If you want to make your Bible last a long time, the first thing you do once you get it home (or before you wrap it up as a gift) is to stretch out the binding.

Here’s how:

Hold the closed Bible in one hand with the spine flat on a table.  Then hold all of the pages together and let the covers slowly fall to the table.  Next, take a section of pages from the front of the Bible and lay them down, running your fingers across the top page, near the crease, pressing gently.  Still holding most of the pages upright in your hand, repeat, taking a section of pages from the back of the Bible.  Continue repeating this process, first on one side and then on the other, until the entire Bible has been opened into two even halves.

This way, the binding will be flexible and less likely to crack, lose pages, etc. I use this trick for all textbooks too–any book could benefit from it, but higher-cost, high-usage books like Bibles will benefit the most.

We’re relaunching the Hands-On Bible, which is Tyndale’s best-selling kids’ Bible.  If you’re familiar with the previously published version, this one is a bit smaller, has blue type inside, and the full-color pages inside (called tip-ins) have been completely redesigned. A bit of trivia: the Hands-On Bible was the first Bible published with the NLT second edition text, so both the 2004 and the 2010 editions of the Hands-On Bible have the NLTse text.

The Hands-On Bible is a joint publishing project between Tyndale and Group Publishing. Group primarily publishes sunday school curriculum, so they did a fantastic job of making sure that there is a wide variety of content (experiments, crafts, fun facts, etc) include plenty to engage kids of every learning style with the Bible.

Also, if you have kids between the ages of  4 and 11, you should join in the Hands-On Bible contest we’re holding to celebrate the relaunch. We’re giving away monthly family pizza nights for a year (and a bunch more) to three winners. To enter, try a sample activity from the Hands-On Bible with your family. Then follow the rest of the instructions on the contest page and we’ll let you know in August if you’ve won.

The Tyndale Español team launched the Nueva Traducción Viviente (NTV)  at Expolit (the largest Spanish Christian trade show) this month. The launch is the culmination of a 10-year effort and partnership between Tyndale, Unilit, and the Luis Palau Association. The goal for the NTV is identical to that of the NLT: to communicate the Scriptures to today’s readers as clearly and powerfully as the original texts did to readers and listeners in biblical times. The NTV will bring the style and purpose of the NLT to the Spanish-speaking world. (More about the translation here)

Luis Palau praying for the NTV after presenting an award to Jaime and Gail Mirón 

Luis Palau preaching from the NTV at the conference 

 The first full NTV is available now in bookstores and online.

Ray observes, “I found it interesting how many of these highlights focus on trusting God and not worrying.”  Commenter Thomas points out, “users of NLT and ESV appear to highlight several different passages, while users of all the other translations concentrate exclusively on just a very few verses.”

The top highlighted verses were all highlighted in multiple translations, but one set of verses, Romans 8:38-39, was highlighted (relatively) often in the NLT, but not often in any of the other six. Why do you think these verses might have been so much more popular in the NLT than in the other translations?

Romans 8:38-39, NLT: (I’ve linked to Biblos here because of their useful parallel verses feature)

And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons*, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow–not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below–indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.

* Greek nor rulers.

Don’t have an iPad? Check out the NLT on Facebook for a chance to win one! (click on the “sweepstakes” tab)

The Greek text in Mark 12:42 says that she dropped in “two lepta, which is a kodrantes.” So if we simply translate it that way in English, everything is clear, right? Sure, if the reader has an intuitive sense of the value of two lepta! And Mark even gives us a clue by telling us that two lepta (Jewish coins) are equal to a kodrantes (a Roman coin). But most of us would still have to reach for a Bible dictionary to make sense of those terms. So translators have resorted to numerous solutions.

KJV: two mites, which make a farthing
RSV: two copper coins, which make a penny
NASB: two small copper coins, which amount to a cent (with a footnote)
NIV: two very small copper coins, worth only a fraction of a penny (with a footnote)
ESV: two small copper coins, which make a penny (with a footnote)
HCSB: two tiny coins worth very little (with a footnote)
NLT: two small coins (with a footnote)

Which translation is correct? I would argue that the KJV, RSV, NASB, NIV, and ESV communicate the wrong message. After all, a penny has very little value in our current economy. But in the first century, a kodrantes was equal to 1/64 of a denarius, and a denarius was considered fair pay for a day’s wage. If today’s wage for a laborer in the USA is $15 per hour, that comes to $120 for an 8-hour day. At this rate, 1/64 of a day’s wage is $1.88. Round it up to $2.00, and we could say that the widow dropped two dollar-coins into the collection box. That feels very different from “two coins worth only a fraction of a penny.”

It’s for that reason that the NLT simply says “two small coins” [footnote: Greek two lepta, which is a kodrantes (i.e., a quadrans)]. After all, the point of Jesus’ teaching was that the widow gave everything she had. And if her two small coins were worth a couple of dollars in our economy, let’s not give the impression that she had only two pennies.