/lit/ - Literature

Norton Critical King James for scholarship, the Quatercentenary Edition of the King James for aesthetics. Both have the Apocrypha.

I keep my books on a bookshelf, but my bible lives on my pulpit. If you can't afford a pulpit for your bible, you should at least buy a lectern.

Where else?

>>6686115

>>6686115

Don't cut yourself on all that edge...

Eh, it's an okay book but that part where that one guy came back to life was pretty unrealistic.

Oh neat, this thread seems like a good place to ssk something that's been bugging me for a while now.

I was raised Orthodox and that's the only religion l've known my whole life, so l guess l myself am part of it as well.

So my question is more or less the same as OP's: if you were in my shoes, shich Bible would you get? Are there any huge differences between the famous KJV and the others?

>>6686095
You mean like on a church pulpit?

In the poetry section. I value the bible most for its literary merit, especially parts like Ecclesiastes or the Song of Solomon.

at 220

>>6686120
lefedorameme XD

>>6686115
>bible in the trash
>michael crichton on the bookshelf
Modern atheism is an embarrassment.

In the genre fiction section ¤_¤

Preferably between other holy works of the past, somewhere after the Egyptian Book of the Dead and the Myths from Mesopotamia and before the Quran

>>6686139
The Septuagint is authoritative Christian text, which is what Orthodox uses, including as a basis for translations. The King James is a translation of the Masoretic text, though, which I think is an inferior choice to the Septuagint, but just about all denominations are using it these days, even Catholics who use it rather than the Vulgate for translation basis. But if you're going to read a Masoretic translation, the King James Version is by far and away the most beautiful.and more accurate than a lot of the terrible contemporary translations. It's also more beautiful than any translation of the Septuagint, even if it's less authoritative.

In between the Qu'ran and a a collection of Sylvia Plath's poetry.
I'm going to go and move it now.

I have a section in which I group the foundations of my culture: classical philosophy, Marcus Aurelius, christian writters(Tolstoi, Dostoyevski, Kierkegaard) and of course the bible

>>6686487

NRSV. I keep it on the top shelf, second billing next to the Odyssey.
>>6686149
I feel the same way and those are also my two favorite books in the Bible.

>>6686071

On the top shelf, beside my copy of the Qur'an and other religious and philosophical texts.

I keep it on my night table.

KJV/NKJV has pretty prose and is what you should read for the literature aspects of the Bible

NRSV is what you should read for actual studying purposes since it's the most accurate.

The Message and other attempts to translate the Bible into contemporary prose belong in the trash

I put it in the 'T's, right next to The Infinite Jest, and The Ulysses

the trash

>>6686095
>but my bible lives on my pulpit
This.

I can't believe there are people on /lit/ who don't have a pulpit so they can read scripture to their friends at all the lively house parties they host.

I actually have it beside my bed. If I'm feeling particularly bored, I'll read a few verses and go right to sleep. Best sleep medication money can buy.

why does it matter?

Who /español/ here?

Best spanish translation?

How does it compare to english?

Latin is much more similar to Spanish than English, so I'd assume it can translate better?

>>6686120
Atheism is hardly even edgy anymore - I posit that Christianity in 2015 is much more 'edgy'

Only got KJV on my epub, but I'm planning to buy the physical version asap. I imagine it will be lying on my table most of the time.

>>6686115
Pic needs better books on shelf.

>>6687524
>I posit that Christianity in 2015 is much more 'edgy'
It is. Religion is pretty much dead in academia, so it's edgy to champion the underdog. The funny thing is, it can only be done anonymously online; none of the christposters are actually practicing Christians, and would be ridiculed by their circle of friends if it was revealed that they spend their free-time pretending to preach the word of Christ on a forum for Chinese Cartoons.

>>6686115
>Darwin, Nietsche, and Jurassic Park
*smirk achieved*

>>6686115
>that bookshelf
How can you see from behind that giant fedora?

its the first book on the top shelf

>>6686071
the fiction section :^)

right next to the Confessions of Saint Augustine, the History of the Vhurch, the Divine Comedy, Paradise Lost, Faust, Thus Spoke Zarathustra and Capital/Cummunist Manifesto.

>>6686071
On a shelf with my other religious and mystical books.

Norton King James, Robert Alter's translations, Richard Lattimore's New Testament, Everett Fox's OT translations.

Did the people who translated the King James Version also translate the Apocrypha?

A local candidate for governor has as his slogan
>X is life
So I have his brochure thingie inside my bible particularly in sight as a joke. No one visits me though, so they'll never know of my wit.

I arrange my books chronologically, so I have the Bible around 200 AD when the biblical canon congealed into what it is now.

>>6686115
>libertarian
>fedora

>>6687301
>The Message and other attempts to translate the Bible into contemporary prose belong in the trash

My Mom has the Message translation...so awful.

I just looked and they're actually next to my fantasy section. I did not do that for any fedora related reason though... That's just where I had space.

>>6687301
NRSV isn't accurate at all. Isaiah 1:18 has "let us argue it out"

>>6687792
I'm so sorry. The church I go to sometimes has a guest pastor who uses it. In the liturgy. In church. It's disgusting

>>6688272
Literally every single reputed Biblical scholar worth their salt uses NRSV. I've never heard otherwise. Please enlighten me on how the entirety of the Establishment, educated in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, biblical history and archeology, and theology is completely wrong and how you are correct

>>6688324
>Please enlighten me on how the entirety of the Establishment, educated in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, biblical history and archeology, and theology is completely wrong and how you are correct
Because they translate too many terms as uniform instead of according to context. The verse I listed is a good example of that,

For aesthetic purposes, KJV or NKJ
For studying, NASB.

>>6688324
>I'm so sorry. The church I go to sometimes has a guest pastor who uses it. In the liturgy. In church. It's disgusting
What kind of denomination are you?

>>6689241
>not getting a study King James

>>6689255
>>6689241
>reading and studying a protestant bible

>>6689330
>King James
>protestant
It's Anglican, m80.

>>6689330
Well yeah, why would I study something thats false?

>>6687533
>none of the christposters are actually practicing Christians
You take memes too seriously. That doesn't mean everyone else does.

>>6686071
I keep one copy on my "accessible bookshelf" in the reference section and one copy by my bedside table.

>bookshelf
I keep a KJV on my desk along with Hamlet and Ulysses like a true patrician.

>keeping your bible on your bookshelf
>not keeping it on your bedside table for nightly reading

Do you even worship?

>>6686071
>Also while we're at it, what is the best edition of the Bible?

I read this edition: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1090182.Bibelausgaben_Die_Bibel_nach_der_bersetzung_Martin_Luthers_mit_Apokryphen_Neue_Rechtschreibung_Schwarz

>>6689337

>anglican

that's protestant m8

>>6689741
If so, it's the only Protestant denomination that allows you to ask to Mary and saints to pray for you.

>>6689337
Oh dear

>>6686115
jesus christ. It's so hard to pick out the most triggering thing about this picture but in the end I think it's the Hazlitt next to Smith

>>6686115
i have that exact same trashbin.

fuck IKEA. wherever i go in the world i find a BILLY shelf or ODON teacups or whatever. depressing how we shit on our local carpentry

>>6689741
Tell that to John Milbank

>>6686071
Ja, on my religion shelf

>>6686115
That is the same King James I have. The trash is a pretty good place. Mine is next to that mess by Zora Hurston

>>6689768
IKEA is our local carpentry, you fucking dweeb. Unless you're actually worried about losing your 'local culture' to the Swedes.

>>6686168
dis nigga knows

>>6689797
>Unless you're actually worried about losing your 'local culture' to the Swedes.
what bugs me is that we (I) buy these things because they seem smart, they're nicely designed and have funny names and it feels like i'm buying something interesting, something that complements my personality, as faggy as that sounds; but then, when you see a flat on another continent being furnished with the same goddamn stuff it dawns you that you've been had. it's not IKEA specifically, and i don't give too much of a shit about losing my local culture to the swedes in everyday life, but it's sorta symptomatic of our deep, deep spiritual decline, isn't it

>>6686115

>>6686071
If you're talking the Christian bible, then the Jewish Annotated New Testament.

>>6686139
The NRSV is the standard English translation in secular scholarly circles. It is also the translation used in the Oxford Annotated Bible. (ESV is similar but Protestant-flavored).

There are some inaccuracies in the KJV text, but it's a nonetheless highly impressive text. There is a good historical introduction & annotations to the KJV in the Oxford World Classics edition of the Authorized King James Bible, which includes some rarer portions of the text such as the original, 17th century translators' foreword.

a passage from Judges ch. iii:

NRSV
>16 Ehud made for himself a sword with two edges, a cubit in length; and he fastened it on his right thigh under his clothes. 17 Then he presented the tribute to King Eglon of Moab. Now Eglon was a very fat man. 18 When Ehud had finished presenting the tribute, he sent the people who carried the tribute on their way. 19 But he himself turned back at the sculptured stones near Gilgal, and said, “I have a secret message for you, O king.” So the king said,[f] “Silence!” and all his attendants went out from his presence. 20 Ehud came to him, while he was sitting alone in his cool roof chamber, and said, “I have a message from God for you.” So he rose from his seat. 21 Then Ehud reached with his left hand, took the sword from his right thigh, and thrust it into Eglon’s[g] belly; 22 the hilt also went in after the blade, and the fat closed over the blade, for he did not draw the sword out of his belly; and the dirt came out.[h]

KJV
>16 But Ehud made him a dagger which had two edges, of a cubit length; and he did gird it under his raiment upon his right thigh.

17 And he brought the present unto Eglon king of Moab: and Eglon was a very fat man.

18 And when he had made an end to offer the present, he sent away the people that bare the present.

19 But he himself turned again from the quarries that were by Gilgal, and said, I have a secret errand unto thee, O king: who said, Keep silence. And all that stood by him went out from him.

20 And Ehud came unto him; and he was sitting in a summer parlour, which he had for himself alone. And Ehud said, I have a message from God unto thee. And he arose out of his seat.

21 And Ehud put forth his left hand, and took the dagger from his right thigh, and thrust it into his belly:

22 And the haft also went in after the blade; and the fat closed upon the blade, so that he could not draw the dagger out of his belly; and the dirt came out.

>>6686071

You're going to need to be more specific on "best version." What are you reading it for? Academic study? Literary prose?

You'll hear lots of suggestions for the KJV here, as it's the traditional literary version of the bible. IMO it's great for poetry - and when it's not poetry, then you get medieval moonspeak like:

> 1 Samuel 25:34 For in very deed, as the LORD God of Israel liveth, which hath kept me back from hurting thee, except thou hadst hasted and come to meet me, surely there had not been left unto Nabal by the morning light any that pisseth against the wall.

NRSV is the standard academic translation. I'm a pretty strong minority opinion in this, but for prose I like the NJPS tanakh translation.

>>6690703
Here is the KJV edition I'm talking about. The annotations helped me understand a lot of the historical context as well as noteworthy interpretations. The editors are enthusiastic about the Bible from a literary perspective but also playfully skeptical. (Clarification: This is not the same as the Oxford Annotated Bible, which uses the NRSV).

KJV is sublime in some sections, e.g. John ch. iii:
>8 The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.

>>6690703

I'll hop onto this and give you the NJPS translation of Judges 3:16 - 22 from my Jewish study bible

16 So Ehud made for himself a two-edged dagger, a gomed in length, which he girded on his right side under his cloak. 17 He presented the tribute to King Eglon of Moab. Now Eglon was a very stout man. 18 When [Ehud] had finished presenting the tribute, he dismissed the people who had conveyed the tribute. 19 But he himself returned from Pesilim, near GIlgal, and said, "Your Majesty, I have a secret message for you." [Eglon] thereupon commanded, "Silence!" So all those in attendance left his presence; 20 and when Ehud approached him, he was sitting alone in his cool upper chamber. Ehud said, "I have a message for you from God"; whereupon he drew the dagger from his seat. 21 Reaching with his left hand, Ehud drew the dagger from his right side and drove it into [Eglon's] belly. 22 The fat closed over the blade and the hilt went in after the blade - for he did not pull the dagger out of his belly - and the filth came out.

>>6690704
That actually sounds pretty good when read aloud and with emotion.

NRSV, as I've said before, is an extremely flawed translation because they try to translate terms universally instead of according to context. For instance, Isaiah 1:18

> Come now, let us argue it out, says the Lord: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be like snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.

King James says "let us reason together", and contemporary Catholic translations say, "let us set things right"; but because NRSV makes "argue" the uniform translation of a Hebrew word which means to resolve something through a dialogue, you have this abortion.

Then there's this

>Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no evil

Of course, from Psalm 23. Only it is literally "shadow of death" in Hebrew. The NSRV uses "darkest" for that, because the צַלְמָ֫וֶת (literally "shadow of death") is also used to mean any great darkness in Hebrew. So to keep uniform, they just use "darkest" here even though "shadow of death" is a far better choice.

>>6690728
Although I don't usually go for NIV, NIV's translation of the last bit (about the dirt/filth) is less ambiguous here than the others: "his bowels discharged"

>>6690724
That's a terrible version of the King James Bible. They replace "mine" before words starting with vowels with "my", along with other unnecessary alterations. The Norton Critical King James is preferable

>>6690728
If you go for a Jewish translation, why not Robert Alter's?

>>6690745
wait, really? can you name an example verse?

i'm surprised since normally nobody's heard of this edition.

>>6690753
Psalm 121: 1

I'm an Episcopalian of the Anglo-Catholic variety, so I've made a study of King James Bibles, mainly those which have the Apocrypha.

>>6690749

I do like what I've read of his translations, I just haven't read that much since he tends to translate a few books at a time and release them for full price. If and when he finishes and releases a full translation of the Hebrew bible, I'll be happy to go read it.

>>6690771
You couldn't possibly fit his work in one volume because of all the commentary.

>>6690758
That does not seem to be the case at least for this passage.

>>6690758
>>6690791
lol btfo

>>6690791
Ha! Well I'm guessing there are different versions, because I checked it out from the library before and I could have sworn that was changed in several places

>>6687251

Same as this guy. Top left area is religion, with some nearby occult (Crowley) stuff because it doesn't fit in any other genres. Immediately next to this is philosophy, with various edgelord books of the genre. Novels/fiction comes later, as do histories.

The arts and sciences tend to be bigger, heavier books, so logically they occupy the bottom of the shelves, to anchor things.

With my hard-cover classics.

>>6686071
>Where do you put the Bible in your bookshelf?

Next to my PDEs and Complex Analysis books

>Also while we're at it, what is the best edition of the Bible?

NABRE, NJB, RSV-2CE, NRSV-CE, DR and Knox translations.

where they belong
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-6r86T1m4c

>>6690806
Yep, I was thinking of the Cambridge Biblr