Child's Story Bible republished

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Banner has reprinted the Child's Story Bible by Catherine Vos. However they have changed the Bible version used to the ESV. Can someone tell me what the original version was? It would be either the AV or ASV I assume.
I'm not too familiar with it, but I'm confident that it was the AV rather than the ASV.
 
If Alexander is wanting the older version for his kids I’m sure it probably can be found reasonably priced on eBay.
I believe this would be the older version (published by Eerdmans in this case.) https://www.christianbook.com/the-childs-story-bible/catherine-vos/9780802850119/pd/5011

The cover notwithstanding, this may be as well. As far as I know, RHB would not sell an ESV. But you'd best contact them to make sure. I'm pretty sure I've seen this work with a different cover on the site in the past. https://www.heritagebooks.org/products/the-childs-story-bible-vos.html

This appears to be another copy of the older one. (They also stock the newer Banner edition.) https://www.cvbbs.com/products/childs-story-bible-vos-catherine?_pos=2&_sid=a57e6ef2c&_ss=r
 
This is the cover of the NT copy I have; I also have both OT volumes. (No 2nd commandment violations in any of the pictures.) The NT is is ISBN 0 85151 237 2. OT Volume 1 is ISBN 0 85151 250 X, and Vol. 2 is ISBN 0 85151 251 8.
 

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We have the older BoT edition and really enjoy it but this question of "translation" is odd.

It is told in simple, down-to-earth English, for the most part, EXCEPT when people speak. So you might have something like "Adam and Eve were happy and content before. But now they were afraid of God. When God questioned questioned Adam, he tried to put the blame on Eve by saying "the woman whom thou gavest me..."

So by "changed to ESV" I guess it just makes it more uniform in language rather than slipping into archaic language whenever someone speaks? I would hardly call the "old version" a "KJV translation", it's definitely a re-telling (a well-done one, but by no means KJV in 95% of the text).

Well as I said above I have never read it myself so I am ignorant as to how frequently Scripture is directly quoted. However having looked at the first few pages given as a sample on the Banner website, at least in the chapter provided, Scripture is directly quoted quite often.
 
I believe this would be the older version (published by Eerdmans in this case.) https://www.christianbook.com/the-childs-story-bible/catherine-vos/9780802850119/pd/5011

The cover notwithstanding, this may be as well. As far as I know, RHB would not sell an ESV. But you'd best contact them to make sure. I'm pretty sure I've seen this work with a different cover on the site in the past. https://www.heritagebooks.org/products/the-childs-story-bible-vos.html

This appears to be another copy of the older one. (They also stock the newer Banner edition.) https://www.cvbbs.com/products/childs-story-bible-vos-catherine?_pos=2&_sid=a57e6ef2c&_ss=r

Yes there would seem to be a whole other problem with the Eerdmans edition :rolleyes:
 
Yes there would seem to be a whole other problem with the Eerdmans edition :rolleyes:

Yes. My apologies for not warning of the 2CV. I simply saw that it was the older version and didn’t even pay attention to the cover.


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From time-to-time RHB does have non-TR based Bibles for sale on their site. Currently I see a used ESV copy of Acts for sale and I've seen other ESV Bibles there in the past. https://www.heritagebooks.org/products/acts-esv-illuminated-scripture-journal-used.html

Before the Reformation Heritage KJV Study Bible was published, they were so committed to the KJV that the study Bible that they stocked was the Nelson King James Study Bible, which is Baptist, moderately dispensational, and is at best moderately Calvinist (there are some contradictory notes, to my recollection.) They have occasionally stocked some other material that isn’t confessionally Reformed, such as Culver’s Systematic Theology. But I can’t recall seeing the ESV Study Bible, for example. (I don’t know how long they stocked the Nelson KJV Study Bible, but I think it was on there for a while.)


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The only gripe I have with this new Banner edition is the quality of the illustrations. They're just not very good. They have an amateurish quality. I miss the days when children's books were beautifully illustrated and typeset. I have some of the old books from my childhood and I still enjoy flipping through them and looking at the pictures. You just can't find many children's books with art like that anymore. Most today look like they were illustrated by third graders. Just my :2cents:
 
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Before the Reformation Heritage KJV Study Bible was published, they were so committed to the KJV that the study Bible that they stocked was the Nelson King James Study Bible, which is Baptist, moderately dispensational, and is at best moderately Calvinist (there are some contradictory notes, to my recollection.) They have occasionally stocked some other material that isn’t confessionally Reformed, such as Culver’s Systematic Theology. But I can’t recall seeing the ESV Study Bible, for example. (I don’t know how long they stocked the Nelson KJV Study Bible, but I think it was on there for a while.)


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So besides the ESV copy of Acts for sale now, I poked around in Internet Archive and found this:

In 2015 they had ESV Literary Study Bible and ESV Single Column Legacy Bible for sale: https://web.archive.org/web/20150328205025/http://www.heritagebooks.org/categories/Bibles

I can't find that they've sold the ESV Study Bible though.

I did find some weird editions they've sold, like the Geneva Bible Patriot's Edition (complete with the US Constitution!) and as you mentioned the KJV Nelson Study Bible.
 
So besides the ESV copy of Acts for sale now, I poked around in Internet Archive and found this:

In 2015 they had ESV Literary Study Bible and ESV Single Column Legacy Bible for sale: https://web.archive.org/w
So besides the ESV copy of Acts for sale now, I poked around in Internet Archive and found this:

In 2015 they had ESV Literary Study Bible and ESV Single Column Legacy Bible for sale: https://web.archive.org/web/20150328205025/http://www.heritagebooks.org/categories/Bibles

I can't find that they've sold the ESV Study Bible though.

I did find some weird editions they've sold, like the Geneva Bible Patriot's Edition (complete with the US Constitution!) and as you mentioned the KJV Nelson Study Bible.

eb/20150328205025/http://www.heritagebooks.org/categories/Bibles

I can't find that they've sold the ESV Study Bible though.

I did find some weird editions they've sold, like the Geneva Bible Patriot's Edition (complete with the US Constitution!) and as you mentioned the KJV Nelson Study Bible.
Evidently their stance is not as absolute as I had thought. I had understood that they were a stickler for the KJV and maybe the NKJV and were not open to any critical text translations.
 
Sometimes she provides a bit of commentary or editorializing I’m unsure about. With grandchildren I’ve used it mostly for making a sweep through sections of the Bible and it’s very good for that, to provide a framework and broad knowledge of Biblical history.

This is my main issue with the Story Bible - there are times where Vos seems to play loose with the Scriptures - She will often make assumptions on how people felt in gospel narratives and I am uncomfortable when she ascribes comments to persons which we can't confirm they actually spoke. I found this to be more so in the New Testament volume (I have the old versions which are divided into 2 OT books and 1 NT).
 
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You expressed the concern more forthrightly than I did. I feel the same discomfort and have often just edited as I’ve read aloud.
 
Well as I said above I have never read it myself so I am ignorant as to how frequently Scripture is directly quoted. However having looked at the first few pages given as a sample on the Banner website, at least in the chapter provided, Scripture is directly quoted quite often.

Not having the book in front of me, I can't say for absolute certain, and it varies by passage of course, but I'd say an average of a sentence per page being an actual quote probably wouldn't be too far off.

Which is to say, within the context of a very well-done modern retelling, the choice of Bible translation to include as a quotation in approximately 5% of the text, seems to me to be absolutely insignificant, especially compared to the points raised by Jeri and Andres. Which I concur with. I think in general she has a very good grasp of Scripture and way of explaining things in an easy-to-understand and engaging way, but sometimes I have to tell the kids, "you know, the Bible doesn't actually tell us why that person did x."

But that aside, because the re-telling is so simple and modern I would say that if you were to sit a person down to look at the new edition with no context, they likely would assume there never were different editions. My personal opinion is that if you are going to include quotes, the ESV fits far better in the context of the re-telling than the KJV/ASV would, which often comes across a bit jarring when juxtaposed with the modern, simple retelling. But again, it doesn't really make much of a difference either way to me because we're talking about something like 5% of the text.

In this particular case, I see no good reason to stay with an older translation when it is a very easy replacement with a modern translation. Nothing is lost, unlike with say, older commentaries or the Confession with its very specific technical and historical language. Now if it were a paraphrase or an abridgement like the KJV Children's Bible, then that would be completely different.

Personally, I hope they fixed the typography. Fixing the large gaps between the paragraphs is far more important to me than which translation is used in sporadic quotes of a retelling! ;)
 
Okay, so now that I have returned from travel and can actually consult my copy...

It's quite curious actually. The "quotes" (where someone is speaking) are actually usually re-told paraphrases as well. Then there are italicized quotes that are actual scripture quotes, but those are particularly sparse. You might easily go 20 pages without finding one (I spotted them mostly in the sections covering the first six chapters of Genesis, thereafter I only saw a couple for the rest of Genesis).

Where there are actual Scripture quotes, it is definitely ASV in the several passages I checked, not KJV.
 
Okay, so now that I have returned from travel and can actually consult my copy...

It's quite curious actually. The "quotes" (where someone is speaking) are actually usually re-told paraphrases as well. Then there are italicized quotes that are actual scripture quotes, but those are particularly sparse. You might easily go 20 pages without finding one (I spotted them mostly in the sections covering the first six chapters of Genesis, thereafter I only saw a couple for the rest of Genesis).

Where there are actual Scripture quotes, it is definitely ASV in the several passages I checked, not KJV.
Oh wow. I guess I was taken in by the use of thee's and thou's... I didn't think about the ASV retaining that.
 
I just purchased a copy of the re-print earlier this week. I began reading it to my children just after dinner in the hope of it being a source with which to read to my children who vary in ages from (nearly) 4 to 11. I do engage in separate sessions of biblical instruction with my 2 older boys at other times, but hopefully this will also be something we can form a rhythm around too.


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