Through the years, I’ve relied upon a range of translations for guidance, starting with the KJV. It was the Bible of my childhood and youth, the one our preacher used, the one we memorized in VBS. It’s so engrained in my mind that I prefer to use Strong’s concordance to those keyed to subsequent translations. it wasn’t just the familiarity; I love the literary grace of it, as with Psalm 23. (On the way to a funeral in the 1980s, I grabbed a newer translation as I headed out from the church, only to discover that, when I read that passage, it had lost some of its charm; “I lack nothing” just isn’t the same as “I shall not want.”)

Coming out of seminary in 1981, I was taken by the NIV, which one of my Wheaton colleagues help to translate. It served as my preaching Bible for the next 25 years (on through a legacy pastorate, denominational work, and a church plant), but I then alternated it with the HCSB, for which my son Jedidiah was a representative at LifeWay. I fell in love with it when I used a compact version for my readings on an Answers in Genesis trip down the Colorado through the Grand Canyon. And, of course, I found good occasion to turn to other translations for fresh expression along the way, including the ESV, which serves kairosjournal.org, for which I was managing editor. Also, as a seminary president, I was pleased to hand out to our graduates copies of the NASB, provided by the Lockman Foundation. More recently, I’ve contributed to a book about the aesthetics and theological inspiration for seven new typefaces commissioned by HarperCollins for the versions they publish through Zondervan and Nelson.

That being said, I wondered what might be distinctive in The Readable Bible, to which I was introduced through Michael and Julie Johnson, fellow church members at Redemption City Church (SBC) in Franklin, Tennessee. (Sharon and I are supporters of their Future Marriage University, which I mentioned earlier on the site, and I was happy to write a commendatory blurb for Michael’s book on the FMU perspective, which could be summarized as “Kiss Dumb Dating Goodbye.”) 

Turns out, Julie’s dad, Rod Laughlin, had committed a great deal of time and his own money to this project, convinced it was a calling, serving those who turned to Scripture and thereby honoring God. I was fortunate to get his story first hand when he was down from Kansas City, visiting Michael and Julie. Rod and I met over lunch, and I was blessed to hear of his journey from a Catholic upbringing Up East to conversion through the preaching of John Hagee to enrollment at SWBTS; of his life both in the business world and the pastorate; and yes, of the genesis of this version (no pun intended).

Granted, the title is a bit edgy, in that it suggests that other translations aren’t so readable. But he does craft it so that he might fairly call it The Even More Readable Bible. The name he’s chosen doesn’t signal a paraphrase or colloquial rendering on the order of The Living Bible or The Message. Rather, the text reads more along the lines of the NIV, NASV, ESV, or HCSB. The difference comes in the layout.

He gave me a copy, and I laid it side by side with my current preaching Bible, open to the book of Joshua. Chapter by chapter, I’d read one and then the other, and I soon came to appreciate the formatting tweaks I found in TRB. Charts turned paragraph listings into spread sheets. Italicized words smoothed out the prose, supplying obvious but heretofore assumed expressions. Sequential verse references were superimposed upon mapped, battlefield movements. Again, I had no trouble reading my “less readable” Bible, but I was thankful for the ancillary goodies I found in the TRB. 

I’m still new to this rendering, having navigated only Joshua and the early chapters of Acts and also looked up a few of my favorite passages. But so far so good; indeed, quite good.