I Love the Mosaic Approach--You?
Enter to win a free copy of Mosaic by posting a question or comment for general editor Keith Williams in the comments section of this post or by announcing this contest to your friends on Oct. 1. Details here.
I became a fan of the New Living Translation in 2006 when I used the NLT's One-Year Bible as my reading program for the year. I found it to be highly readable and, like its predecessor, the Living Bible, refreshing.
Also, I realized that I knew one of the translators, Dr. Joseph E. Coleson, and his comments on the translation boosted my confidence it in its reliability for general study.
MOSAIC is a new edition of the NLT that hit my desk only yesterday. Already I like five things about it.
1. Clear Reading Plan. Mosaic offers a unique Bible reading plan, and I think Christians need more of these. We want to read the Bible but don't know how to proceed. Here is a clear pathway for engaging Scripture throughout the year.
2. Emphasis on Unity. Mosaic gathers devotional thoughts from around the church and around the world. Reading the Bible alongside these thoughts will expand your view of what the church is and what it is doing in the world. We are one body, friends. One. Church. One. One. One. I think the editors at Tyndale get that.
3. Church Calendar Driven. Mosaic's devotional reading plan follows the church year. Most evangelical churches have de-emphasized liturgy and especially the church calendar. I believe this leaves many Christians hungry for a way of being connected to each other and to the larger picture. Beyond the football schedule, soccer practice, the playoffs, and bikini season, the seasons of our year recognize the movement of God into the world--and our movement toward eternity. Mosaic takes that seriously.
4. Sola Text. A gripe I've had with devotional--and even study--Bibles is that they place the "helps" material directly in the text so that it seems to nearly as important as the Word of God itself. Mosaic doesn't do that. This Bible keeps the "devo" material up front, leaving the back of the book as a clean, clear, uninterrupted copy of the Bible (with center-column references).
5. Artwork! Yes, friends, pages and pages of bright, well-reproduced, full-color works of art from all regions of the world and nearly all eras of church history. Finally! A serious attempt at manuscript illumination! The artwork is in the "Mosaic" section, not with the Bible text, and it is beautifully done. This alone makes the book a value.
So what is Mosaic? It is an NLT Bible that includes a seasonally themed Bible reading plan and devotional material that will help you know Jesus Christ better and be better connected to Christians around the world.
I can't wait to get started.
Read comments by general editor Keith Williams in the comments section of this post. Here's his video intro to Mosaic.
18 Comments:
Mr. Williams, I am curious about the translaton of one passage, Psalm 96:3. "Publish his glorious deeds among the nations. Tell everyone about the amazing things he does." The NIV, NRSV, and KJV use "declare" in place of "publish." NASB uses "tell."
I'm curious about this because the NLT version is the theme verse for Ky Christian Writers Conference. I don't mean to put you on the spot about a minor detail.
Thanks for being available for questions.
I have not seen a copy yet but you and Joe Coleson are enough to make me get one...who knows, maybe I'll WIN one as a door prize!
Is this written for the everyday person in the pew or do you need to be a bible scholar?
First I've heard of it, will be interesting to see what it is all about, hopefully for FREE.
Looking forward to picking this one up. I love the NLT as well but all the other details that Larry has pointed out make this sound like one to have.
Nice! As a fan of mosaics and Moses and all things even slightly Mosaic--and of the NLT--I love this!
This sounds great! I have a lot of respect for Joe Coleson so I'm sure it is a great work.
This sounds exciting and if Larry is on board I trust his opinion. I, like the Anonymous writer, am courious if it is writen for the everyday person.
I love the content, but the aesthetics are nice too...
Wow, what a great mini-review and a great set of responses.
@Emily
Your question deserves a bit of research, so I'm going to defer on answering it until at least this afternoon.
@Anonymous
The NLT is certainly a translation of the Bible that the everyday person in the pew can read and understand, even if Bible scholars also endorse it (which many do).
The Mosaic material is quite diverse. I think you will find that everyone will immediately be able to connect with the artwork included. There is also a brief paragraph introducing each week and a meditation written by a contemporary author each week, and these are all written in a style that will be easily accessible to any reader from young adult onward.
Some of the historical writings will be challenging, but most of the challenge is because they are coming from a different time and using different ways of thinking than we might be used to. Bible scholars are at no inherent advantage here, as all of us are to some extent captive participants in the time and culture that God has placed us in.
One of the beautiful things about Mosaic is that it will stretch everyone to see beyond their local horizon in multiple ways. I think everyday people will enjoy that experience, once they get a chance to see the way God is working in and through people very different from themselves.
Does that answer the question?
I'd love to see it! I'm particularly interested the calendar aspects you mentioned. Sounds great.
(I'm having trouble leaving a comment, so I apologize if this is redundant. "Inthedailies" and "Tanya" are both me.)
I love the idea of the tie-in with the calendar; seems like we miss a lot - not least the encouragement to read the whole Bible - when we lose the liturgical calendar. And the emphasis on unity is very timely. This sounds like a Bible I would really enjoy, use and share.
Several of the features of this Bible intrigue me and draw me. One is the liturgical calendar. You are so right--the church in America has all but forgotten our interconnectedness with believers in other parts of the world who still observe this calendar. The other is the art--another way to bring us out of our provincial worldview and show us more of our cultural heritage as followers of Jesus.
Thanks for the opportunity to receive a copy of this new Bible.
Mr. Williams,
What is different in the Mosaic bible compared to regular KJV bibles???
*Thank you for the chance to win a copy of this bible!*
You guys are singing my song--i.e., the unity of the church.
FYI ... some others are commenting on yesterday's post, and Keith will address questions there too. Check them out here: http://www.lawrencewilson.com/2009/09/win-free-copy-of-mosaic.html
I notice that the reading plan in Mosaic differs significantly from the Revised Common Lectionary. (I find little correlation between Mosaic's readings and those of the RCL's years A, B, and C reading plans for most of the weeks I've compared.) Not a complaint, but it raises the question of how the Mosaic team selected readings and weekly topics.
Thanks for taking questions!
I am very pleased that the inclusion of the church calendar is something that so many people are resonating with. One of my fondest hopes for this project was that it would help more U.S. Christians connect with the church calendar and see the benefits of it as I have done for the last five or six years.
@Scott Rogers
I initially proposed three related Bibles using the same concept, each one strictly following years A, B, and C of the RCL with the lectionary readings. But the publishers didn’t want to take the risk of creating three Bibles, though they did approve a single Bible product using the basic idea. There was also some concern about using the church year due to the fact that a large number of Christians in the United States are completely unfamiliar with it or even hostile towards it. So I had to come up with a way to integrate the church year in a single volume, in a way that would be useful to people who are already practicing the church year and yet accessible to those who have had little or no exposure to it. My compromise was to draw from multiple lectionary sources (including RCL and BCP), stay away from giving hard dates in the print edition, and give enough flexibility in the structure to help people use it with minimal confusion. In the end, I made the decision to err on the side of helping the uninitiated at the expense of strict accuracy.
I know this isn’t ideal for those, like you, who actually live the church year in community with your church and denomination. But then again, if I had used the RCL strictly, those who use BCP or an Orthodox calendar would have been in the same position. Looking back, I might have done some things differently, but I do think the end product can still be useful for anyone regardless of the way their church interacts (or doesn’t) with the church calendar.
@Molly Edwards
Mosaic uses the New Living Translation, a fresh translation of the Bible into modern English created by a team of over 90 committed Christian scholars of the Bible. You can learn more about the NLT and how it differs from the KJV here.
Love the idea of a new translation coming out and can't wait to see the pictures too! Have any of the team that translated done previous translations of the Bible?
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