Is there a good King James bible for athiests?

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Like, with really good annotations?

― Casuistry (Chris P), Saturday, 29 January 2005 01:47 (twenty years ago)

Annotated Alice-style, even?

― Casuistry (Chris P), Saturday, 29 January 2005 01:47 (twenty years ago)

I have got mini-versions of some books with introductions by Fay Weldon and people like that. The introductions are a lot easier than the books. It is by Canongate and you can get a job lot for 3 quid in Fopp. I am stuck in Corinthians. I am struck by how much of it is familiar.

― Peter Stringbender (PJ Miller), Saturday, 29 January 2005 12:56 (twenty years ago)

I should point out, I'm mostly interested in it for literary purposes. By "for atheists" (or however I misspelt it) I'm not really interested in a shrill "Ken's Guide To The Bible" debunking, but nor am I interested in prosyletizing.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Saturday, 29 January 2005 19:12 (twenty years ago)

Hey watch it! To whom are you referring?

― Ken L (Ken L), Sunday, 30 January 2005 00:05 (twenty years ago)

I don't think you'll find it in quite the form you are looking for it. Bible commentaries come in many flavors though. One I read comes to mind that you might find worth a glance, The Harlot by the Side of the Road. It takes several of the more shocking and puzzling incidents from the Pentateuch (first five books of OT) and analyzes them.

This book has a "feature" I found well worth skipping past. Along with each discussion of the text, the author decided (rather self-indulgently) to retell each brief Biblical text as a fairly clumsy, badly-written short story. Yeeuuch.

It is important to understand the politics of the era when the OT and NT were each codified, in order to know why the Bible looks like it does today.

― Aimless (Aimless), Sunday, 30 January 2005 02:28 (twenty years ago)

I'm just talking 'bout Ken.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Sunday, 30 January 2005 02:29 (twenty years ago)

(xpost!)

I've read a bit about Bible history, the Book of J, and all that. But mostly I sometimes read snippets of the KJ translation and think they're really interestingly well written. I might be after something closer to a Folger Shakespeare edition (is that the right name?), but better.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Sunday, 30 January 2005 02:30 (twenty years ago)

Also I have a book about the 'Making Of' the KJB, called 'In the Beginning'. I can't remember who wrote it and I can't find it.

― Peter Stringbender (PJ Miller), Sunday, 30 January 2005 19:17 (twenty years ago)

I read God's Secretaries by Adam Nicolson last year. Lots of detail about the political times surrounding the translation, and about King James VI&I himself. Interesting stuff about the Puritans. If I remember, a great deal of the KJV was taken from the Tyndale translation.

― Jaq (Jaq), Monday, 31 January 2005 01:47 (twenty years ago)

Chris this must be a record for you two misspellings in one thread....

Would an atheist care which edition of the bible he got to peruse?

― sandy mc (sandy mc), Monday, 31 January 2005 09:15 (twenty years ago)

What, me? I'm all about the misspellings. Live fast, die young, leave a mangled corpse. Or at least, mangled fingers.

Why wouldn't an atheist care about the quality of the translation? I can care about a translation of Proust without believing it to be the Holy Writ, why not the Bible?

― Casuistry (Chris P), Monday, 31 January 2005 11:18 (twenty years ago)

This is the book Peter is talking about, I think: http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0385722168/ref=cm_mp_wli_/026-2735582-4241204?coliid=I9OYMC8Q4G6YW&colid=1I2VQITG0N07V

― Archel (Archel), Monday, 31 January 2005 14:13 (twenty years ago)

Yes, that's the one, only mine's got a different cover. I wonder where it is.

― Peter Stringbender (PJ Miller), Monday, 31 January 2005 14:45 (twenty years ago)

How about Isaac Asimov's Guide to the Bible? Note, I have not read it.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/051734582X/103-9032205-5294227

― a banana (alanbanana), Thursday, 3 February 2005 23:01 (twenty years ago)

pick up the oxford, its not kjv, but its the best reference out there.

― anthony, Monday, 7 February 2005 05:46 (twenty years ago)

i have & would recommend for your purposes the oxford world's classics "the bible: authorized king james version with apocrypha". it's annotated but not extensively--though at 1500 pages as is, it's really quite thick enough for 1 volume already.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0192835254/

if you're interested in the bible as literature and not just as a progenitor of literature, richard lattimore has done a very readable translation of the new testament.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0865475245/

― andrew s (andrew s), Monday, 7 February 2005 06:52 (twenty years ago)

Well, I'm specifically interested in the rhythms and poetries of the KJV, though. "As literature" meaning how the language is used, rather than looking for ripping good yarns.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Monday, 7 February 2005 22:20 (twenty years ago)

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