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NLT Study Bible


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Just saw that this was announced. Looking over the samples and contributors, it looks like it is going to be an impressive study Bible. Any plans for an Accordance module?

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  • 4 months later...

Thought I'd seen a comment that it was in the works a while back, but I couldn't find the post anywhere by searching.

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I do not think that this is in the works at present, sorry! Of the making of study Bibles there is no end.

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When the NLT Study Bible was first launched, and it was promoted as being available on a number of software platforms, Accordance was conspicuously (in my opinion) missing. I asked Sean Harrison, the general editor of the NLTSB why Accordance wasn't listed, and he apologized, stating it was from lack of familiarity with the Mac platform in general. But he said that he hoped to rectify that and see the NLT Study Bible in Accordance soon.

 

I, for one, am more enthusiastic about the NLT Study Bible than the ESV Study Bible (although I picked up the Accordance module for that yesterday). I would really like to see it become available at some point.

 

I also wrote a review of the NLT Study Bible, noting what I felt separated it from other study Bibles.

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  • 3 months later...

I want to urge reconsideration for a NLT Study Bible module for Accordance. I see the NLTSB in my local Christian for several other Bible software programs, but not Accordance. I would agree with Rick that this would likely be on my purchase list before the ESV Study Bible (I have print versions of both). With the growing interest in the NLT - including some Cambridge Pitt Minions this fall - it would seem that this would be an excellent addition to Accordance. I don't want to purchase it for a competing software program. I would prefer to have it in Accordance.

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I would still like to see the NLT Study Bible in Accordance, too, since it is now on multiple competing platforms. Honestly, I believe it to be a better study Bible than the ESV Study Bible because the notes are much broader in scope.

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It is my understanding that the NLT is translated to a lower grade level than even the NIV. I am not a scholar at all but it seems that a study Bible for this translation may have less value. Seems better to use a translation of a higher level, otherwise it seems that you would spend more time trying to figure out what the text actually says. Of course Accordance is an excellent product for that.

Blessings, Steve

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Oh boy Steve. I see some response coming if this conversation doesn't get moderated...

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Yeah, when I first saw Steve's comment I thought, "Oh boy, this could get heated." But Rick Mansfield is a pretty level-headed guy, and can explain the differences among translations better than I can, so I figured I'd leave it to him.

 

For my part, let me just say that there's a lot of confusion out there right now about Bible translations and their various approaches. I heard a podcast today where someone contrasted "essentially literal" translations with "transliterations." He probably meant "paraphrases," but it was indicative of how much confusion exists.

 

I don't think it's fair to say that the NLT is a "lower grade" translation than the ESV. The NLT is certainly a more "dynamic" translation than the ESV, meaning that it is more interested in translating Greek and Hebrew ideas into good English than it is in preserving the precise Greek or Hebrew wording. But even the ESV is more dynamic than many people realize, and the second edition of the NLT is actually less "dynamic" than the first edition was. This is why it's useful to compare multiple translations.

 

As for whether a given translation is more or less suited to being used in a study Bible, I don't think it really matters. Study Bible notes are not word-by-word expositions of a translation, but helps for explaining the historical background of a passage, its theological significance, its forms of expression, etc. You could easily use the notes from the ESV Study Bible with the text of the NLT, or vice versa, and find that the notes still make sense. And of course, you can do that very thing when using a study Bible in Accordance.

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I did not intend to say that the NIV or NLT were lower grade in terms of quality. My understanding is that each translation can be compared to a level in the school system. So that some translation are reaching a middle school level and others maybe 4th or 5th grade. That is meant be be descriptive as each translation may legitimately said to have a target audience. Several years before the NLT came out there was a wonderful children

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As for whether a given translation is more or less suited to being used in a study Bible, I don't think it really matters. Study Bible notes are not word-by-word expositions of a translation, but helps for explaining the historical background of a passage, its theological significance, its forms of expression, etc. You could easily use the notes from the ESV Study Bible with the text of the NLT, or vice versa, and find that the notes still make sense. And of course, you can do that very thing when using a study Bible in Accordance.

 

I definitely agree with this. In my PDA, I regularly use the NIV Study Bible/ MacArthur Bible Study/Ryrie Bible Study notes with the KJV and HCSB (I use Laridian's Pocket Bible on my PDA). If I actually had any of these Study Bibles in Accordance, I'd use them the same way. The notes really aren't "married" to the text at all.

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Well, you knew I'd weigh in eventually :-)

 

First of all, reading level often has very little to do with translation accuracy any more than literalness has to do with accuracy. If a higher reading level meant more accuracy, the KJV, Tyndale, or even the Wycliffe Bible would be the most accurate. And literalness doesn't necessarily mean more accurate if a translation is so literal that meaning is lost.

 

Of all major translations, the NLT reflects the closest equivalent to natural, conversational English. And of course it should not be forgotten that the New Testament was written in common, street level Greek, not the Greek of the academy. It should also be noted that now with the NLT having gone through two major editions, as well as a minor but significant revision, a lot of the earlier more questionable readings have been cleaned up. The current edition is actually the least dynamic of any of its predecessors.

 

I've used the NLT teaching college students for about two years. Recently, I've started using it on Sundays as well on a kind of trial run, but if I find that it's suitable for teaching adults, I may just stick with it long term--and I'm speaking in terms of a translation for public use, not as a replacement for all translations and certainly not original language texts.

 

For those who are interested, here are some recent posts I've written about the NLT:

 

The NLT and the Language of Atonement

 

Repositioning the NLT as a "Scholarly Translation"

 

Review: NLT Study Bible (for a condensed version that appeared in Bible Study Magazine, click here)

 

Rise of the New Living Translation

 

 

 

Now, I do technically think this whole discussion is a bit of a sidetrack from the original topic, that is a request for the NLT Study Bible as an Accordance module. The NLT Study Bible was one of two major study Bibles published last year along with the ESV Study Bible, both of which were profiled recently in Christianity Today (see "Year of the Study Bible"). When I reviewed the NLT Study Bible, I noted that it was at a higher academic level than the NIV Study Bible. I haven't compared it to the ESV Study Bible because Crossway has not chosen to send me a review copy :-)

 

Regardless, Accordance is now the only major Bible Software platform not to offer the NLT Study Bible, as it is now available for Libronix, WordSearch, Laridian, and in a couple of weeks, the Kindle. All that's missing from this picture is Accordance, but I'll patiently wait.

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Thanks, for your more in depth analysis! Steve B)

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  • 2 weeks later...

Since it doesn't seem to be a possibility in the near future, I went to the dark side and purchased the Libronix version of the NLTSB. It is too good of a resource to not have available for study.

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Since it doesn't seem to be a possibility in the near future, I went to the dark side and purchased the Libronix version of the NLTSB. It is too good of a resource to not have available for study.

 

You could have always settled for the online version while you wait; that's what I'm doing.

 

By the way, last weekend I added significant content to the NLT Wikipedia entry and created an entry for the NLT Study Bible. I was sad to list all the other platforms that the NLT Study Bible is available for and not list Accordance, too. But hopefully, someday :-)

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Rick,

 

I have used the online NLTSB and I miss the interaction with other resources while using it. I have come to the growing realization that my Bible software must be "by committee". I chose to go with the Libronix version of Logos because I have a modest Libronix collection to which the NLTSB would be a nice addition. Not any one of the available programs can provide all the resources I desire. And that is not a knock against Accordance or any of the other programs. It takes a lot of resources (human & financial) to produce electronic books - especially at the rate we desire them to be produced. :-) I came to realize I cannot afford to lock myself into a program at the expense of losing the resources I need for my study. I don't see this as a need to reproduce every work in every program, just as a supplement for each other. That said, in an ideal world I would go with Accordance exclusively.

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Greg, I don't think your situation is any different than a lot of people on this forum, myself included. I bought some of the TJL Journals for Libronix that weren't available in Accordance. But once they were released by OakTree, I bought them at crossgrade prices, deleted the Libronix versions, and threw away the old discs. Last year, I even picked up one of the Libronix for Mac packages thinking I'd do a kind of comparative review on my blog with Accordance. So far, I've put off writing it because the Mac version of Libronix is so incredibly subpar both Accordance and even the Windows version of Libronix that it doesn't even feel like a fair comparison. So, like you, when a resource is needed it's needed, and a person's gotta do what he's gotta do. But I much more prefer Accordance and have chosen to invest most of my resources there. And sometimes I wait patiently, and sometimes like in the case of your recent purchase of the NLT Study Bible, I don't.

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