The doorbell rings, momentarily drowning out the noise of another piper playing at another wedding over the road. The delivery man at the door grins at me and says – "I’ve a book for you".
Now, don’t get me wrong, I like getting unsolicited books from publishers. I presume that this offering comes because I do reviews for Inspires though I’m not 100% sure, perhaps this has gone to everyone.
What it is is a reasonably nicely bound copy of the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, with Apocrypha. Poor quality paper. Cheap though at £8.99 a copy. (Though mine is gratis). Thank you very much. It is designed to be a pew bible.
I turn, as I so frequently do, to the Epistle to the Romans. There in the magnificent Chapter 8 is the giveaway. The creation, it appears has been groaning in labor pains.
The fonts look North American too.
Now, what publisher in their right mind thinks that people in the UK would deliberately choose to put bibles which have US spelling in their pews? It seems to me that although many Americans realise that there are one or two of us outside the States who are a not feeling too positive about the influence of the USA in the world, there are quite a lot who don’t.
Give it a review? No chance.
Translation fun
I always use Luke 15 as first port of call, ever since the prodigcal son “began to feel the pinch” (NEB, or something like it)…
Saul
Yes, and there was a translation which came to us from across the Atlantic which told of how Saul went into a cave (in 1 Samuel 24) to “use the bathroom”.
Saul “covering his feet”
1 Sam 24 v. 3 according to King James
“And he came to the sheepcotes by the way, where there was a cave; and Saul went in to cover his feet; and David and his men remained in the sides of the cave.”
going on v. 4 to mention that David cuts off the skirt of Saul’s robe.
…and then from the Good News Bible
“He came to a cave closeto some sheep pens by the road and went in to relieve himself. It happened to be the very cave in which David and his men hiding far back in the cave.”
But when mentioning cutting off a piece of the robe, no reference is made about a skirt.
I can not find the bible I bought when living in Canada in 2002.
It is interesting that in the days of the King James translation “covering his feet” was the terminilogy for relieving yourself; “watering the daisis”;….etc.