Customer Reviews

The Holy Bible: International Standard Version

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

 

 

I've taken to bringing my Kindle Bible, currently OSNOVA Study Bible, to church with me instead of a traditional model. I like being able to search for things. This Bible does NOT search. It in fact states there is no index and to try again later. I don't get the impression that means one is being built on the users Kindle. Navigation is what Kindle Bibles should be about. Direct Verse Jump 2 should be standard equipment on all Kindle Bibles. Some have it, some don't. OSNOVA has it. ESV has it. NET Bible has it. NASB, ISV, God's Word and I'm sure many others don't. DVJ-2 and DVJ-2 abbreviations need to be standard equipment on ALL Kindle Bibles. The original DVJ is a nice option too, but I understand it's buginess is due to some Kindle issues. If Kindle engineers found a way to get us immediately to a DVJ-2 compliant Index and the Bible purveyor themselves capitalized on DVJ-2 what a wonderful world this would be. More difficult, but HIGHLY appreciated, would be a Kindle 'Dictionary' that would immediately show the contents of a Bible cross-reference in both pop-up and link to forms. I REALLY want my NASB95 to include DVJ-2 capability. Every Kindle Bible purveyor needs to go to OSNOVA and see how it's done.

This review deals specifically with the Kindle version.
The formatting is unacceptable. I hope they fix it. I would otherwise give it a five star review.

From Genesis Chapter 5:23-24
"Enoch lived a total of 365 years, 24 communing13 with God--and then he was there no more, because God had taken him."

The "24" above is the same font, color and size as the "365" the sentence reads like "Enoch spent 24 years communing with God."

This is a recurring problem. Please just read the "Popular Highlights" section for this review to see other examples of how this interferes with reading the text. The verses should be superscripted and possibly a different font.
The 13 above is a footnote and is in red in the original and hypertext linked. The reader shouldn't have as much of a problem with that, but it also could be smaller and/or a different font.

Editors please fix this glaring problem. thnx
When you do I will gladly change or delete this review.

Just absolutely incredible. I am well educated in Biblical languages and until now I never encountered a translation that captures the meaning of the original texts so well. All the recent discoveries were taken into consideration...oh and Isaiah translated from the Great Isaiah Scroll of the Dead Sea Scrolls!!! This is utterly unique and at the same time makes perfect sense.

This Bible includes extensive study notes which include possible renderings from various Mss. I highly recommend this product. I cannot wait until the physical copies are available, especially the leather. But until then, we have the Kindle version. You can search by book, chapter and reference notes.

There are some places where the ISV fails, like in trying to make Greek poetry rhyme in English. Rendering Christ as Messiah in the NT is another one (though this is mostly personal preference). But on the whole this is a good translation that flows better than the NIV, but does not take the liberty of interpreting the text for the reader like the NIV so often does. I am also pleased that the translation team intends to translate the Deuterocanon (erroneously called the Apocrypha) in an effort to make this a truly international Bible.

Also another commenter wrote about how the ISV dropped the ball on 1 Corinthians 10:16 since it read:

"The cup of blessing that we bless is a sign of our sharing in the blood of Christ, isn't it? The bread that we break is a sign of our sharing in the body of Christ, isn't it?"

This has since been corrected to:

"The cup of blessing that we bless is our fellowship in the blood of the
Messiah, isn't it? The bread that we break is our fellowship in the
body of the Messiah, isn't it?"

I have been reading the ISV for about the last month and have not yet read the entire Bible in this version. But I have read enough to know that it is not a Bible I will use much, and certainly not for serious study. This does not mean that there are not some good things about this translation. The greatest plus is that it written in easy to understand and easy to read (orally) English. It also seems to meet its goal of not using slang. It purports to being a combination between a formal equivalent and functional equivalent translation. From my reading I would say it is much more of an functional equivalent translation.

First of all a minor criticism: The introduction says that it is sensitive to Poetic forms of the original. In terms of form the ISV seems to attempt to do this, some times more successfully than at other times. But in terms of the poetic passages ISV sometimes obscures the meaning that the author intended. As one example in Psalm 1 ISV has: "How blessed is the person, who does not take the advice of the wicked, who does not stand on the path with sinners, and who does not sit in the seat of mockers." This, first of all changes the beautiful walk - sit - stand imagery of the Psalmist. It also obscures the metaphor of a journey through life that I think the Psalmist is trying to create. In fairness the ISV does have walk in the footnote. But using the Kindle the footnotes (there are a lot of them) become a minor irritation after awhile. Even more troubling for me in Psalm 1 is the use of "the person" where the Plsalm literally has "the man". Many (I think with good reason) interpret the man in this Psalm as referring first of all to Christ. Changing the word to person makes it more difficult to see that option. This time there is no footnote to let the reader know that the literal translation is man.

These are minor criticisms that I could have lived with. My major criticism and reason I give this translation one star is because it sometimes lets its Reformed bias render passages in misleading and inaccurate ways. The most grievous example I have found of this is 1 Corinthians 10:16. ISV has "The cup of blessing that we bless is a sign of our sharing in the blood of the Messiah, isn't it?" (It does the same thing with "bread") The words "a sign" are found nowhere in the original Greek, nor is it in any way implied there. This is purely from the Reformed understanding that the body and blood of Christ is not really present in the bread and wine of Communion, but only symbolizes it. I know of no other major English translation that has the word sign or anything like sign in it. Not even the New Living Bible does this. If this were a commentary I could accept this as a Reformed opinion. But in a book that claims to be the Bible there is no place for this sort of thing.

Because of this I believe this is a translation that cannot be trusted. Therefore I cannot recommend it.

This product is excellent for two reasons:

1. It has been formatted for the Kindle. It is easy to navigate and it has a nicer layout than most others.

2. The translation is modern, accurate and readable. It has a refreshing style and is unlike any other on the market.

I have been so enthralled by it that I have been reading about 20 chapters a day since buying it, which is a lot more than I usually read in the Bible.