9Marks mail bag--cool covers!
Here's an interesting email 9Marks received about Bible covers:
I'm not sure how you all choose potential topics to cover in your bi-monthly eJournals but...The youth pastor at our church purchases Bibles for our graduating seniors every year and he usually shops for those Bibles using two criteria: (1) external appearance, and (2) cost. He wants to be able to purchase a Bible for these young adults that looks 'edgy' and 'cool,' and he also wants to find a good bargain....So I decided to try to help him find a more appropriate Bible that was 'cool' looking, affordable, and also was a good formal equivalence or dynamic equivalence translation. What I found over the next three hours of researching Bibles was alarming. There are plenty of 'cool' looking, affordable Bibles that externally would be eye-catching and appealing to youth and young adults, but almost all of them were what I would consider to be poor translations or paraphrases....I found several, but was alarmed to see which versions they were. The New Century Version (NCV) and Today's New International Version (TNIV) have plenty of cool looking Bibles in the $10-$15 price range. There are also plenty of cool looking paraphrases like The Message and the New Living Translation which were eye-catching and in the same price range. After a lot of searching I did find a few cool looking NIV versions and a few cool looking Holman Christian Standard Versions, but price wise these Bibles were in the $25 range. Frustrated with what I was finding on-line, I then visited our local Lifeway store to only find more of the same.
Often times you hear parents complain that alcohol companies are gearing their advertisements to youth and young adults to make their products look cool, even though they can be very harmful. It seems that some of these Bible publishers are doing the exact same thing. They are taking the translations and paraphrases which many consider to be harmful, they are dressing them up in 'cool' 'edgy' covers and then they are charging significantly lower costs to get youth and young adults to purchase their products.
Supply and demand.
The reason why these companies sell 'cool' looking Bibles is because youth (and adults) are often more concerned with the outside than the inside...of a lot of things (as this particular youth minister's actions show). So, the demand for cool creates the supply for cool. Although I know that it works the other way, too.
Perhaps the question that should be asked (gently) of said youth minister is not:
Why don't you get a better translation for the kids?
but rather:
What are we emphasizing and teaching (or not emphasizing and teaching) in grades 7-12 that leaves us with the idea that our students really need a hip looking Bible? Shouldn't kids trained in our churches be beyond that by 12th grade? And don't they already have Bibles? What is wrong with the maroon NASB that they bring on Sundays?
I'd urge the concerned church member to pray this through with the youth minister rather than simply putting a pink, ESV-shaped crutch under his arm.
But if not--at least the above paragraph gives you a hint at where to look next for a good translation and a cool cover!
Posted by: Kurt Strassner | Apr 9, 2008 3:35:34 PM
a pink ESV, now we are talking! actually, i would by one or two of those. as for the cool covers, we shoud by our Bibles by the translation, but we know that eye candy does take effect too. may be some one at esv will get this and make a pink one!
Posted by: Chris | Apr 9, 2008 9:25:43 PM
This one's pretty close ...
http://www.lifewaystores.com/lwstore/product.asp?isbn=1581347685
though I like the lime or orange ones a bit more :)
http://www.lifewaystores.com/lwstore/product.asp?isbn=1581346883
Posted by: Darren | Apr 10, 2008 12:15:41 AM
I don't think there is anything wrong with a young person wanting a "hip looking Bible." But there is a difference between wanting and needing.
At our church, where I'm the youth pastor, I try to supply the youth with an ESV Bible (that's the translation I preaching out of) by the time they enter 9th grade. In fact, I just bought the pink one for a young lady in our youth group. If they don't already have one, we buy them a good study Bible for graduation. The covers of those are never hip or cool, but by that time, hopefully they think the contents of the study Bible are hip and cool.
Crossways is producing some ESV Bibles with very nice covers. The kids all think they are cool. They like the translation because it reads and memorizes easily. I like it because it's accurate and good to teach from.
They can take their "cool" looking Bible out and share God's Word with a friend and the other teen will think, "Wow, that's a cool Bible. Your church must not be stiff and boring like my Grandparent's church is." And it works. My kids are inviting new people every week. And a lot of them end up coming, liking it, coming back, and many of them get saved.
So I'm all for the hip, cool cover...on a good translation. It's a win all the way around.
Posted by: Brance | Apr 10, 2008 7:20:36 AM
May I introduce the "Epic Ebonics Bible"! This was actually taken from the website (http://www.gettheepic.com/) which has audio clips as well...
"What the Epic seeks is a closer transliteration of thought.
For example, The Epic reads:
John Chapter 1 (The Epic)
1. In the beginning was the Word, the manifest logic God of heard - unblurred shining from the inner sanctum of the Third.
John Chapter 1:1 (KJV)
1. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
Instead of sacrificing the continuity of thought from the original text for street credit, we bend the powerful descriptive language of the street to tell the honest tale of the scripture."
Amen.
Posted by: Paul | Apr 12, 2008 10:05:41 PM
So...one of the two primary search criteria was "coolness", and the concern is that many Bible publishers offer only shallow translations with "cool" covers. Sounds like a classic case of wanting it both ways.
Bottom line: most serious Bible scholars are not particularly interested in shiny, hip covers. In turn, most people interested in fancy covers are not serious Bible scholars.
"I want deep theology with a rock beat!" "I want strong exegetical preaching from a dude with a cool haircut and a sweet pair of sneaks!" Sorry, most of the really deep stuff comes from old guys with boring haircuts and cheap suits...black covers, if you will.
Posted by: Chris | Apr 13, 2008 2:04:58 PM
Man, I must be old and uncool because when I read the first line about "Bible covers," I expected to read about the zippered cover that goes around my Bible and holds my highlighters, pens, notepad, etc.
I have to admit that some of the TruTone ESVs have cool designs on the outside, but I'm just going to put a cover on top of that cover so my Bible will last a few more years of being carried around in my backpack.
As a side note, it is especially important that churches choose good translations for gift Bibles because the translations people start with are likely to remain their translations of choice for many years. The reason Coke and Pepsi only advertise in ways that appeal to young people is that whatever people drink as teens is almost certainly what they'll drink as middle-aged adults.
Posted by: Bruce | Apr 16, 2008 9:21:16 PM
Are you saying that the TNIV is a "harmful" translation? I have been giving these out to the non-Christian youth in my area (with an edgy cover) for $2.15 US a piece (for a box of 24) from International Bible Society: http://www.ibsdirect.com/p-74-tniv-outreach-paperback-bible-orange-story-of-god-cover.aspx
Posted by: Nicholas Hill | Apr 17, 2008 11:27:32 AM
Are you saying that the TNIV is a "harmful" translation? I have been giving these out to the non-Christian youth in my area (with an edgy cover) for $2.15 US a piece (for a box of 24) from International Bible Society: http://www.ibsdirect.com/p-74-tniv-outreach-paperback-bible-orange-story-of-god-cover.aspx
Posted by: Nicholas Hill | Apr 17, 2008 11:29:49 AM