therefore desire portability).

As for which translation is most "suitable" for you, you'll have to do some research and ultimately seek wisdom from God to reach the right answer.

By the way, I would really LOVE to see the other publishers come up with something comparable: a Bible that is compact, beautiful, durable, and yet has "clearly" and "comfortably" readable print/typeface. I myself am eager to own something similar in other translations. If Tyndale can do this with NLT, I really don't see why Zondervan, World, and Nelson (just to name a few) can't do the same with, say, NIV, NASB, and NKJV.

Rating:
Summary: I failed -- it didn't
Review: I bought this particular Bible, hoping that by reading and meditating on the wonderfully numerous calligraphic passages, I'd be inspired to read the surrounding passages ... until by the end, I would have covered much of the Bible. At least that was the plan. Well the calligraphy is beautiful, but the plan didn't work. It's hard for me to read a Bible that doesn't have references or a concordance. So this one gets 3 stars for looking pretty on the coffee table (if anyone has the needed room on his/her coffee table), but that's about it. Imagine the added beauty of a few well-selected references calligraphically done! Then it would have been 5 stars for sure. As it is, I think my copy will make a nice Christmas present for a friend.

Rating:
Summary: Actually - 10 Stars
Review: I have every book I have ever been able to find by this cal1grapher. Always beautiful, always inspirational, always a pleasant read. I keep Tim's Books on my coffee table to share with all of my friends, and I read them over and over without tiring of them. He's the best! I especially loved the "Proverbs". Timothy makes observations about each Proverb and writes a little prayer. Heart warming and insightful. I can not get enough of his works!

Rating:
Summary: The best Bible Translation available!
Review: I have numerous translations of the Bible, but the New Living Translation is unsurpassed for ease of reading, accuracy and beauty of language. The best choice, both for new believers and those who have read "The Book of Books" for many years. You'll love it! Even difficult passages become clear and easy to understand.

Rating:
Summary: A Nice Translation
Review: I started reading the New Living Translation while working through an upper level course on Greek exegesis. I was simply looking for a version that emphasized a sentence-by-sentence translation as opposed to a word-for-word translation (because I was required to do this type of translating for my assignments). I was pleasantly surprised with the NLT. It is a very impressive work, and makes for very smooth reading. The translation team also made the wise decision to translate the dates in the text into their modern equivalents. So, whereas previous translations might read that a certain event happened in, say, the twelfth year of a certain king, the NLT will (based on historical data) read that it happened in "586 BC" or "on April 22nd, 722 BC" They have also done the same thing with other forms of measurement (including currency, weight, and time). This makes the events seem much easier to relate to.
For these reasons (and others too) I think this is a really good version. So, if you are looking for a translation that focuses more on the overall meaning of each sentence, and not just the meaning of each word, I heartily recommend this one.

Rating:
Summary: Easy to understand
Review: I've been a believer for about 2 years now. I found New Living Translation to be very easy to understand. I am using NLT more and more during my prayer time. For my personal bible study, I still use my New International Version translation (NIV). I also keep my English Standard Version (ESV) bible nearby during my study hours.

Rating:
Summary: Easy to Read, Improved Version of The Living Bible
Review: The first Bible I read was the King James. In 1965 my mother gave me a copy of Living Letters [the first instalment of The Living Bible]. It opened up the Letters of Paul to me. Despite its Arminian bias, I was confronted with God's sovereignty when I got to Romans 9.

At the same time I read Norman Vincent Peale's The Power of Positive Thinking. I found Paul appealing, and Peale appalling!

The New Living Translation is a huge improvement of Ken Taylor's original, because it has been revised by bona fide Bible scholars,such as Don Carson, Craig Blomberg and Willem vanGemeren, some of whom also worked on versions such as the NIV, ESV, etc.

The NLT is reliable and very readable. If you are serious about bible study you will also use versions such as the NIV and NRSV and ESV, because it is beneficial to use a variety of bible versions.

If you are able, studying Greek, Hebrew and Aramiac is the best way to get close to the original bible.

I recommend the NLT as a great place to start your reading of the bible, and a terrific version to use to read large chunks quickly.

Rating:
Summary: The NLT is a very easy to read Bible version.
Review: The much anticipated revision of the Living Bible (LB) was just recently released. The new revised Bible is being called the New Living Translation (NLT), advertised as the "publishing event of the decade." Many who have read and used the LB for personal Bible study loved its simple and easy-to-read language. However, the LB, while praised by many, both scholar and laymen alike, for its easy-to- understand prose, had to be checked against and compared with other more stricter or literal versions. The LB was noted for containing errros in certain texts. Kenneth Taylor had used the ASV to produce the highly readable LB. It is not a literal translation, based on the original Hebrew and Greek Scriptures, but a paraphrase of the Scriptures and it tended to reflect some of the views of the paraphraser and not necessarily what the original writings said.

The LB has become a successful and popular Bible version, with some 40 million copies printed by 1996. In order to produce a more accurate translation, based on the original Hebrew and Greek Scriptures, a group of some 90 Bible scholars got together in 1989 to work on a revision of the LB. Their goal was to create a Bible translation that is accurate and yet reads like the LB, a paraphrase of the Bible. Did they achieve their goals? A comparison of the LB and the NLT will answer that question.

The Tetragrammaton :

One major difference between the LB and the NLT is the complete removal of the divine name from the NLT. The NLT says in its Introduction that it was decided to render the Tetragrammaton as "the LORD", following a custom that is practiced by most modern English versions of the Bible. The LB, in contrast, used the divine name, rendered as Jehovah, many times throughout the OT. The NLT, only contains the name in two footnotes in Exodus 3:16 and Exodus 6:3. The footnote reads "Hebrew Yahweh; traditionally rendered Jehovah." The name YHWH, translated in English as Yahweh or Jehovah, appears over 6,000 times in the original Hebrew Bible. However, the translators of the NLT decided to follow the custom of completely removing the Name from the Bible substituting it with the title "LORD", and confining the Name, which appeared over 6,000 times in the Hebrew text, to mere footnotes in Exodus 3:15 and Exodus 6:3. When it comes to the test of accuracy, this translation has failed by replacing YHWH (JHVH in latinized form) with a title instead of the name Yahweh or Jehovah. In that regards, the LB is more accurate than the NLT.

Interpretative Verses and Footnotes Removed: The LB has been criticized for containing interpretative verses and footnotes for selected Bible texts. For instance, the LB paraphrases Psalms 115:17 as follows: "The dead cannot sing praises to Jehovah here on earth." A footnote to the text mentions that "here on earth" is implied. However a check with more literal translations gives a different view.

The NLT gives a more accurate rendering. There it reads "The dead cannot sing praises to the LORD, for they have gone into the silence of the grave." Regarding Ecclesiastes 9:5 which reads according to the LB "For the living at least know that they will die! But the dead know nothing; they don't even have their memories." A footnote regarding that verse and verse 10 says: "These statements are Solomon's discouraged opinion, and do not reflect a knowledge of God's truth on these points!" The NLT translates Eccleciastes 9:5 as follows: "The living at least know they will die, but the dead know nothing. They have no further reward, nor are they remembered." (NLT). The revised version does not contain any footnote on that text. In Matthew 22:32, the LB reads "I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. So God is not the God of the dead but of the living." In a foonote Kenneth Taylor interprets that verse as if Abraham, Isaac and Moses were now alive in the presence of God. However, many hold a diffrent interpretation. Since the context is dealing with the issue of the resurrection, some hold that Jesus is emphasizing that they will certainly become alive again in the new age (compare parallel account in Luke 20:27-38 with a strict version ). The assurance that they will be alive again, explains why Jesus speaks of it as an actual event. (compare Romans 4:17). The NLT does not contain an interpretative footnote on Matthew 22:32, allowing the readers to interpret the Scriptures for themselves, and coming to a conclusion that is in harmony with the rest of the Scriptures.

Some other interpretative verses of the LB include texts such as Psalms 9:17 - "The wicked shall be sent away to hell." There the NLT reads "The wicked will go down to the grave," with a footnote stating that the Hebrew word translated grave is Sheol. The LB says in Proverbs 9:18 "But they don't realize that her former guests are now citizens of hell."; there the NLT says "But the men don't realize that heer former guests are now in the grave." The LB paraphrases the last part of 1 Peter 3:18 regarding Jesus as "though his body died, his spirit lived on." The NLT paraphrases "more literally" as: "He suffered physical death, but he was raised to life in the Spirit, " with a footnote indicating that "Spirit" can be rendered with a lower case as "spirit."

Its Language - Definately LB-Like As can be seen from the few samples just cited, the NLT has corrected some of the inaccuracies of the LB. It has also removed most, if not all, of the interpretative footnotes. However, it has retained the much loved easy-to-understand language of the LB. Let's read just one sample of this fast-paced, easy-to-understand version:

Isaiah 65:17-25 "Look! I am creating new heavens, and a new earth-so wonderful that no will even think about the old ones anymore. Be glad; rejoice forever in my creation! And look! I will create Jerusalem as a place of happiness. Her people will be a source of joy. I will rejoice in Jerusalem and delight in my people. And the sound of weeping and cyring will be heard no more. No longer will babies die when only a few days old. No longer will adult die before they have lived a full life. No longer will people be considered old at one hundred! Only sinners will die that young! In those days people will build houses and eat of the fruit of their own vineyards.. ...." Actually, one can just open the NLT in any page and find the Word of God beautifully expressed.

Conclusion: Its Improved in Some Respects The NLT is more reliable than the LB; it contains no interpretative footnotes like the LB; however, since NLT is still a paraphrase, some verses seem to reflect the translator(s) viewpoint (See for example Matthew 7:12 in both the LB and the NLT: both speak of the way to "hell", but in the original Greek, as noted in their footnotes, the word should read "destruction". Also, in the NLT, Romans 8:18-25, in particular verse 23, is apparently interpretative. ) The NLT, nevertheless, has fewer interpretative verses; and the translators to some extent have achieved their goal-maintaining the prose as simple as the LB and remaining as faithful as possible to the original Word of God. The major flaw, I believe, was the removal of a rendering of the Tetragrammaton as either Yahweh or Jehovah. If the name was retained it could have been a version with a very high standard of accuracy and faithfullness to the original text. Since there is no such thing as a perfect Bible version, the NLT can still be compare with other versions, especially the literal ones like the ASV or Darby's version.

Rating:
Summary: *The Perfect Bible for ALL Truth Seekers*
Review: There is simply no other way to describe this particular translation of the Bible, other than to say that it is one of THE greatest blessings of my entire life.

For years, I had attempted to read the Bible (most often KJV), and got absolutely NOTHING out of it, since that particular style of language and writing has been extinct forever and been irrelevant for just as long, and does nothing at all to convey anything of any real meaning or value to the average modern-day reader.

What a blessing it was to pick up THIS Bible and actually have the words come alive for me like never before! Suddenly, it has become downright exhilarating -breathtaking even!- to read the Bible, and there's this inner-sense of absolute certainty that it is nothing less than divinely inspired of God, not just in the scriptural sense, but in the fact that this book was intended to be read and interpreted by EVERYBODY, and not just by a handful of elitist snobs who totally miss the point anyway.

The only individuals I can imagine giving this Bible a bad review, are modern-day Pharisaical hypocrites who care more about mere superficialities and maintaining their own ignorance, instead of reaching peoples' hearts and filling their souls with the Living Word of God.

In conclusion, if you are sincerely seeking answers to every question you've ever had about anything, I strongly advise and encourage you to obtain a copy for yourself; it will be one of the greatest blessings of your life.

Rating:
Summary: Small steps away from Biblical Truth
Review: Timothy Botts's illustrated edition of the NLT Bible is a rare and special treat. I've always been a partisan of the NASV (and now the updated NASV), and it remains my first choice for daily devotions and, especially, for serious study, but I find myself using the NLT more and more and recommending it to friends. Not only are the translators a veritable "Who's who" of evangelical commentary writers, but stylistically the NLT is so dead-on perfect when it comes to modern American idioms that you often find the truth of the Scriptures touching you in a new eye-opening way.

So now comes along the Botts Illustrated edition of the NLT and you have something that is hard to resist. Often in the world of the arts you find that Christian artists are, to put it bluntly, second-rate (think of Contemporary Christian Music, though it is improving). On the other hand, if you have an eye for calligraphy, I think you will find that Timothy Botts is one of the most talented calligraphers you will ever find. In terms of technique (i.e., the actual formation of the characters), Botts consistently produces beautiful work. Add to that the wide range of hands he has mastered (or even improvised) together with his wonderful creativity in marrying text with his own simple but expressive illustrations, and you have a truly delightful work.

Evangelicals like myself tend to downplay the notion of the "sacred" but as I hold this substantial volume, I do find myself approaching the Word of God with a bit more reverence. One fellow in my workplace Bible study said it reminded him of the illustrated psalters we saw on a trip to the Getty last year (though of course the style is quite a bit different!).

If you own (as I do) Botts's book of selected Proverbs, you will have a good idea what this illustrated edition is like. However, one friend familiar with Botts's earlier work lamented the fact that the calligraphy in this book is not on glossy paper as were the Proverbs. There is some validity to this criticism, but overall I think the decision was a good one because it allows both text and artwork on the same page.

A final bonus in this edition is that Botts has produced (with the assistance of his son) a special calligraphic-style font exclusively for this Bible. I find it a very attractive font, though some may find it a tad hard to read due to the point size.

I feel that Tyndale Publishers has done the Christian community a great service in producing this Bible, which I imagine was rather expensive to produce. I think it will be wonderful for leading my family in devotions. If you've been thinking of buying a nice family Bible, this would be a good candidate (though I don't believe it has a section for recording births, marriages, etc.). Get a copy before it goes out of print.