Guest Post - Keith Williams, on the Holy Mosaic Bible

I have the honor of hosting the general editor of the Mosaic Bible, Keith Williams of Tyndale House, today. I asked Keith to talk about the idea behind the Mosaic Bible.

Guest Post by Keith Williams:

What's in a name? For Holy Bible: Mosaic, there is a lot of meaning embedded in the title we chose. But before I talk about why we chose this title for this particular edition, I'll give you a little bit of trivia and insight into the process that went into arriving at this title.

When the idea for this Bible was first introduced, we had some discussions about the title and came up with what I thought was a great one, and it was the working title for some time. That title was Meditations: Via Christus. "Meditations" refers to the format of the Bible, with weekly "meditations" keyed to the church year and Via Christus is a Latin term that has long been used in the Church as a way of referring to a way of life following the pattern of Christ. It roughly translates from Latin to English as "the way of Christ." I liked this title, but it didn't really click with everyone internally here at Tyndale, and early this year a decision was made to drop it.

But now we had to come up with another title for this unique Bible. I had a difficult time letting go of the old title, and I came up with a number of suggestions--none of which were really any good. We had brainstorming meetings that came up with more ideas that didn't really communicate very well about what the Bible was all about, and I was feeling a bit discouraged. But then Kevin O'Brien suggested the title Mosaic. Immediately, I knew we had a winner.

Mosaic captures the "big idea" of what this Bible is about very well. As the body of Christ, every Christian is one piece of a unified whole--just like a mosaic is a unified picture made up of myriad individual pieces. Each piece contributes to the whole, but the whole is way more important than the individual parts. And the differences in the little pieces of stone, tile and glass are important. Different shapes, sizes, and colors are all needed to make the picture complete. And Holy Bible: Mosaic does a great job of highlighting many of the different shapes, sizes and colors that make up the body of Christ by providing quotes and art from every continent and every century of Christian history.

In the end, I think Holy Bible: Mosaic is the perfect title for this Bible. What do you think?

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Thank you, Keith, for that lovely explanation of how Tyndale came up with the title for this Bible! I agree that the title works. It seemed a little odd, at first, until I understood the meaning, but that front section . . . the meditations . . . really make this Bible unique and special.

Linky-dinky do - a few links for those want more:

The Mosaic Bible website
Keith Williams' Facebook Page
Amazon page
Keith at Twitter

Remember, I'm giving away a certificate for one free copy of the Mosaic Bible. Sign up for the drawing, here.