Customer Reviews

Bible ( Scottish Gaelic)

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

First, the good:

David Norton has done an incredible job restoring the King James text to it's original, intended form. Even the 1611 first edition contained errors, so this is really the first time that the translators' intended version has appeared in print (approx. 400 years later).

The layout of this book is a joy to read - instead of each sentence appearing as a paragraph, the original translators' intended paragraph layout has also been reconstructed and restored. Additionally, all of the songs and poems that have always appeared inline as a continuous stream of text are now broken out with appropriate spacing and line breaks, actually appearing as poems or songs.

Mr. Norton also updated all of the 17th century spelling to the modern form. Unfortunately, his definition of "spelling" is very liberal:

Changing "witnesse" to "witness" makes sense, as it is merely an updated spelling. Changing "digged" to "dug" or "spake" to "spoke" is debatable because it alters the flow. It's not just updating the word's spelling, but updating the word's conjugation.

The most egregious changes were when he changed every occurrence of "thine" and "mine" to "thy" and "my". For instance, "...to whom thou sworest by thine own self..." (from Exodus 32:13) is now "to whom thou sworest by thy own self." "Thy" should always be "thine" when the following word begins with a vowel instead of a consonant - this is basic English grammar, and the new text errs.

As an example (Psalm 141:8)

The traditional KJV:

But mine eyes are unto thee, O GOD the Lord: in thee is my trust; leave not my soul destitute.

Is now:

But my eyes are unto thee, O GOD the Lord:
in thee is my trust, leave not my soul destitute.

"mine" has become "my", an alteration of the original grammar rules. However, the new layout of the text for the psalm as a whole is a valuable addition and the new sentence is beautiful in its own way.

So overall, the "updates" do make for a smoother and faster read, which some people may prefer. Combined with the improved layout, this version of the KJV is a pleasure to read.

As an alternative, if you prefer the original spellings and grammar, but want the apocrypha, then the only option is Oxford's The Bible: Authorized King James Version (Oxford World's Classics) which is also a paperback with a colorful cover. Unlike the edition published by Penguin Classics, Oxford's is the traditional text; but suffers in that it does not have Mr. Norton's improved layout.

In summary:

Penguin Classics/David Norton's version: Has reconstructed original text with excellent layout. Grammar changes, quotation marks, and removal of italicised words make for a faster and easier read but introduce new frustrating errors.

Oxford's version: Is missing Norton's reconstructed text and his vastly superior layout, but keeps the original grammar.

These two books are the only paperback editions of the KJV that contain the apocrypha.

Penguin Classics is highly to be commended for making available - in very attractive and economical form - the outstanding edition of the KJV offered by David Norton and previously published as the New Cambridge Paragraph Bible. Given the extent of the project, it was only inevitable that the first edition of this would have some errors (mostly typographical - such as 1 Corinthians 15:37). In the present volume these have been corrected.

True, it is possible to disagree with Dr. Norton on matters of method or literary/editorial judgment, but most believe that his work will stand the test of time as a remarkable, important achievement - based on the work of the orginal KJV translators and making their work, once again, enduringly readable. There is little doubt that, in time, his work will become definitive. For a college introductory course on the Bible or for people who want to engage with the KJV without being bound to all the unhelpful happenstances of the now standard editions, this Penguin Classics presentation is the one to buy. Highly recommended.

This edition of the King James Version (Authorised Version) of the bible is a pleasure to handle. It is printed on white paper that is thick enough to minimise the amount of bleed-through of print from pages sharing the same sheet. It is a well bound paperback, not sewn in signatures but still well bound. The book is surprisingly heavy but in a way that adds to the pleasure of handling it.

There are some things missing
(1) it does not have chapter summaries at the top of each chapter - these summaries are common in good KJV editions.
(2) it doesn't include the marginal notes from the KJV translators.

But there are some nice features
(1) it has a good introduction
(2) it has interesting notes at the end of the volume - these notes are similar to book introductions for each of the books of the KJV
(3) it has the text set out in paragraphs on a single column which in my opinion enhances the pleasure of reading the volume.

If you like marking passages this edition will suit you well because of the quality of the paper.

If you want a bible that includes everything that the KJV translators translated (except for the marginal notes with alternate translations) this is the bible for you.

The price is very good; $10.88 (as at 4th-April-2008).

This review is for the book with ISBN-10: 0141441518

Five stars is well deserved.

Read this Bible aloud to best appreciate it. This translation of the King James version of the Bible is not just for Christians but for anyone who likes good English; for the 1611 translation had a lot to do with shaping the English we speak today.

This translation takes the 1611 King James Bible and updates the grammar and layout while leaving the magnificence untouched. The language isn't fully updated into modern forms, but just enough to be more accessible for modern readers. Some books of the Bible were written for specific audiences or for specific purposes (Paul's letters are the most obvious examples). Similarly, translations of the Bible often have different audiences in mind. The original King James translation was written to sound magnificent as it was being read aloud in church. People in 1611 didn't actually talk like that: it wasn't a translation into the language of the day. So don't read this quietly to yourself or study from it but read it aloud and listen to it, and worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness.

The KJV Bible 1611 AD - the "Bible" is complete as it originally was translated - contains the Apochrypha. It is excellent literature that has been brought up to modern language level (not the original 17th century English), so it is intelligeble. This Bible still has the questionable distinctions between "Gentiles" (nations) vs. "Jews, Hebrews, Israel, 'chosen people') as does the St. Jerome's Roman Catholic translation, but should be considered as a good comprehensive original translation/interpretation of the KJV Bible.

I like this Bible so much that I bought two of them!

Here's what I LOVE about this Bible:

1. It's print layout is in paragraph form (aka Single Column). This is how the Bible was meant to be read so that the reader can see the context.

2. It's printed on quality paper (not the cheap rice paper that so many other publishers are using these days).

3. There is no commentary and no "red" letters.

4. The text is a very readable 8-point font.

5. Book introductions are in the back of the Bible, not at the beginning of each book.

6. Verse numbers are small enough that you don't notice them unless you are looking for them. This was done to minimize distraction while focusing on context - love it!

7. The price is very good!


There are only three (3) minor things that I would want to see in any reprinting of this Bible. They are:

1. Add a little more paper to the edge for more note taking space (I solved this issue myself - see below). There is some space but not very much. This is typical for paperbacks so it's understandable.

2. Change the font from 8-point to 9-point. The 8-point is still very readable though.

3. I might have liked to see verse references at the bottom of each page - this bible has none. But that would have made for a few more pages; besides, access to other bibles with references are readily available for most people.

NOTE: I disassembled one of these, inserted a blank page between every page of the Bible for extra note taking, and rebound it with black vinyl covers and black spiral coils. It's now in seven (7) volumes, but I have a bible with plenty of note taking space plus room to add more pages in the future if needed. I'm thinking of producing another one, too.

Nearly three years after buying this paperback Bible, it is still my favorite version to read. Expensive is not always best, especially in this case. I love the readability of the paragraph format; God's word now reads like a normal book instead of a dissected piece of manuscript. I find the formatting especially invaluable for reading many chapters at a time. Inconspicuous verse markings, well-suited divisions into paragraphs, as well as quotation marks around dialogue all help give the reader a much better sense of the context of the passage.

The substantial margins on the outside edges of the text are highly useful for annotations, especially since they are not cluttered with other information. I love to underline and make notes in this Bible, firstly due to the available space, and secondly since the Bible costs so little. The incredibly low price makes me not at all afraid to make notes on it, drink tea with it, and take it on the road with me, since, if by some misfortune I would misplace it, another copy would surely be in order!

True, some information which is typically supplied in a King James Version will not be found. There are no marginal notes, page headings, or other marginal references. But for me, these all work to its advantage. The absence of these features make it a highly readable Bible, not a study Bible. My study Bible is still handy when I need access to other such information. I have actually enjoyed discovering inter-scriptural references and making my own page headings in the absence of these features.

Without a doubt, this well-formatted version of the King James Bible is a job well done by David Norton. Anyone who is preparing to read the Bible through from cover-to-cover will surely appreciate this highly readable version.

In celebration of the 400th anniversary of the KJB, I find myself getting on the bandwagon like so many others and re-exploring this translation which I group up with in my home church. Over time I've migrated to other translations but have never really felt "at home" in their renderings. There is a definite coldness about many modern translations, and I say this as a reader and owner of many translations, not a King James Onlyist. Returning the KJB at this moment just seems right for me.

As part of my celebration, I've been reading Adam Nicolson's informative "God's Secretaries: The Making of the King James Bible" to help get me started on understanding the background of this highly pivotal and influential text. I plan on reading much more on the subject in the coming months and years ahead. Also, I am purchasing more editions of the KJB than I ever thought I would, considering that I had, for all practical purposes, spurned the KJB for many years in favor of the latest and greatest. What turned me on to this edition was the paragraph format and the inclusion of the Apocrypha - as the original Translators intended. The actual New Cambridge Paragraph Bible even included the marginal notes of the Translators. All in all, I was impressed by the principle that someone was taking the time to restore the 1611 KJB to its original, glorious state. Reading Nicolson's "Making of..." has lit a match in my heart for the incredibly varnished Jacobean English of the 1611 text, especially considering how Nicolson himself goes to great lengths analyzing and explicating how otherwise odd and obscure punctuation and spelling are the defining features of the translation, giving it it's own recognizable literary character, similar to Shakespeare or Donne or Milton. Reading Nicolson's book has set a craving in my heart for that historically specific intention of the Translators themselves.

Thus, David Norton's edition sounded too good to be true - and it was. In his introduction to this text, Norton discusses his agenda for restoring the 1611 text which includes modernizing both spelling and punctuation, even though he himself takes issue with updating archaic forms such as "thee" and "thou." Did it not occur to Dr. Norton that modernizing anything is not restoring the text at all? Furthermore, he contradicts himself: he leaves archaic forms such as "thou" and "thee" alone but opts to "modernize "spake" to "spoke" never realizing that "spake" is an archaic form - as is the whole text! "Jacob sod pottage" has become "Jacob seethed pottage; "Submissly" has become "submissively;" "Astrologians" have become "astrologers;" "Mistook" has become "mistaken;" etc. In all of these cases and more, this isn't just a change of spelling, it's a fundamental alteration of morphology and conjugation, thus not restoring the 1611 text, as Norton's agenda set out to do, but creating a hybrid of 1611 and 21st century English. In short, Norton has done nothing more but release a newer, slightly different edition of the NKJV (New King James Version).

For most, my attraction to the historical archaisms will not find much echo, and I definitely can appreciate that. Many people are looking for a solid, readable KJB. This edition is definitely readable; solid may require some stretching of terms; and I'm reluctant to refer to it as the KJB. Other reviewers have already praised its merits for the general reader, so I'll let those positive reviews speak for themselves; however, for the more intellectually-minded, historical reader requiring a more authentic presentation of the original 1611 text, I can only recommend the 1833 Oxford University Press rendition of the 1611 text as published in facsimile by Hendrickson Publishers.

Being orthodox, this is one of the cheapest ways to get ahold of the apocrypha. The paragraph format is very reader friendly. The book is thick and heavy, the stock will take a highlighter well, this book is going to go places with me and get beat up, thats ok, if I need to I'll get another!

The two Kindle Bibles associated with the David Norton edition of the Penguin Classics Bible are not this particular Bible.

One (99-cent edition) is a generic KJV Bible without the specific renderings the Norton Bible has.

The other is a Catholic translation of the New Testament only.

Now the real review of the paperback book--I have this book and I like it with only a couple minor issues.

Issue #1 -- It is not 100% exactly a reconstruction of the original translators' manuscript to the printer before all the printer errors crept in over the centuries. This reconstruction has some modernizing of the text to make it more current English in some places, such as changing "mine" to "my" and the like. On the other hand, though, some modernizing might be unavoidable. Some English spellings from that time period are no longer used and may be confusing to us, thus a reason for some modernizing.

Issue #2 -- It does not show in italics the supplied words not part of the greek or hebrew text to make the text a little more complete.

Otherwise, a great book to enjoy.