Description
A unique opportunity is furnished new subscribers to Christianity Today by the publication of this limited edition of the New Testament in four versions. The reader has before him on facing pages parallel passages from the classic King James Version and from three modern versions or translations – the Revised Standard, Phillips Modern English, and the New English Bible. The selection of these modern texts implies no preference on the part of Christianity Today. It was made simply on the basis of current use and popularity. Evangelical scholars revising the American Standard Version had not yet completed the translation, or that effort would have been considered. Projected by the Staff of Christianity Today as an instrument to promote the comparative reading and use of the Scriptures, this original and limited edition was produced exclusively for subscribers to the magazine. Although the project is not likely to be duplicated, the work is not intended simply as a collector’s item, but for the inspirational or an academic use. Both as a devotional aid and as a study tool the volume provides a welcome and time-saving service. A few years ago Thomas Nelson’s & Sons issued and “octopla” (as distinguished from the “tetrapla” constituted in this volume). But the texts of this publication reached behind the King Change Version to include five earlier translations and only two subsequent versions, the American Standard and the Revised Standard, whereas this project moves forward from the King James Version to our own times. It should be mentioned that paragraphing of the King James Version has been added as a reader convenience; the original translation was not, of course, paragraphed in this way. The original preface or introduction to each of the included versions proceeds the four texts. — from book’s Foreword
