How many bibles does a person need?

This was rich... about a month back, I was asking Ian what the differences btw the catholic and protestant bibles were. I took out my trusty good news bible which i called the catholic bible and the niv (also trusty bible... all bibles are trusty) for him to compare. Our conversation went something like that... not exactly like that coz I am recreating scenario from sheer lousy memory.

Dar: Eh the contents look exactly the same.
Me: Cannot be what.
Dar: You sure this is a catholic bible?
Me: Ya leh... everyone in my youth group last time used it. Then the prayer room also got stock this one.
Dar: What bible is this again?
Me: The Good News Bible.
Dar: (silence) Dear... the Good News Bible is protestant. I have one somwhere.
Me: Huh? Serious?
Dar: Ya. That's why your NIV and Good News Bible look the same
Me: Oh my gosh. You mean we've been reading the Protestant Bible all this time in Catholic Youth Group?? (collapses in laughter)

I later dug out the Christian Community Bible which is actually a real catholic bible that i bought from a second hand store and compared it this time. (why can't they name it the Catholic Community Bible... confuse me lah all of these bible printers)

ORH... catholic bibles have additional chapters called Judith and Tobit and Wisdom. I never recall ppl quoting these books even when I was attending catholic church leh. Ok maybe book of wisdom got but who is judith and tobit?

And apparently, quite fictitious in feeling leh. Seems like itz not been a loss not knowing Ju and Tob all these years leh.

Oh well...

Then yesterday, I came across a bible called The Evidence Bible. Itz pretty cool actually. A real good study bible ( I feel like I missed out alot not studying or knowing the bible well all these years!) that also told me something interesting.

The Evolution Theory is BOGUS.

Yes ladies and gentlemen... Darwin's theory... no empirical evidence lor.

Just take a look at this:



I was like woah! I didn't know that.

And this was an interesting website that felt that dinosaurs did appear in the bible actually:

http://www.clarifyingchristianity.com/dinos.shtml

And more evidence that the bible is scientifically accurate:

http://www.clarifyingchristianity.com/science.shtml

Anyway like I said... The Evidence Bible is an eye-opening read. It explains things in greater detail, addresses questions and objections commonly spouted by non-believers and has very interesting Christian quotations from influential people in History.

And here is one of the interesting bits from The Evidence bible.

About 300 years ago, Galileo discovered the water cycle but centuries before, the Scripture described the water cycle! The Prophet Amos (9:6) wrote that God calls for the water of the sea and pours them out upon the face of the earth.

The Piltdown Man estimated by Darwin to be 300,000 to 1 million years old turned out to be a fraud. In 1953, carbon dating was done and they found out that Piltdown Man was composed of a skull belonging to a 600 year old woman and its jaw to a 500 year old Orang Utan from te East Indies (Our Times, The illustrated history of the 20th Century).

And if you read the captions in the pic above, most of the so called ape men finds were all FRAUDS.

Woah.

And we thought the NKF Scandal was bad. =p


So how many bibles do I have?

1) Good News Bible
2) Christian Community Bible (which is Catholic)
3) my NIV bible that is clothed in Denim (funky, portable and the one I bring to church)
4) The Evidence Bible (which seems to be KJV... Ian's favorite version I think)
5) Some other teenager Catholic bible that's somewhere hidden in the storeroom

But it is interesting to read every bible's interpretation of the same text... they all sound similar but the phrasing differences can give a bit more oomph to the translation... I am sure all modern day bibles got pretty lost in translation here and there. They did come from Hebrew and Greek writings y'know.

The best way is to understand the actual Hebrew and Greek bits to understand better the modern English translation.

I guess that is why I like Pastor David Lim's sermons. He does explain to people what certain terms in the scriptures are in Hebrew and Greek translation and what these mean... it gives you a greater appreciation and understanding of the scriptures.