Essential Guide to Bible Versions

by Philip W. Comfort

An academic textbook and tutorial that answers complex questions about accuracy and translation methods for the many different English Bible translations, and that introduces readers to Bible manuscripts and textual criticism. The Essential Guide to Bible Versions is an expanded and completely revised trade and classroom edition of The Complete Guide to Bible Versions, in trade paper.

320 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2000

About the author

Philip W. Comfort, Ph.D., has studied English literature, Greek, and New Testament at the Ohio State University and the University of South Africa. He has taught these classes at a number of colleges, including Wheaton College, Trinity Episcopal Seminary, Columbia International University, and Coastal Carolina University. He is currently senior editor of Bible reference at Tyndale and served as New Testament editor for the New Living Translation. He has contributed a number of books to the Tyndale collection, both as author and editor. Among these are The New Greek-English Interlinear New Testament, The Origin of the Bible, The Tyndale Bible Dictionary, Essential Guide to Bible Versions, The Text of the Earliest New Testament Greek Manuscripts (with D. Barrett), and Who's Who in Christian History�all of which are currently available at Tyndale.

Philip lives in Pawleys Island, South Carolina, with his wife, Georgia. His three children (Jeremy, John, and Peter) live nearby, as do his grandchildren. He enjoys the ocean, soccer, and writing poetry.

Reviews

[ME · Rating 3 out of 5]

Because there is nothing else that I have managed to find in the entire universe that covers this material in one volume, I am especially grateful for this resource. It has helped me immensely as I prepare to cover this material in a training course for women. That said, I suspect this may be Dr. Comfort's PHD thesis paper??? I never was able to discern his organizational method or any recognizable outline. He discusses texts as if the reader should be familiar with them before actually introducing them. The order for introducing various texts is not chronological by date of writing nor date of discovery. Some terminology comes late in the discussion where, for a novice (and who else would be reading the book?) they should have been introduced earlier. In whole, it was a very complicated text itself to plow through with fierce determination. But, it was interesting when you could grasp the topic at hand, focus solely there, and trust that what is unclear will eventually be made clear... just not when you need it to be clear.

[C. J. · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Essential Guide to Bible Versions, is another outstanding book written by Philip W. Comfort, PhD. His research and study of textual-criticism of New Testament scripture is plainly evident and is nonpareil. Through much effort he has documented the original text of many scriptural passages that were altered by scribes as each successive copy generation of the New Testament was made from previous copies. Anyone who is willing to investigate the meaning of basic Greek words and use that to follow Dr. Comfort's reasoning, will be greatly rewarded by this book. Only a little effort is necessary on the part of the reader to follow Dr. Comfort's sophisticated level of reasoning. Anyone who likes studying God's Word will be greatly blessed by this book.

[افلاطون ابن]

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