Customer Reviews

The Precise Parallel New Testament: Greek Text · King James Version · Rheims Bible · New International Version · New Revised Standard Version · New ... New American Standard Bible · Amplified Bible

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

As a student of Beginning New Testament Greek, this book was invaluable to my learning by being able to compare the Great Translations of both old time and new time. Having this is in my collection often eliminated the need for a lexicon in the preparation of word studies and has been a continuing help in my work in the Greek Language.

This is a great tool for students of the Greek New Testament.
If you are a pastor and your Greek skills are falling away
this is a very good book to add to your library. The Greek
NT is included along with some historic "literal" or formal
equivalent translations. I do not agree with the choice of the
Amplified Bible, but that does not detract from the usefulness
of this resource. I find myself pulling it off the shelf when
I am preparing sermons. Another tool for preachers that is
highly recommended.

Most people cannot read ancient Greek, and so have to rely on English translations of the Bible. This unfortunate, because the original Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek text is filtered through the prejudices and beliefs of the translators.

This book contains the Greek text, King James Version, Rheims Bible, New International Version, New Revised Standard Version, New American Bible, New American Standard Bible and the Amplified Bible - 8 versions of the Christian Scriptures (New Testament). This book is an absolutely invaluable resource.

As an intermediate/advanced New Testament Greek learner, I found this book to be very helpful. Often the best grammatical commentary on a passage is a translation. If you are having problems unpacking difficult Greek, reading seven translations should give you the solution as well as a grammatical commentary like Zerwick's. This book allows you to look up a tough Greek passage and easily refer to a bunch of translations.
The Greek text is from UBS 4. The font is really small and not the best font available (UBS 3 has a better font; and Robinson's Byzantine text has the best font.) For that I give the book four instead of five stars. Since most of the page is used up, I'm not sure what the solution would be to give a bigger font; maybe only include say four translations, but I like all seven included. The layout of the book has the KJV right next to the Greek text and the NASB, the most literal version available, right across from it, so it is easy to go from the Greek text to your crib. A lot of purists don't like the Amplified, but this often helps you with the Greek, i.e. it will include two or more meanings of a Greek word when we really don't know which is to be prefered. I would probably have skipped the NIV and NRSV, since they are simply way to free, but they occasionally give insights too. Every now and then, the NRSV will be MORE literal than the KJV--i.e in Mk 13:26 the later follows the Greek more closely "in clouds" versus the KJV "in the clouds." This book also includes a rare treat that I really did not know about. For lovers of the KJV (and we are love the KJV) this book includes the Rheims NT which is a Catholic version made shortly BEFORE the KJV which is extremely similar to the KJV. It is kind of neat to see another version which uses the beautiful Elizabethan English, but which is sometimes closer to the Greek than the KJV.
The book's binding is sturdy and the book is a good size, not too large and heavy. Considering the price it is a handly diglot to own, except it is a octoglot! Again, I recommend this if your Greek is really GOOD. Ironically, those of us who read the NT in the original Greek may NOT refer to translations often enough. Here they are in a handy, helpful form.

Expensive book... but great set up. The book offers no commentary, just straight scripture. 8 versions can all be read side by side, 4 per page.

This book is a must have for any Christian Apologist, and people who understand the importance of translations. Original Greek beside King James Version text PLUS 6 other translations. All in one book. Wow, it's a book that I should have bought years ago.

The Precise Parallel New Testament (PPNT) is the best parallel NT available. It combines venerable "old" translations (King James Version and Douay Rheims), and modern translations of broad appeal to Protestant and Catholic alike (New International Version, New Revised Standard Version, New American Bible, and New American Standard Bible). It also includes the Amplified Bible which, although it cannot be used for daily reading, is very useful for bible study. But the linchpin to this parallel bible is that, in addition to all these other translations, it includes the Greek text (UBS4). This combination of translations literal, loose, and the original text make this my bible of choice for sermon preparation and study.

My only complaint is that it lacks ample margins. Fortunately, the parallel texts often are of differing length, leaving sometimes substantial room for marking and noting the text.

During Bible studies, it is a real plus to have different translations available. This fine volume has eight translations on facing pages; it is definitely easier to compare passages without having to flip through multiple Bibles. I much prefer the King James Version to more contemporary texts; I find the language to be more on point and less "loosey goosey." Thus, I was delighted with this volume and use it more frequently than my Contemporary Parallel version.

I rated this text as four stars because the print is extremely small and does require some concentration for those of us with less than perfect vision. Further, due to its size, it would have been helpful if the book had been thumb indexed. While it is easy enough to purchase tabs at any Christian book store, I find that they will tear off. This is almost a given with this book because the paper is so thin.

I would love to see some publisher compile a similar Old Testament volume in both Contemporary and Precise Parallel versions. Yes, Guidepost does have something like that, but it only contains four translations.

I almost bought this, but since the New American Standard is my favorite translation for Bible study, I checked and found that this Bible uses the 1977 version of the NASB and not the updated 1995 version. It's too bad. If this were updated, I would grab this in a minute. (Please note my rating is based on this alone, since I do not own this Bible.)

parallel Bible ever published. 5-PLUS.

Kevin McGowin