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 Bringing Heaven Down To Earth
Connecting This Life to the Next
by Nathan L.K. Bierma
Notes on Bible verses in this book
Verse Citations:
I firmly believe that the introduction of verse numbers, first used in the 16th-century Geneva Bible, has done great harm to our reading and use of Scripture. Scholar Mark Noll speaks of
an unfortunate precedent set by the Geneva Bible, which was the first English-language version published with verse divisions. Segmenting the text like this—a practice that has thankfully been overcome in many recent translations—may have been a boon for checking references, but it was otherwise a disaster; it encouraged prooftexting, obscured the integrity of narratives, and dismembered cohesive discourses under the control of the inspired authors into fragments manipulated by uninspired readers.
As one meager mark of resistance of this fragmentary understanding of Scripture, I cited only chapters of Scripture passages in my book, not verse numbers. May any inconvenience of delayed locating of a particular verse be immeasurably off-set by the value of the extra time spent in Scripture.
Version: I grew up reading and memorizing the New International Version; only in the last couple years, as I've grown interested in Bible translation, have I come to realize the NIV's deficiencies of translation, including gender-exclusive language (D.A. Carson and others have persuaded me that gender-inclusive language is not just a matter of sensitivity, but linguistic faithfulness in translation). My manuscript for this book was submitted before the full TNIV, which corrects most of the NIV's gender-exclusive errors, was available. These corrections are listed below. In the meantime, I have embraced the NRSV as the best available translation that is literal, readable, and gender-inclusive.
Verses: Here are the verses used in this book as they appear in the the TNIV:
p.20 - from Matthew 24:
"But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father."
p.33 - Ecclesiastes 1:
"'Meaningless, Meaningless!' ... What does anyone gain from all their labors at which they toil under the sun?"
p.63 - Acts 28:
"The believers there had heard that we were coming, and they traveled as far as the Forum of Appius and the Three Taverns to meet us."
pp.66-67 - Isaiah 60 (v9):
..."bringing your children from afar, with their silver and gold"...
p.77 - Isaiah 2:
"the arrogance of all people will be brought low, and human pride humbled; the LORD alone will be exalted in that day."
p.86 - 1 John 2:
"For everything in the world--the cravings of sinful people, the lust of their eyes and their boasting about what they have and do--comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever."
p.95 - Isaiah 60:
"The children of your oppressors ... will call you the City of the Lord, Zion of the Holy One of Israel."
p.110 - Revelation 21 -
"And I heard a loud voice from the
throne saying, 'Look! God's dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.'"
p.111 - Exodus 25:
..."cherubim worked into them by skilled hands."
p.119 - John 10:
..."no one will snatch them out of my hand."
p.127 - Genesis 1:
"Let us make human beings in our image, in our likeness."
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