Bible Without Captions

Tip:

“Printing a Bible without captions – without chapters and verses – Revised and Updated with Bible dictionary and concordance with large font style.”

Role model = Worker’s Bible – Revised and Updated

http://www.lojasatos.com.br/Produto.aspx?LojaId=37&GrupoId=1602&SubGrupoId=1606&ProdutoId=35230

http://www.ixthus.com.br/produto/522-biblia-do-obreiro–concordancia-dicionario-auxilios-cerimonias

I want to make a suggestion, as a scholar and researcher of the Word of God, to print a Bible in my language – Portuguese (or any other language) – without subtitles. In Brazil, we do not have a version of the Bible without captions – running text – as we have in English (Gideons KJV – I think that it is the only one in English). There are some discussions on this subject and it is known that, in fact, the subtitles hinder rather than help in the correct interpretation of the Bible. I have dreamed with a Portuguese – the style of the Bible Worker SBB – AR – free of subtitles. To this end, I scratched them from a Bible that I have here and when I read that I notice a slight difference of catching new understandings and I can see some things that I do not see so easily in ’study’ Bibles, for example, which sometimes have lots of captions and explanations in the mid-texts – sometimes I get the impression that most Bibles seem not to be proper books. When I read Paul’s letters, I feel bothered by the fact that they are chopped away like patchwork sheets. We divide his epistles by putting subtitles and captions in them for the reader to ’understand’ better. There is a book that discusses this very subject: “Not Everything in Our Bibles is Inspired” – Neil Rees – < http://www.amazon.co.uk/Not-Everything-Our-Bibles-Inspired/dp/1842912933 >. In the book “The Church is Bigger than You Think” – Patrick Johnstone – Horizons Brazil < http://www.amazon.co.uk/CHURCH-BIGGER-THAN-THINK-Evangelisation/dp/1857922697/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1287663037&sr=1-1 >, there is also a chapter that discusses the subject of subtitles for the correct interpretation of the Bible through the centuries. Another author who criticises the format of the Bible with subtitles is David Pawson (See, for example, his Bible commentary: Unlocking the Bible “<http://www.amazon.co.uk/Unlocking-Bible-David-Pawson/dp/0007166664>).

However, after scratching the subtitles of my Bible, it became a bit horrid and I always have to give explanations to people why I did that and some People do not understand me, I am sometimes considered something of a heretic – as most people think that the Bible format has always been with chapters, verses, subtitles and captions in the original manuscripts – which, incidentally, no longer exist.

So my humble suggestion is to launch a special edition of the Bible, free of these “resources”. I’m not the only one who dreams of owning a running text Bible in my own language. I know that it makes a huge difference in grasping the real depths of God’s Word . Anyone who has researched the subject may have already reached a conclusion similar to mine based on the arguments that are put by the majority of which address this issue. A Bible like this surely will not be profitable for publishers, but will be of immense utility to those who want to study the Word of God and interpret it without the need for someone to tell you (especially those who never had the opportunity to go through a more formal and systematic theological teaching) – under the pretext of helping you to understand, for example, that the focus of a parable text is ’The Prodigal Son’, thus closing most appropriate interpretations for that. Few interferences like this, repeatedly, over hundreds of pages of the Bible hampers the pursuit of ’good’ hermeneutics, because sometimes induce readers and Bible students to relax, instead of motived them to study, understand and meditate on the biblical text.

PS.: I would also like to see the Jerusalem Bible edited without subtitles (with plain text). A dream!

So I would like to know the opinion of those who are participating in this Congress – both virtually and in person – on this subject.

I also want to know if someone has already researched on this subject and what are your conclusions after reading some writers on the theme that I posted above.