Review: The Expanded Bible

Bible. Thomas Nelson, Inc., 2009.”]The [Expanded] Bible. Thomas Nelson, Inc., 2009.How do you review The Bible?

Really, you can’t review the text itself. You can review how it was written and the style, but not the content.

Thomas Nelson released The [Expanded] Bible this summer with praise from John Ortberg. Based off the New Century Version [NCV], The [Expanded] Bible takes the original text of Scripture and fleshes out English words with multiple meanings and expanded descriptions in order to more fully understand the movement of the text. For instance, John 3:16 reads this way:

[For] God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only [only; unique; only begotten; 1:14, 18] Son so that whoever believes in him may not be lost [perish], but have eternal life.

Would I use this Bible on a regular basis? Really, I probably should. As I read through a passage, it would help me re-tell the story by knowing more of the true essence of the original text. I don’t use the NCV on a regular basis, though, so that makes it slightly more difficult. It does give a good glimpse into another way of reading Scripture, but I think I’ll wait until the full Bible is released in this style.