Bible 21

When I was at church last Sunday, I was treated to a 30-minute presentation by guest speaker Saša Flek on his project for the past 18 years, the new Czech Bible. Called Bible 21 because it is a 21st century translation of the Bible, Saša was called to this huge undertaking because the only real, unwatered-down translation of the Bible in the Czech language dated back hundreds and hundreds of years. He said, "It's an absolutely beautiful, poetic translation of the Bible, but no one these days can understand it. It's like your King James Version, but ten times more difficult."

Personally, at training when I first heard about Bible 21, I was shocked that there had previously existed no modern Czech translation of the Bible. I mean, how many versions are there in English? Countless!
New International Version
New American Standard Version
The Message
Amplified Bible
New Living Translation
King James Version
English Standard Version
Contemporary English Version
New King James Version
New Century Version
21st Century King James Version
American Standard Version
Young's Literal Translation
Darby Translation
Holman Christian Standard Bible
New International Reader's Version
Wycliffe New Testament
Worldwide English (New Testament)
New International Version - UK
Today's New International Version
Good News Translation

Bible 21 is so important today in the Czech Republic, the most atheist country in Europe, because it finally gives to Czechs a Bible that is accessible, understandable, and appealing. When the full Bible hit the shelves in April, 2009, it was on Czech Republic "best sellers" lists for weeks. It is such a novel thing in the CR, and that makes it exciting to believers and non-believers alike.

Here is the official Bible 21 website: www.bible21.cz/english/ . Be sure to check out the "Media" section -- the stories are really neat! One that I found particularly ironic (God works in amazing ways!) was how, because some Czech bishops critized Bible 21 as making the Bible too accessible to the public, many more Czechs went out to buy the Bible (this is, of course, due to an old history of oppression by the Roman Catholic Church in the CR).

Some copies of Bible 21 were available after the church service, so I picked up the basic version for my flat. Of course, this Bible is entirely in Czech (there is a side-by-side Czech-English version of the New Testament, but I wanted the whole thing...), so I cannot read it. I would like you to pray big with me, though, that this year I will have the opportunity to give this Bible to someone who can read it but who has never read the Bible before. Pray that a student or staff member at GEKOM would be asking me questions and will be intrigued by my responses enough to pick up this book for him/herself. Please pray that I will have to purchase another Bible 21 for my flat because this first one has a new place in someone else's home. God does enormously big things -- in prayer, let's show our desire for Him to work through me and through this awesome new Bible translation to do this, as well.

For more on the Bible 21 story, check out this video:


----------------
Now playing: Marc Cohn - Providence
via FoxyTunes