Recently in Scripture Category

Bible Gateway now includes the Douay-Rheims bible with the Deuterocanonicals (they even call them that). You have to go to the bottom of the page and click on "include" because they don't want Protestants accidentally searching Catholic bibles :-) but it's great that they have the books now. It's a little strange (but not entirely) that they don't have the King James Version of the books. It's not well known in Protestant circles that when the Authorized Version (KJV) was published in England, by law it was required to include the Deuterocanonical books. They are part of the KJV, even though most Protestant bibles don't include them anymore.

This is a good alternative to the pathetic search interface the USCCB NAB has. Man, I hate that site.

Scholars are planning to put the Dead Sea Scrolls online (NYTimes registration required) so that anyone can view them. The scrolls are already starting to deteriorate and photographs of them have been taken only once before. It's slated to take one to two yeas. The scrolls were only published in their entirety in 2001 so this is a big deal. Now anyone so inclined will be able to view them.

The oldest extant New Testament manuscript, a fourth century document whose pages are dispersed throughout the world, is being reassembled digitally, online.

Publisher's Clearinghouse is selling a travel alarm that electronically displays a daily bible verse. I gotta admit that's innovative, if not exactly compelling.

My friend Mike H. forwarded me the description of a MySpace group that really takes the cake: Christians United Against the Bible. "Christians United is a group of people who love Christ, but don't like all that extra hooey and stuff that is tacked on to him. Jesus, like Muhammed and Malcom X, has had their lives misrepresente[d] ...." Unfortunately the rest of the description is apparently only available to those who join, but that's enough to get you scratching your head. I would ask the question, how do you know then anything about Jesus and what he taught if you don't rely on the Bible and the "extra hooey and stuff that is tacked on to him", but liberal Christians do seem to do just fine without putting much stock in the bible — although even they> maintain some modicum of respect for the bible. Even if they distort it and water it down, few would say that they are actually against the Bible.

Of course for all we know this could be a troll (not sure if that's the right term) — a group someone started not with any serious intention but to see how many people would join. Hard to tell if it's serious, and also hard to tell how many members it really has that seriously agree with its premise.

There is an unbelievable new Scripture tool that the Congregation for the Clergy (of all dicasteries) put together. I am annoyed though that they called it "Clergy Bible" (who says laypeople wouldn't find the resource beneficial?) The site design is a little rough but what do you expect from the Vatican. Here is Catholic Culture's description of the site:

This web site was launched by the Vatican Congregation for the Clergy and allows researchers to access Bible verses with exegesis from doctors of the Church or cross reference liturgical texts with commentaries from Church Fathers. The site offers six categories in nine languages. It also gives the option of downloading the site's content.

The nine translations of the Bible, including Hebrew and Greek, can be read side-by-side, as can the Eastern and Latin Codes of Canon Law.

In the orthodox Catholic world, the most recommend bible (sans notes) is the Ignatius RSV Catholic Bible. This bible however has two significant flaws for many: One, the archaic typesetting is atrocious. You'd think Gutenberg printed it himself. The second is admittedly a matter of personal preference, but it employs archaic language (also known as "Thees" and "Thous").

These issues have been rectified in a new edition (2nd), now available from Ignatius Press. And check out the sharp cover of the leather edition (shown above). I received mine the other day, and it looks pretty sharp. The font is decent. (Not awesome, but decent.) I've never had a leather-bound bible before so this is different. I love the icons on the front. All and all worthwhile.