Customer Reviews

NIV Compact Thinline Reference Bible

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

 

 

This Bible was great and informative. It had well-detailed maps, and extremely helpful foot notes. It's a good read for those who are just getting accustomed to the Bible, like I am. The text is small but oh it is SO handy to be able to keep this book in your purse!

Since this is an excellent Bible that is accurately described, why would I give it less than a 5 star review? Because it is not as small and compact as I hoped it would be. This Bible is about the size of a VHS tape, but about an inch shorter in bookshelf height. I find myself carrying my full size NIV Thinline Reference Bible instead of this compact version because it is easier to read and not that much bigger or heavier (1 1/4 versus 3/4 lb.). This compact edition is only 1.7 inches narrower, and 2.4 inches shorter than my full size leather bound edition. While the paperback compact edition I bought will snugly fit into the back pocket of a pair of jeans or khakis, it is not particularly comfortable to carry there because of its 1" thickness. Carrying a Bible in a back pocket could also damage its binding. Even though I am over 50 years of age, I have no problem reading the small 6.3 black and red type with bifocals; but, some of my friends do --- particularly reading the red letter type. The center column cross references and the concordance appear to be equivalent to those of the full size edition. Surprisingly, the back of this Bible has the same set of color maps as the full size edition which is very rare in a Bible this size. To protect the pages, consider purchasing an edition whose cover offers protection or consider transporting this Bible in a well fitting sleeve, zip lock bag, or compartment. If it fits, this would be an excellent reference Bible for a backpack, purse, duffle bag, airline carryon bag, or camp shorts' large pocket.

If you just need a small complete Bible that fits in a shirt pocket, can read small 4 to 5 point type, and don't require the NIV translation, cross references, concordance, or maps; you may wish to consider the NASB Pocket Bible. NASB Pocket Bible

I BOUGHT THIS ITEM AS A GIFT AND IT WAS WELL RECIEVED. THEY LOVED IT. THE PRICE WAS COMPETITIVE WITH OTHERS AND THEY APPRECIATED GETTING IT A GREAT DEAL.

The New International Version is the most readable English translation ever produced. And if that doesn't make it a "Good Book," then I don't know what does!

Granted, I still prefer to read God's Word in the original tongues, not in a modern translation. (I've got nothing against the watered-down English versions sold today in Bible bookstores, but the ancient biblical scrolls are just a whole lot funnier.)

Most people these days cannot do that: they cannot read Scripture as it was first intended by the Author. Not to worry: Bible translators have saved you a headache and you can thank God for them. Many of the holy Ghost's original sentences are so ungrammatical and awkwardly constructed, and others so unintelligible, that the translators for Zondervan Corp and these other big Bible companies have graciously re-written the text so as to enhance Scripture's appeal to the 21st-century reader. And in the N.I.V. more than in any other, those scholars have done a truly wonderful job of tidying up.

If you prefer an English Bible that is halfway faithful to the original, then read the Authorised Version, better known in America as "the King James Version." The KJV/Authorised Version also has the most authentic prose style, with thee and thou and hath and dost and verily, which is how God actually talks, albeit in Hebrew. ([...]

But if it's a highly readable New Age paraphrase of the Bible you want, and if you cannot decide between the eighteen leading options in your local bookstore [...], then allow me to recommend Zondervan's "New International Version" (NIV). Here, at last, is an English-language Bible in which all obscenities and difficult words have been euphemised; God's curses, tempered, and His personality, softened; all theological conundrums, solved; all contradictions, removed; and all the howlers, corrected - which is also why the NIV is ideal for the younger generation, grades five and below.

Here's another thing you will love about Zondervan's New International Version: it is reader-friendly. The NIV makes the Lord sound like an affable American football coach, but with His bad words deleted, such as "piss" (Hebrew shathan) which is a word that God, in the Authorised Version, uses quite a bit (but only when He is angry, e.g., 1 Sam. 25:22, 1 Sam. 25:34, 1 Kings 14:10, 16:11, 21:21, 2 Kings 9:8).

And how's this for a major improvement? Almost every place that the word "Hell" appears in the Authorised Version, the NIV substitutes "the grave" or "the realm of the dead." (Where would you rather spend eternity - in "Hell," or in "the realm of the dead"?)

Then, too, in the NIV, every instance of the word, "Ghost" has been eliminated, and not just the holy one. ("Why should we scare people?" That's Zondervan's policy. "We're marketing Christ the King, not Stephen King! And if you can't tell the difference between those two, well then! - Don't blame us, but you can expect a warm welcome, someday, when you die and your aura gets sent forever to the realm of the dead!")

--L