Review: The TNIV Reference Bible

I had a nice little surprise waiting for me when I got home today: an advance copy of the TNIV Reference Bible. I'm pleased to say that it was everything most of us who have been waiting for it hoped it would be.

I've written a full hands-on review at This Lamp, and I encourage you to read that and post comments either here or there.

If you don't have time to read the full review right now, let me simply quote my last paragraph:

In the final analysis, the TNIVRB is the edition of the TNIV I wish I had been using from the very beginning. Nevertheless, late is better than never. Everything about it says this is a quality product, and while it isn't everything I finally want in an edition of the TNIV (I'm still holding out for wide margins), it will replace my TNIV Study Bible as my public TNIV of choice. I know a lot of people have been waiting for this Bible, and I'm glad to say there are no final "gotchas." The TNIVRB is everything it was promised to be. I can readily recommend it to anyone wanting a regular reference edition of the TNIV, and it will be the edition that will receive the majority of my use.

2 1/2 weeks to go

There are 2 1/2 weeks to go before the deadline of Dec. 31 to submit revision suggestions for the TNIV. During the last few weeks I have almost completed checking the minor prophets.

As I have flagged verses for the TNIV committee which could benefit from revision, I have also flagged verses which strike me as having nice, idiomatic English. Those get flagged with green highlighting. If you would like to read my comments so far, click here.

Today I merged all the pages of comments submitted up to today from others into a single file. (I'll add further suggestions to that file.) That will make it easier for me to send all the revision suggestions to the TNIV committee by Dec. 31.

I am pleased with the comments others have been suggesting. I suspect that the files I will forward to the TNIV committee will include the largest number of suggestions given to the them at any one time, at least from non-members of the committee.

There are still a few books of the TNIV Old Testament which no one has volunteered to check. There is still time for people to check them, even if there is only time to skim a book, before the deadline of Dec. 31.

word alone: TNIV will gain trust and readership

word alone: TNIV will gain trust and readership

Witherington on the Bible Experience

Click here to find out whether Bible scholar Ben Witherington likes The Bible Experience, with all of the TNIV dramatically rendered on CD or MP3.

Mark Strauss on TNIV revision suggestions

The TNIV committee (the CBT) is always willing to examine specific suggestions for improvements. Just last year we examined dozens of Wayne's suggestions (and accepted many).

Referring back to earlier posts [in discussion lists] would not be helpful for me, since I don't really have the time to read through archives. However, if you have specific suggestions for improvements, and want to cut and paste your exegetical arguments from past posts for these suggestions into a list of proposals, I would be more than happy to present these to the committee.

List the present reading of the TNIV, the proposed reading, and then the argument for it. [WL:Use the webpage form provided for your suggestions.]

As Wayne noted, December 31 is the latest we can receive proposals. Many years we do not get to all the proposals at our June meeting, but they are kept in a chronological list when they are received and will eventually be examined by the committee.

Hope this helps.

Blessings,

Mark
CBT member