Coles Notes. That was the answer for a guy like me. You had an English exam coming up. You knew you didn’t have time to read the actual book, so you went and got yourself a copy of the Coles Notes for the book you were supposed to have read. Basically, Coles Notes was a crash course on the book. Some of us would read these, then hope we had enough to pass the exam without reading the actual book. Of course the notes were not intended for this purpose. It was intended to help the student of English literature to better understand the themes, plots, characters, literary devices, and historical background of the book. Great intentions, if only I had used them as intended. I should have just done the work.
As I listen and watch how people use their Bibles today, I fear that people are looking for the Coles Notes version instead of just doing the hard work of reading the Book. I wonder if you are one of
the many who read a “devotional” but never actually get around to reading your Bible? There is a devotional called “Our Daily Bread”. It is a great tool for people, helping them along as they read their Bible. The problem is that “Our Daily Bread” like many other devotionals, have simply become a Coles Notes for many people. It is taking the place of their Bible reading, instead of helping them in reading it.
The problem isn’t merely with people reading the devotionals in place of the Bible. Some people have even replaced a very good Bible with an “easy read” translation. As many of you know, the Bible was originally written in Hebrew and Greek, with some Aramaic mixed in. In order to make the Bible available to everyone, experts in Hebrew and Greek have translated the Bible into English. In fact so much translation work has been done, that by some counts there are at least 50 different English versions of the Bible if not more. Some are easier to read than others. So for example The New Living Translation is very easy to read. It makes for a great children’s Bible. Throw in some pictures and voila’ – you are set. Sadly, people of all ages are looking for the easiest read, and not the most accurate, or the closest to the original.
I share all of this to make a point. I am of the opinion that every one of us should be reading a
Bible on a regular basis and should be doing so using a translation of the Bible that used a “word for word” method of translation. So, to help you out, the English Standard Version, the New American Standard Version and the New King James version, each would be considered translations of the “word for word” variety. The idea being that each of us would benefit from reading God’s word in a translation that comes as close to humanly possible of reflecting the original languages in our native tongue.
Let me ask you a question – if someone you dearly loved was stuck on the other side of the world and wrote you a letter, would you not want to read every single word of it? What if someone else got their hands on the letter before you got it. They could play games with you. “Well let me tell you what it says”… and they begin to paraphrase – “ya – each day is a struggle, I miss you guys”, and then they literally say “blah blah blah” in an attempt to mock you and your desire to read it for yourself. My guess is that would drive you nuts. Most of us would grab hold of it, read it, and read it again and again and again. If we were honest, we would hang on every word, believing – correctly – that each word had meaning. The very idea that someone might try to keep us from reading this original letter and giving us an abbreviated version, or an easy read version would be offensive. So my question is, why do we settle for less when it comes to the Bible?
The simple answer is that we shouldn’t. We should look for the best translation that isn’t so much easy to read, but best reflects what is in the original language. We should desire to read it every day. Let me encourage you to go get yourself a Bible – ideally an English Standard, New American Standard or New King James translation, and read a portion of it. How cool to think that you are actually reading words from God.