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Stephen Smith
August 31, 2011

How People Share the Bible (Verses) vs. Read the Bible (Chapters)

People tend to read longer passages of Scripture online but share shorter passages on Facebook and Twitter—usually a single verse at a time. It makes intuitive sense: after reading the Bible, you want to share a verse or two that particularly meant something to you.

The below charts quantify the difference in behavior between sharing and reading the Bible.

When people share Bible passages on Facebook and Twitter, they share individual verses 74% of the time and chapters only 9% of the time (note the large orange circles at the bottom indicating single verses):

Length of Social Media Bible Passage References

But when people read the Bible on Bible Gateway, they read complete chapters over 50% of the time and individual verses 20% of the time (note the large blue circles indicating full chapters):

Length of Passage Access on Bible Gateway (Zoomed)

Here’s what happens when you zoom out on the second chart:

Length of Passage Access on Bible Gateway

Do you see the green horizontal line in the Old Testament at around sixty verses? To read the Old Testament in a year, you need to read about sixty verses per day: thus the horizontal line.

The purple spikes indicate book boundaries (with Psalms as the largest spike in the middle; it’s large enough to have a shadow spike at Psalm 100).

The red dots, indicating passages that span more than one Bible book, are dramatic but comprise fewer than 0.01% of passage accesses.

Do you see any other interesting trends in these visualizations?

Andy Rau
August 30, 2011

Lexham English Bible Now Available on Bible Gateway

We’re pleased to announce a new addition to our library of Bibles: the Lexham English Bible (LEB) New Testament!

Anytime a new English Bible translation is released, it’s fair to ask what distinguishes it from the many other Bible translations already available. The introduction to the LEB describes two major elements that make it stand out:

  • The LEB was specifically produced to be read alongside the original language text of the Bible. Most modern Bibles, aiming for accessibility and readability, necessarily depart from the exact wording and style of the original text. The LEB New Testament instead follows the Greek as closely as possible, making it ideal for comparison to the original text.
  • The LEB is designed to make extensive use of the most up-to-date lexical reference works available, like Walter Bauer’s A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature.

The result is a comparatively literal translation that is especially useful for students, pastors, and anyone who wants to do regular comparisons between the English and original text. (If you haven’t done so already, read how to view more than one Bible side-by-side on Bible Gateway.) You can get a feel for the LEB by reading its translation of John 3—and to see how easily it reads alongside the Greek text, read the LEB alongside the SBL Greek New Testament.

We hope you’ll find the Lexham English Bible to be a useful resource in your own Bible reading and study. We’re grateful to Logos Bible Software for making it available on Bible Gateway.

Andy Rau
August 28, 2011

Bible References in Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” Speech

“I Have a Dream” is perhaps the most famous speech delivered by Martin Luther King, Jr. Like many of King’s speeches and sermons, it contains numerous references to Bible passages.

You can read the speech here.

Did you catch the quotes from these Bible verses?

  • Amos 5:24 (NIV): “But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!”
  • Isaiah 40:4-5 (KJV): “Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain….”

King makes more subtle references to at least two other Bible passages as well. Did you notice these?

  • Psalm 30:5 (NIV): “…weeping may stay for the night, but rejoicing comes in the morning.”
  • Galatians 3:28 (NIV): “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”

If you’re interested in the Biblical foundations of King’s fight against injustice, see our earlier post about Bible passages used in Martin Luther King, Jr’s speeches and sermons.

Andy Rau
August 26, 2011

“Questions Answered” Newsletter: Straight Answers to Tough Questions About the Bible

Do you have questions about the Bible? I think even the most devout Bible reader would admit to running into confusion at points, or to harboring tough questions about Scripture’s reliability and accuracy.

Next week, we’re kicking off a new free email newsletter specifically for anyone who’s ever asked a tough question about Scripture: Questions Answered.

Every week, Questions Answered will tackle a different question about the Bible and offer an honest answer that doesn’t beat around the bush. Here are some of the questions you’ll see addressed:

  • Can the Bible exaggerate and still be true?
  • Why do details sometimes differ from one Gospel account to another?
  • Are proverbs iron-clad promises?

It’s not wrong to ask tough questions like these of the Bible—in fact, in earnestly looking for answers, you might be surprised how much you learn about God’s Word. So whether you’ve asked these questions yourself or have been challenged by others to answer them, you’ll find Questions Answered to be a thought-provoking exploration of the Bible and its claims.

Questions Answered is drawn from the NIV Quest Study Bible, and is the latest in a series of free email newsletters centered around Bible reading and study. Sign up today to start receiving Questions Answered when it starts on August 30—and while you’re on the newsletter signup page, take a moment to browse through the other free resources there.

Andy Rau
August 25, 2011

Eugene Nida, Father of Dynamic Equivalence, Dies at 96

Eugene Nida, 1914-2011.

Eugene Nida, the father of the “dynamic equivalence” Bible translation philosophy, passed away today at age 96.

Nida’s name might not be familiar to many Christians, but his ideas had a massive influence on modern Bible translation. Nida’s dynamic equivalence translation philosophy (also known as functional equivalence) encourages Bible translators to convey the thoughts and ideas expressed in Bible passages, rather than translating each phrase word-for-word. The driving goal behind the philosophy is to make the meaning of each Scripture passage clear and accessible to modern readers, even if it means sacrificing the exact form of the passages in their original language.

Bibles that are heavily shaped by the dynamic equivalence philosophy include the Contemporary English Version, New Living Translation, and the New Century Version. On the other end of the spectrum of Bible translation philosophy are Bibles that follow the formal equivalence (literal) philosophy, such as the King James Version and English Standard Version. Most modern English Bibles sit somewhere between both ends of the spectrum; many Bibles which don’t fully embrace Nida’s approach are nevertheless influenced by it.

Nida was particularly famous for applying the semantic domain concept to Bible translation. Nida believed that translators could arrive at the most accurate meaning of a particular Greek word by first examining all other uses of that word in Scripture and then determining which meaning fits best in a specific verse. His (along with J.P. Louw) Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament: Based on Semantic Domains applies this theory, and is considered a standard lexicon for New Testament word studies.

His might not be a household name, but Nida’s work and ideas had a lasting influence on many of the Bibles on our bookshelves—and on the way that scholars today approach the task of translating Scripture.

(Image from the Nida Institute for Biblical Scholarship website.)

Andy Rau
August 24, 2011

Habakkuk, Computer Text Analysis, and More: Bible Blog Link Roundup

We thought we’d share some of the interesting Bible-related blog posts and news items that have crossed our desks (and RSS readers) recently. Here are a few noteworthy items from the community of Bible bloggers:

Andy Rau
August 23, 2011

New Poll: Where Are You Going to School This Fall?

Last week’s poll asked whether or not you participate in a group Bible study. The results are in and speak for themselves:

Do you participate in a group Bible study?

Yes: 76% (839 Votes)
No: 24% (264 Votes)

I’m not surprised to learn that many Bible Gateway visitors are involved in a group study, but to see that over three-quarters of you are meeting with other Christians to explore God’s Word is inspiring. While personal Bible reading is important, there has always been a strong social component to Bible study. In Matthew 18, Jesus famously promises that “where two or three are gathered in my name, I’m there with them” (CEB), and other passages indicate that worship and instruction in the faith were communal activities in the early church.

If you’re not involved in a Bible study with other Christians, consider talking to your pastor or other church leaders to see what group studies are available (and if there are none, start one of your own!). Insights from other believers can often shed light on Bible passages you find difficult to understand. However you choose to study the Bible, you might also find some of Bible Gateway’s free resources, such as our library of commentaries, topical dictionaries, and Bible reading plans, helpful.

Our poll this week is about that most dreaded time of the year: back-to-school season. Many of you are heading back to school in the next few weeks. Where are you headed with your lunch pail and backpack full of textbooks?

Where are you going to school this autumn?

  • No school for me! (I'm not a student.) (47%, 250 Votes)
  • College/university. (28%, 150 Votes)
  • High school. (10%, 52 Votes)
  • Grad school. (6%, 32 Votes)
  • Other (5%, 27 Votes)
  • Seminary. (2%, 13 Votes)
  • Grade school. (2%, 8 Votes)

Total Voters: 532

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August 19, 2011

Lee Strobel Talks About Faith, Doubt, and the Bible

If you’ve read any of his books (or subscribe to his Investigating Faith newsletter), you know that Christian apologist Lee Strobel is a clear and powerful communicator. He has a gift for breaking down the big questions about Christianity and presenting them in an accessible way.

In addition to his writing, Lee has given many talks and interviews over the years, and many of them are archived on his website. I went through and picked out a few of my favorites.

The first asks whether we can trust that the Bible hasn’t been tampered with throughout the ages. Watch Is the Bible Reliable as a Historical Document?

“We have 24,000 manuscripts of the New Testament compared to the second place which is Homer’s Illiad. I think there’s 600 of those…We have a great amount of manuscript evidence so that we can be confident of its transmission through history.”

The second video is about doubt. Everyone has doubts, but sometimes we convince ourselves that we’re the only ones who do—or worse, that voicing them is somehow wrong or evil. In this talk, Lee tells the story of John the Baptist’s doubt and Jesus’ response to it. Is There Room for Doubt in the Christian Faith?

“It’s okay to have questions, it’s okay to have doubts. As long as we use those to propel us towards Jesus who embodies the answers.”

You’ll have to go to Lee’s site to watch the next video on prayer: see What Difference Does Prayer Make in the Christian Faith? The following excerpt from the talk reminds us that prayers aren’t always immediately answered:

I met a guy who prayed for his brother for 48 years and 348 days, he counted, and his brother on his deathbed gave his life to Jesus. Now I don’t understand everything about prayer. I’ll be the first to admit that. And I know there’s a lot of mysteries involved and I konw people have free will and they make their own choice about whether or not they’re going to follow Jesus. I understand all that. I”m just naive enough to believe it when James says, “The prayers of righteous people make a difference.”

Also, you can also watch the full length documentary, The Case for Faith, at Youtube.

If you found these videos useful, spend some time browsing some of the other resources on Lee Strobel’s website, or sign up for his free Investigating Faith newsletter here at Bible Gateway.

Andy Rau
August 19, 2011

The Story Behind the Ten Plagues

The Angel of Death passes by a household in this painting by Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld, 1794-1872.

Few stories in the Old Testament are as familiar as that of the Ten Plagues that God inflicted on Egypt to convince its hard-hearted Pharaoh to release the captive Israelites. It’s the foundational story of the Old Testament nation of Israel, and is thus filled with historical and theological significance. And it also contains all the ingredients of a powerful Bible story: it features suffering captives, a malicious villain, a rescuing God, and a whole series of terrifying and awe-inspiring miracles.

If you haven’t read the story of the Ten Plagues and the Exodus in a while (or ever), take a few minutes to do so now—you can find it in Exodus 8-13.

I’ll bet it’s the rare person who reads the story of the Ten Plagues and doesn’t find him- or herself brimming with questions: did the Ten Plagues occur exactly as described in the text? Are they metaphorical descriptions of natural disasters or other crises that befell Egypt? Were they natural phenomena that God triggered for his purposes, or were they overtly supernatural in nature? Is this “just” a historical account, or is there theological significance in the different plagues?

Christians have answered these questions in varying ways. Growing up, I read a lot of efforts to explain the ten plagues scientifically: maybe the first plague (water turned to blood) was caused by red-colored aquatic algae, or perhaps the plague of darkness was a massive sandstorm or other natural disaster. Other Christians have offered other explanations over the years.

If you’ve ever been intrigued by the story of the Ten Plagues, I recommend reading a recent article by Ziony Zevit describing three ways to look at the Ten Plagues. Zevit lists some of the questions that have challenged scholars and believers for centuries:

Many questions have been raised about the plagues on different levels. Some questions are naturalistic and historical: Did the plagues actually occur in the order and manner described in Exodus? Are there any ancient documents or other types of evidence corroborating that they took place or that something like them took place? Can the less realistic and surrealistic plagues be explained as natural phenomena? Other questions are literary and theological: Is the plague narrative a hodgepodge of sources pasted together by ancient editors (redactors)? What is the origin of the traditions in the extant plague narrative? What is the meaning of the narrative in its biblical context? Beyond the obvious story, did the plague narrative have any theological implications for ancient Israel?

The article lays out some of the traditional Jewish and Christian understandings of the Ten Plagues. Beyond the historical and ecological explanations, some people interpret them as specific polemic attacks on Egyptian religion or as an illustration of God’s mastery over chaos. The article summarizes the most compelling explanations, noting the strengths and weaknesses of the different theories. Among other things, it quickly becomes clear that when reading a complex Biblical story like this one, we shouldn’t stop with the question “How and when did this happen?”—we should also ask “What significance did this story hold for its original audience?” and “What does this story tell us about God?”

August 18, 2011

Bible Highlight: New American Standard Bible

As regular readers of this blog know, Bible Gateway regularly adds new Bibles and extrabiblical content to our online library. One consequence is that it’s easy, in keeping up with all the newly-added Bibles, to overlook some of the older favorites in our library.

We thought it’d be useful to highlight one of those favorites today—in this case, the New American Standard Bible (NASB), produced and published by the Lockman Foundation.

The first complete version of the NASB was published in 1971 and updated in 1995. It’s a spiritual successor to the American Standard Version (ASV) with the goal to facilitate “greater understanding and smoother reading”—one reason it’s sometimes informally called the NASV. The NASB’s translators followed a formal equivalence translation philosophy, producing a “word-for-word” translation. The guiding principles behind their translation work are laid out in the introduction to the NASB:

1. These publications shall be true to the original Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek.

2. They shall be grammatically correct.

3. They shall be understandable.

4. They shall give the Lord Jesus Christ His proper place, the place which the Word gives Him; therefore, no work will ever be personalized.

The translators based their Old Testament work on the Biblia Hebraica (along with “the most recent light from lexicography, cognate languages, and the Dead Sea Scrolls”) and their New Testament translation on the Novum Testamentum Graece.

The end result is a Bible that sticks closely to the original texts while remaining understandable to a modern reader. This passage from the gospel of Matthew illustrates the NASB’s style:

Now when Jesus heard about John, He withdrew from there in a boat to a secluded place by Himself; and when the people heard of this, they followed Him on foot from the cities. When He went ashore, He saw a large crowd, and felt compassion for them and healed their sick.

When it was evening, the disciples came to Him and said, “This place is desolate and the hour is already late; so send the crowds away, that they may go into the villages and buy food for themselves.” But Jesus said to them, “They do not need to go away; you give them something to eat!” They said to Him, “We have here only five loaves and two fish.” And He said, “Bring them here to Me.” Ordering the people to sit down on the grass, He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up toward heaven, He blessed the food, and breaking the loaves He gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds, and they all ate and were satisfied. They picked up what was left over of the broken pieces, twelve full baskets. There were about five thousand men who ate, besides women and children. (Matthew 14:13-20)

If you want to jump right into the NASB text, there are two ways to do so. You can also start reading the NASB now, or listen to the audio NASB. To listen to the audio NASB, look for the audio icon while reading any NASB passage (as described in our audio Bible tutorial), or go to the audio Bible library and select it, along with your desired Bible passage, from the menu there.

We’re very grateful to the Lockman Foundation for making the NASB available on Bible Gateway. You can read more about the NASB at the Lockman Foundation website or on our NASB information page. If you’ve never read Scripture in the NASB, give it a try and see why this Bible remains a favorite for many Bible Gateway readers!

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    The Bible Gateway Blog features the latest news, announcements, and reflections from Bible Gateway. We hope what you find here will add to your understanding of and appreciation for the Bible.