| It's hard to say enough good things about Nelson's great little idea. Oxford has a compact KJV out that is nice, but now that we're almost 400 years out from when King James was published in 1611, nothing is lost with the New King James Version. In fact, it seems a more accurate read, since this version corrects some of the inaccuracies in the KJV that were inaccurately translated from the Greek, Aramaic, and Hebrew back then. Although it's a paperback, the cover is made of very thick cardstock and lightly laminated, so it should be both resilient and durable for a good number of years under heavy use. The translators for this version include their footnotes at the bottom of the page; the words of Christ are actually in maroon instead of red, so it's far easier to see, especially if you're an older reader; the chapters have in-text subject headings; and finally there is a select concordance and dictionary at the back - all this in a book that fits neatly into your hand or pocket and is only 1.1 inches thick! Men seem to like small Bibles and I would give this one as a gift and I'm sure you'd get a positive reaction. |
| This Compact Text edition of the NKJV is a marvel. With pages four-by-six, and its light weight, it is a very convenient and "carry-with-able" publication of the Scriptures. Are there quibbles? The reviewer deplores the absence of the Apocrypha from most paperback mass-market Bibles, and finds two or three aspects of the translation less than pleasantly resonant ("compact" in Psalm 122; "weaned" in Psalm 131; "most assuredly, I say unto you" instead of "Amen, amen"). But the New King James Version -- theeless and thouless -- remains among the best of modern translations; it has fluent cadences that do not militate against the familiar and the traditional. It is comparable in its solemnity, in its seriousness, in its respectfully poetic renderings to the Revised Standard Version (RSV) and the New International Version (NIV). Readers who need the Jacobean pronouns and verb-forms may disagree. The words of Christ are printed in red, or a kind of off-red, that is pleasantly emphatic without assaulting the eye. In the very back, there is a chart for daily readings, and a glossary of terms (both familiar and unfamiliar). Allow us to provide the NKJV version of Psalm 8, so that the prospective buyer might better discern if this be the aptest translation : "O LORD, our Lord, how excellent is Your name in all the earth, Who have set Your glory above the heavens! "Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants You have ordained strength, because of Your enemies, that You may silence the enemy and the avenger. "When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have ordained, what is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of man that You visit him? For You have made him a little lower than the angels, and You have crowned him with glory and honor. "You have made him to have dominion over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen -- even the beasts of the field, the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea that pass through the paths of the seas. "O LORD, our Lord, how excellent is Your name in all the earth!" [Note, however : the text of the Psalms in this NKJV is written as verse, not as prose.] For students and commuters, for inveterate readers and frequent flyers, for travellers and contemplatives -- this edition is highly recommended : for its conscientious translation, and its convenient portability, and its gloriously unprohibitive cost! Something of a gem. |
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