free ebookThe Holy Bible: A Buyer's Guide

The Holy Bible: A Buyer’s Guide

Sort through Bible translations and editions with the expert assitance of prominent Biblical scholars. This free e-book will guide you through 21 different Bible versions and address their content, text, style and religious orientation.

Compare Bible Versions:

KING JAMES VERSION (KJV)

NEW KING JAMES VERSION (NKJV)

21ST CENTURY KING JAMES VERSION (KJ21)

NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE (NASV)

REVISED STANDARD VERSION (RSV)

NEW REVISED STANDARD VERSION (NRSV)

ENGLISH STANDARD VERSION (ESB)

NEW AMERICAN BIBLE (NAB)

NEW JERUSALEM BIBLE (NJB)

ARTSCROLL TANACH

THE SCHOCKEN BIBLE

NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION (NIV)

NEW INTERNATIONAL READER’S VERSION (NIrV)

TODAY’S NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION (TNIV)

CONTEMPORARY ENGLISH VERSION (CEV)

NEW ENGLISH BIBLE (NEB)

REVISED ENGLISH BIBLE (REB)

JEWISH PUBLICATION SOCIETY (JPS)

HOLMAN CHRISTIAN STANDARD BIBLE

NEW LIVING TRANSLATION (NLT)

THE LIVING BIBLE (LB)

NEW CENTURY VERSION (NCV)

GOD’S WORD (GW)

GOOD NEWS BIBLE (GNB)

NEW LIFE VERSION (NLB)

THE MESSAGE

COTTON PATCH BIBLE

Trying to make sense of all the different versions and translations of the Bible?

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The Holy Bible: A Buyer’s Guide

Walk through the religion section of any major bookstore, and you’ll see an amazing array of Bibles. The broad selection of translations (also called versions)—and the seemingly endless ways in which they are packaged—is without historical precedent. But for many people, it is also bewildering, if not frustrating. Rather than the “blessing” it could and probably should be, it may be off-putting. When faced with a host of adjectives like “new” and “revised,” thoughtful buyers might well ask, What was wrong with the “old” or “traditional” or the “original”?

In the FREE e-book The Holy Bible: A Buyer’s Guide, expert Bible scholars will answer these and other important questions about different Bible versions.

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The Holy Bible: A Buyer’s Guide.


How can a buyer tell when a Bible is a different translation (or version) or the same old text in a new coat? Some publishers put out several translations. Oxford, for example, prints copies of the New Revised Standard Version, the Jewish Publication Society Tanakh, the New American Bible, the New King James Version, the old King James Version and more. And several publishers put out the same translations: Eight different publishers have been given broad licenses to publish the New Revised Standard Version, for example. And sometimes publishers put out one translation under numerous different titles. Zondervan’s Devotional Bible for Dad, Revolution: The Bible for Teen Guys, and True Images: The Bible for Teen Girls all contain the same translation (the New International Version—the most popular translation today) with distinctive covers on the outside and different annotations, devotional aids and interpretive materials on the inside.

Some Bibles are aimed at specific religious groups, but this is not always clear from the title. How is a Bible buyer to know that the New American Bible is prepared by and for Roman Catholics, while the similarly named New American Standard Bible is aimed at conservative Protestants?

Let the expert Bible scholars who wrote The Holy Bible: A Buyer’s Guide guide you through the content, text, style and religious orientation of different Bible versions.

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The Holy Bible: A Buyer’s Guide is waiting for you.


The Holy Bible: A Buyer’s Guide provides straightforward, objective and succinct information on 21 Bible versions or families of versions. After providing some basic publication data for the edition being reviewed, this free e-book offers a quotation from each version’s own introduction that highlights its distinctive features or accomplishments. It then cites the same verses, Genesis 1:1–2, for each version and offers useful commmentary.

The Holy Bible: A Buyer’s Guide is far from the first such effort, nor will it be the last. What distiguishes this Bible guide from others is that it allows each Bible version to speak on its own behalf.

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The Holy Bible: A Buyer’s Guide now.


Along with your FREE copy of The Holy Bible: A Buyer’s Guide, you’ll also receive the BAR Companion e-newsletter, containing the latest in Bible and archaeology news, exclusive features, contests and more, along with notification of travel and study opportunities and learning resources.

Biblical Archaeology Review (BAR) is the flagship publication of the Biblical Archaeology Society. BAR is the only magazine that connects the academic study of archaeology to a broad general audience eager to understand the world of the Bible. Covering both the Old and New Testaments, BAR presents the latest discoveries and controversies in archaeology with breathtaking photography and informative maps and diagrams. BAṞs writers are the top scholars, the leading researchers, the world-renowned experts. BAR is the only nonsectarian forum for the discussion of Biblical archaeology.

The BAR Companion is an e-newsletter from the publishers of Biblical Archaeology Review.

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