So this past summer I decided to buy myself a new bible and it happens to be a chronological bible. Now in no way when I bought this did I intend to replace my current main bible (an NIV archaeological study bible which I happen to love) but I wanted it because I thought it would be an interesting change from what I am used to (not as drastic a change as changing translations as this new bible is still NIV).
The biggest difference between a standard bible and a chronological one is well,.....the whole chronological part. The first part is the same, and by that I mean Genesis, but after that things get strange fast, like having Job as the second book and Psalms as the 6th (and the biggest thing about that is since the psalms were written over such a long period of time, psalms doesn't remain as one solid book but is interspersed along the whole bible next to where in history it was written so in passages about David you will have a psalm that he wrote pop up). The differences don't stop there, as the bible narrative continues on and Israels history unfolds, some of the books that occur at the same time (prophets or some of the historical books) have chapters that are side by side on the same page of this bible. I think this is really cool as it will allow me to see how the bible is so interconnected and not just full of stories that occur over here or over there and have no bearing to each other. Or how the psalms were written in times of pain or suffering and how we I can read a passage that take place at the same time, on the same page allowing me to connect the two. What goes on in the Old Testament also goes on in the New Testament. You have all four gospels at times interwoven as the same parables are put side by side and you can note the nuances between them and see the differences in how the author portrayed the story.
My one disappointment is that since its a chronological bible, it's kinda hard to interchange with a regular bible for a devotion plan, so for the time being I'm using my archaeological study bible for that until i finish the series before i move on to this new bible.
That was my story about my new bible, what kind of bibles do you have? what translations do you use? why do you use them? and what other bibles do you find interesting and which ones do you maybe want to get in the future?
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