Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version Anglicized Edition Hardcover – 31 May 2001

The cover of the work is bright and cheerful - and there is no reason why a Bible should be "Bible black", so I have no problem with the cover.Also the book is small enough to be held whilst it is read - it does not make the mistake that a lot of Bibles do of confusing size with importance.However, the work is not very well laid out (not terrible - but not very well laid out), and the NRSV language is not really to my taste.True the translation of the commandment against murder is given as "murder" not, as in old translations of the Bible, as "kill" (a literal translation of the word perhaps - but a translation that ignored the context). But other things mar the work.A lot of heat has been generated over the "gender neutral language" - but I do not regard this change as very important (it is more bowing to P.C. fashion than doing serious harm to the meaning of the Bible), there are more important problems with the NRSV text.For example, whereas traditional translations (even the Jerusalem Bible in the 1960s) sometimes used the word "servant" the NRSV says "slave". This may be a literal translation (but if ond is going to go for a literal translation - then why go for "gender neutral language"?), but it totally ignores the context of key parts of the Bible - for example the Ten Commandments and First Samuel Chapter Eight.It is not too much to say that there would have been no powerful anti slavery movement if this translation had been the main one in the past.Slave owners would have been able to say (and they tried to use other parts of the Bible anyway) "look even the Ten Commandments and First Samuel support us" (the Ten Commandments being of vast importance, and First Samuel, Chapter Eight, being a main text quoted by political philosophers in relation to the dangers of government). Thus ignoring the real meaning of these parts of the Bible.The Ten Commandments are not about how wonderful it is to have slaves (this is not what the word means in this context) and First Samuel, Chapter Eight is not warning against tyranny on the grounds that that a despotic government will come and liberate the slaves.By translating the word (at these key points) with the modern word "slave" the NRSV translation would have killed off, indeed stangled at birth, both the anti slavery movement (which was overwhelming religous in origin) and classical liberalism (the opposition to despotic government) generally.Supporting tyranny (either of government - or of one person over another person) is not really what the Ten Commandments are about, or what First Samuel, Chapter Eight, is about. So a translation should not give the impression that this is what they are about.And the NRSV translation does just that.

I’ve always struggled reading the bible as to be honest I didn’t understand a lot of the words that they used, but then I found this new revised edition and it’s brilliant, written with today’s wording so it’s easy to understand, even for me :-)

The most important book in the world,the best read, the highest selling. Forever for eternity. Praise be to God!!

It is what it is supposed to be

I was very pleased with the condition of this second hand book which was exactly as described by the seller. I like to use the NRSV - it is a translation of the Bible and not a paraphrase and is useful for accurate back-up when using the NLT, Message, etc.

hard back and endurable

It was the edition I wanted though the print is a little small for me, it serves the purpose. Thank you.

This is not a comment on the translation.Unfortunately I discovered after the 30 day return cut-off period that this Bible has series printing faults in it. A large chunk of psalms and proverbs is missing, and instead other sections of proverbs and psalms have been duplicated.I would warn anyone buying from Amazon to bear in mind that the batch they are sending out may have serious printing flaws and to double check the end of psalms and beginning of proverbs in any version that you do order.