Customer Reviews: Read 17 more reviews...
 Bible Made Plain... December 14, 2008
I can go on for days about this Version of the Holy Bible. I will keep it short.. It's a great version to grasp the Spirit of the Bible and get a plain and simple understanding.. Definitely milk. Once you get this Milk you can move onto solids by doing a comparative on many versions.
 Reads like a novel December 12, 2008
This contemporary bible reads like a novel, no difficult words or long sentences, just easy reading. I've tried to read the bible several times, but in my language (Dutch) it is quite hard, never have found a good contemporary translation, not even the so called "youth version" kept my attention. Eventhough I am not a religious person, with this version I find myself enjoying the bible very much. What I particularly like about this one is that the chapters are divided in little parts each having their own titles, this makes it very well-organized. I would recommend this bible to anyone.
 A Bit Disappointed November 21, 2008
2 out of 4 found this review helpful
When you come across a book as revered as this Bible is, with an author as renowned as God, you expect to have something akin to Moby Dick on your hands, no? Well, I did, at least. Which is why I was so utterly disappointed with some of the narrative in this work. I mean, don't get me wrong, there is some creativity that shines through brilliantly at times, and it does take some balls to straight up say "I created everything and [...] came last." But for the most part, a lot of it is over the top sensationalism, crude sex, and excess gore (case in point: Noah's Ark). It's not a book for children, but at the same time, unless Dawn of the Dead and Jaws are your two favorite movies, you'll probably be better off sticking to some of God's earlier works, yourself (The Dead Sea Scrolls, The Ten Commandments, Star Wars, etc...). Aside from Jesus's quick wit, the irony of Moses, and maybe a plague of locusts, a lot of this stuff you can find at the local horror section in Blockbuster. I was disappointed in God. Not his best work, even if this was written during the later period.
The Contemporary English Version of Holy Scripture November 20, 2008
While for years my favorite translation was the Jerusalem Bible -- and still is in that form, not the New Jerusalem -- the C E V has become the translation I use when I pray the Daily Office from the Book of Common Prayer. I don't dislike the NRSV or others but I have reached the age (84) when I want it put to me in the clearest, plainest manner. I guess I would prefer the footnotes at the bottom of the page but that's minor. I even have a copy on a CD for use on my computer. It is a less pedestrian translation than the Good New for Moder Man (T E V).
Good Book for children October 25, 2008
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
As several other reviewers have already noted, the Contemporary English Version of the Holy Bible is perfect for reading aloud to children. It's also the best version to buy if you're dyslexic, and when I say that, I'm not just kicking a daed dog. The publishers have dumbed down the prose, which was no easy task.
Many children, indeed, will be able now to read the Holy Bible for themselves; but you don't want to let your children do that, for the obvious reason that it has become entirely too easy, with publication of the CEV, for children to read and understand the holy Ghost's tales of gang-rape, sister-rape, incest, serial-killers, concubine-butchery, dismemberment, parent-slaughter, child-sacrifice, genocide, castration, providential incompetence. So, too, with those stories in the New Testament of sadistic crucifixions conducted to appease an angry and otherwise unforgiving God.
But there's also good stuff in here for your kids, such as the story of "Daniel in the Lion's Den," or "Joseph's Coat of Many Colors," or "The Good Shepherd and the Lost Lamb," or "Little Zacchaeus, the Tree-Climbing Dwarf."
Granted: when it comes to writing, the holy Ghost is no J.K. Rowling, but then, who is? The Bible may never win God a major book prize, but it actually has some pretty amazing history in it: until I came along (with Lucifer's "True History of Everything," on the Web) where else could you get true, eyewitness accounts of real talking snakes and donkeys? True biographies of men who lived to be 777, 895, and even 969 years old? True tales of happy virgins and ninety-year-old bubbelahs who gave birth to virtuous baby boys? True legends of Zamzummin giants and of the Hebrew lads who slew them? True tragedies of naughty housewives who were transformed into geological formations, or dogfood? True accounts of prophets taken up to Heaven in a tornado? True spectacles of grim domestic homicide and of genocidal slaughter? True tragedies of gang rape, bodily dismemberment, blind Sodomites, and drunken incest? - and, at no extra charge, an appendix ("New!") with easy-to-follow instructions on how to save your sorry arse from Hell?
Truly: if you purchase yourself a paperback copy of the Contemporary English Version and don't spring for one of those fancy $90 leather-bound Authorized jobs, the Holy Bible is still a good deal. Buy one. Or steal one from the bedstand drawer of your next motel room. (Trust me: it will not be missed by Mr. Gideon.)
Next, read it. All of it.
Okay, not all at once. It works best to feast on the Word of God as you would eat food in a cafeteria: Browse a little! Take what you want, don't spit on the rest! And when you get indigestion, quit for a few hours before returning for more, or you'll soon grow fat and stupid - I mean, just look at the Rev. Al Sharpton and the Rev. Jerry Falwell, or at every other Pope. I mean, no, don't look at them.
The Bible is a lot like Pray TV. You can't just sit on your bum and blame the show's producer for having wasted your time. Exercise a little discernment. Seriously, there's juicy stuff in the Bible, even for adults, if you know where to look, such as the Song of Solomon.
Are you looking as well for fully drawn characters? sublime aesthetic satisfaction? irony? suspense? tragic sensibility? a coherent sense of morality? If you want all of that when you read the Bible, well, then! - just exercise your God-given imagination!
--L
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