Mosaic Bible - Review and *Giveaway*

The Mosaic Bible by Tyndale House
New Living Translation
Link to Amazon from which I receive nothing (for your convenience)
Released September, 2009

I've been using my copy of the Mosaic Bible for about 3 weeks, now, so I feel comfortable talking about its pluses and minuses. The Mosaic Bible is really two books in one. The Bible is the latter portion of the book. In the front section is a 52-week devotional that contains beautiful artwork and thoughtful devotions with quotes. I particularly loved the fact that the referenced scriptures have the page number listed, so that you can quickly and easily locate them. The pages in the devotional section are nice and thick in order to allow writing on them without tearing up the pages. Lessons are designed to coordinate with the Christian year (beginning with Advent) but that's just a guideline. You can pick up the book and read at random or start from the beginning at any time. It's nice to have that extra reading material handy in case you just need a little inspiration.

As to the Biblical text, it contains the entire Bible and the print is a little small but not tiny; it's comfortably readable. The Bible portion is printed on thinner pages (the typical delicate paper), written in the easy-to-read New Living Translation. There are very thin margins with center-column references, no superfluous study material, a nice concordance and a Greek/Hebrew dictionary. The maps at the back are quite nice -- again, printed on thicker paper and all relevant, including the World of the Patriarchs, the Exodus from Egypt, and Paul's journeys, among others.

Because there isn't extra study material with the text, I really enjoy using this particular Bible for doing my Beth Moore Bible study. It's easy to find the scriptures because there aren't any extra notes to get in the way. And, sometimes, I just like flipping to the front to read something different, so I enjoy having that devotion section -- you just never know when you're going to have a quiet moment in church before everyone else shows up. It's not a Bible to write notes in because the margins are narrow, but I'm a purist in the sense of not wanting any writing in my Bible, so I consider that a plus.

The devotional section in the front can get in the way a bit if you're at church and trying to quickly flip to a scripture, but it's not a major nuisance and I'm getting used to it. Sometimes I've found that the NLT text is just too far removed from the NIV that is typically used in my Bible study. Fortunately, I'm a Bible nut. I'm taking the Mosaic Bible with me to church, but I also have a slim-line in Revised Standard Version, which is a wee bit closer to the NIV typically quoted. I take both with me to church and use whatever feels comfortable at the time.

In general, I just love this Bible and I'm sure I'll be using it for many, many years.

And, now on to the *Giveaway*. I have one certificate for a copy of the Mosaic Bible to give away. It can be redeemed from anywhere in the world. If you don't have a store nearby, you just fill out the information and mail it to Tyndale House -- the address is on the back.

Rules:

1. This drawing is open internationally.

2. Leave your email address so that I can contact the winner. No email, no entry.

3. Tell me why you'd like to win a copy of the Mosaic Bible. What appeals to you most?

4. The only people who are not eligible are those who have already won a copy/certificate or received one from Tyndale House for review.

5. Drawing will be held November 18 in the evening; I'll close off comments around 6pm U.S. Central (I think that's GMT - 5, but I'm not certain). The winner will have approximately 48-72 hours to contact me, so I advise following this blog if you don't, already. I will email, as well, but sometimes emails go astray.

6. Good luck!

Many thanks to Tyndale House for my review copy! I'll have a guest post by one of the editors of the Mosaic Bible, later this week.

The Mosaic Bible - just arrived

I just received a copy of the Mosaic Bible in New Living Translation to review for Tyndale House, a few days ago, and have finally managed to crack the cover to read about it. It has just been released today and you can buy a copy at Amazon for a mere $20.24.

The "mosaic" bit has to do with the fact that this Bible is composed of more than just the Biblical text. A third of the book is devoted to scripture readings, meditations and beautiful artwork. There are some spaces to write your thoughts in that section and the paper is heavier than traditional Bible paper so that if you do write in it you won't poke holes in the paper.

The remainder of the Bible is the full text in NLT and the usual, delicate pages. It has a center column with cross-references, but it's not a study Bible with a lot of explanatory notes. Instead, there's just the text with that narrow column of references. I can see how useful that will be because I took a study Bible to my Bible study on Sunday and that was a mistake. For every day reading, it's great, but when you're simply trying to look up specific scriptures, all those explanatory notes really get in the way. I had a terrible time flipping to the correct scriptures before Beth Moore finished talking about them on the video we were watching.

Point being, I'm really excited about this Bible because it's something I can use right now. I'm going to do a full review, later on, when I've had some time to use it. I did read one of the meditations and looked up scriptures, this morning, and I liked the reading -- love, love, love the beautiful artwork in this book.

In other news: Kiddo is home briefly, icing down his shoulder after a cortisone shot. We'll be returning to school in a few minutes. I had to have his help getting my computer to work because I unplugged a few too many doohickeys during last night's noisy storm and then couldn't figure out where to plug everything back in. My life is so funny. I'll approve messages and reply to them after school.

Wishing everyone a peachy day!

Bookfool on the run