Coke Classic and the Need for a NIV Classic

New Coke/Coke Classic

Most of you probably remember Coca-Cola’s brief foray into changing the formula of the popular soft drink. It was called “New Coke” and it was an attempt by Coca-Cola to gain market share among a key demographic, youth, an age group that was favoring Pepsi. It backfired. Although “New Coke” showed promise in many parts of the country, it was soundly rejected in the South, where Coca-Cola was based (Atlanta). The strong Southern rejection spread. Comedians mocked Coke, fans at a Houston Astros baseball game booed a Coke advertisement. Within three months, Coca-Cola announced the return of the original formula, in a product called “Coke Classic.” Loyal Coke fans rejoiced. On the Senate floor, Arkansas Democrat David Pryor called the decision by Coca-Cola “a meaningful moment in U. S. history.” I’m not sure what that says about our country; perhaps it says more about the gentleman from Arkansas and/or his constituents. Nonetheless, America as a whole must have agreed because the brief “New Coke” fiasco and it’s merciful conclusion thrust the Coca-Cola company into a period of renewed success as king of the soft drink world, a success that has been uninterrupted even to this day.

Biblica and the NIV Translation

Formerly known as the International Bible Society, Biblica is the worldwide publisher and copyright holder of the New International Version of the Bible. A self-governing group of Bible scholars, known as the Committee on Bible Translation (CBT) is responsible for the content of the NIV. Originally published back in 1978, the NIV went through an update in 1984, which was followed by a couple of decades of remarkable popularity among English Bibles, even supplanting the venerable King James Version (KJV) as the best-selling English Bible. In 2009 Biblica announced that they would be releasing an update again in 2011, not coincidentally on the 400th anniversary of the KJV. The “new” NIV was indeed released in March of 2011.

“And what does this have to do with Coke?” Glad you asked.

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Dr. Fee on Reading the Bible

Here at pastorbrett.com you will find a lot of emphasis on reading the Bible. It’s sort of a pasion of mine. God gave us a book; seems like we should give it some attention, don’t you think? Dr. Gordon Fee is the co-author of How to Read the Bible For All its Worth, a book which has been in print for a couple of decades now and has sold over a million copies. It was required reading in my seminary, which is how I was introduced to Dr. Fee. I have a couple of his commentaries as well as a couple of other books by him on the Holy Spirit in the writings of Paul.

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“The Earliest and Most Reliable Manuscripts…” – What Does This Mean?

I grew up on the New International Version (NIV) translation of the Bible. The NIV was originally published when I was in grade school and soon thereafter my Mom got me a NIV Children’s Bible. Later on, in my teen years, I got a Ryrie Study Bible (NIV). The thing I appreciated about the NIV was it was very readable for a young person. One thing I started noticing was that in certain places, for example, John 7:53-8:11, there was a disclaimer of sorts inserted between the text: “The earliest and most reliable manuscripts and other ancient witnesses do not have John 7:53-8:11.”

Most modern versions of the Bible have some kind of disclaimer like this in John’s Gospel as well as the end of Mark’s Gospel (Mark 16.9-20). My English Standard Version (ESV) Reference Bible says “Some of the earliest manuscripts do not include 16:9-20″ right before the end of Mark (I actually prefer the ESV’s language over the NIV’s because the ESV simply refers to earlier manuscripts rather than making a value judgment regarding their reliability). It’s also set apart in the ESV as different by use of double brackets, like this: “[[Now when he rose early on the first day of the week...worked with them and confirmed the messages by accompanying signs.]]”

So the question is, what does this mean?

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Open Up the Bible

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Professor Horner Interview

A couple of years ago I discovered Professor Horner’s Bible Reading System. It literally changed my life. Ok, to be specific, the Lord changed my life through the intense reading of His Word via Professor Horner’s system. Anyway, in the summer of 2010 I had the privilege of interviewing him. Previously, I published that interview in 3 installments. Today, in revisiting that interview, I have combined all three parts so that one can read the whole interview in one place. – Pastor Brett 

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Grant Horner teaching a class at The Master's College

August 31, 2010

Grant Horner is Associate Professor of English at The Master’s College in Santa Clarita, California. A husband and the father of three, Horner is best known to the world for developing a Bible reading plan that is spreading like wildfire. What is the plan? Read 10 chapters of the Bible per day from 10 different sections of Scripture. Professor Horner was gracious enough to sit down and answer 25 questions about his Bible reading system and himself.

Pastor Brett:. I see you studied at both UNC-Chapel Hill and Duke. I didn’t know they would allow that. So, Tar Heels or Blue Devils?

Prof. Horner: I never paid attention to college sports. I taught at University of Alabama for 6 months before I realized that all the noise coming from the big round building on campus was crazed fans screaming ROLL TIDE. When I lived in North Carolina, I was doing PhD work at both UNC and Duke, the great archrivals. I figured out pretty quickly that it would be fun to put bumper stickers for BOTH schools on my car, as I went back and forth between the two campuses and parked. Yep — it was very humorous. Rednecks pulled up next to me at stoplights and called out “boy, you got yersef some kind problem or somthin’???” You could sometimes hear a gun cocking. Lucky I wasn’t shot.

Pastor Brett: You have a book that was recently released. Tell us a little bit about that venture.

Professor Horner: It was released in late June from Crossway and is called Meaning at the Movies: Becoming a Discerning Viewer. It is about theology and movies, but with a highly unusual approach. I’ve developed a new biblical theology of culture, and the book is based around these ideas. Over years of thinking about scripture and culture I’ve put together what is being called a groundbreaking approach to the issue, and it really opens up the world of what I call biblical-critical cultural discernment. It is written for a general readership, and I’m hoping Christians as well as nonbelievers will give it a look, and see what a powerful biblical approach to culture does for the mind, and for the Christian living in a pagan culture. The book has gotten excellent reviews and has been on the Amazon bestseller list since it came out. It is definitely stirring the pot for Christian thought about culture — what we do with it, how it works, and most importantly, where it comes from.

Pastor Brett: Let’s talk about your Bible-reading plan. How did you develop this system?

Professor Horner: As a brand new Christian the Bible was entirely new to me and very intimidating. I could not get a handle on it as quickly as I wanted to for the first few months. I was bewildered. I found a number of programs, but none of them seemed to work for me. There was one in a Chick Tract that caught my eye that had you reading a lot of books at once, and so I adapted it and built in all the other components as it now stands. I shared it with a few people over the years, but never thought about publicizing it. The original “plan” is still written in blue ink in my same Bible, from 1983!

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Tim Challies on the Beauty of the Language in the ESV

A few days ago I posted a negative critique on a translation decision in the ESV. Today I want to emphasize how much I love reading the ESV, pointing to an excellent post by Tim Challies on the beauty of the language found in the ESV. He compares some Old Testament phrases in the ESV with how they are translated in some of the more functional translations. The NIV (1984 edition), by the way, does well, in his brief comparison study. You can read his post HERE.

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Reflections on Reading the KJV

Last week I completed my reading of the King James Bible. My brief reflections:

1. At times it is amazingly poetic and beautiful. On more than one occasion I thought, “You just cannot improve upon that way of wording it!”

2. At times it is remarkably archaic and difficult. Several times I would have to reread a passage or phrase or consult a dictionary. A few rare times I would sigh and think, “I can’t wait until I finish this project and return to the ESV.”

3. At all times it is inspiring and profitable. “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works” (2 Timothy 3.16-17).

All in all, I’m VERY glad I took on the challenge of reading the KJV on its 400th anniversary.

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Help With “Missing” Bible Verses

If you are carefully reading and studying your Bible and you are using a popular modern translation such as the ESV, NIV, or NLT, at some point you are probably going to notice that the numbering system will occasionally, albeit rarely, skip a verse number. Acts 8 in the New Living Translation (NLT) is an example:

³⁴ The eunuch asked Philip, ‘Tell me, was the prophet talking about himself or someone else?’ ³⁵ So beginning with this same Scripture, Philip told him the Good News about Jesus.

³⁶ As they rode along, they came to some water, and the eunuch said, ‘Look! There’s some water! Why can’t I be baptized?’^[d] 38 He ordered the carriage to stop, and they went down into the water, and Philip baptized him.”

Why no verse 37?

Or consider the fifth chapter of the Gospel of John…

¹ Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for a feast of the Jews. ² Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda^[a] and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. ³ Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed.^[b]5 One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. ⁶ When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, ‘Do you want to get well?’”

Where is verse 4? What happened to it?

One of the initial responses you might receive will be from the “King James Only” camp: these examples help prove that the modern translations cannot be trusted.

But there is another explanation, indeed a better one. I highly recommend reading THIS EXPLANATION (http://www.koinoniablog.net/2011/08/where-did-v-4-go.html) by Greek and New Testament Scholar Bill Mounce.

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Help with Bible Reading from Dane Ortlund

Dane Ortlund writes:

Imagine jumping into the middle of a novel, reading a sentence, and trying to understand all that the sentence means without placing it in the sweep of the novel as a whole. That would confuse the reader, obscure the meaning, and insult the author.

The Bible is God’s autobiographical account of his personal rescue mission to restore a lost world through his Son. Every verse contributes to that message.”

Read the rest of his post titled “Transform Your Bible Reading” HERE.

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Bible Saturation – Reading the Bible

Nothing has done more to accelerate spiritual growth in my life than discovering Professor Horner’s Bible Reading System. I tweaked it by combining two of the Old Testament lists and then creating a new list of Romans, Galatians and Ephesians. Below is Professor Horner’s plan, followed by Pastor Brett’s plan. The most important thing of all is that you are in God’s Word regularly. Also, here is a page that mentions several different plans for reading God’s Word.

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