More on the NLT Mosaic – Black Lettered Edition

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Doug started a series on the ‘red-lettered heresy’ by many modern Evangelicals.

Peter Kirk has posted his thoughts on this as well. He quotes Don Carson who refers to:

what Tony Campolo now approvingly calls ‘red letter Christians’. These red letter Christians, he says, hold the same theological commitments as do other evangelicals, but they take the words of Jesus especially seriously (they devote themselves to the ‘red letters’ of some foolishly-printed Bibles) and end up being more concerned than are other Christians for the poor, the hungry, and those at war. Oh, rubbish: this is merely one more futile exercise in trying to find a ‘canon within the canon’ to bless my preferred brand of theology. That’s the first of two serious mistakes commonly practised by these red letter Christians.

The other is worse: their actual grasp of what the red letter words of Jesus are actually saying in context far too frequently leaves a great deal to be desired; more particularly, to read the words of Jesus and emphasize them apart from the narrative framework of each of the canonical gospels, in which the plot-line takes the reader to Jesus’s redeeming death and resurrection, not only has the result of down-playing Jesus’s death and resurrection, but regularly fails to see how the red-letter words of Jesus point to and unpack the significance of his impending crosswork.

Using Twitter, Keith Williams from Tyndale announced that the NLT Mosaic will be black-lettered. Maybe he foresaw Doug’s post?

For my part, I have to agree with Doug and Peter, and found myself pretty happy with the idea that the NLT Mosaic will be black-lettered, as I feel that separating  the words of Christ from the rest of the Scripture alienates both.

Posted on September 22, 2009 at 7:59 pm by Joel · Permalink
In: NLT · Tagged with: , , , ,
  • ElShaddai Edwards

    I was also heartened by Keith’s note regarding the black-letter text — given that the Mosaic text is using the new center-column reference layout, that may very well be the deciding factor in which new NLT edition I get (since the non-Mosaic reference editions will still be red letter).

  • ElShaddai Edwards

    I was also heartened by Keith’s note regarding the black-letter text — given that the Mosaic text is using the new center-column reference layout, that may very well be the deciding factor in which new NLT edition I get (since the non-Mosaic reference editions will still be red letter).

  • http://politicaljesus.wordpress.com/ Rod

    Oh yeah, Joel? Oh yeah?

    I know of a band that would disagree with you about the red letters!
    ;)

  • http://politicaljesus.wordpress.com/ Rod

    Oh yeah, Joel? Oh yeah?

    I know of a band that would disagree with you about the red letters!
    ;)

  • http://www.thechurchofjesuschrist.us/ Polycarp

    Rod, anyone, at anytime are welcomed to disagree with me – but they, and the rest, would be, and will be, wrong :)

  • http://www.thechurchofjesuschrist.us Polycarp

    Rod, anyone, at anytime are welcomed to disagree with me – but they, and the rest, would be, and will be, wrong :)

  • http://www.thechurchofjesuschrist.us/ Polycarp

    I am looking forward to it, Elshaddai. Also, I will be running a context for a copy of the Mosaic.

    Up until I bought the Cambridge KJV w/Apocrypha, I hadn’t really paid attention to the red-letter issues, but Doug is right when he points out that many raise the red-lettered words – because that’s how Mark wrote them – to a canon within a canon.

  • http://www.thechurchofjesuschrist.us Polycarp

    I am looking forward to it, Elshaddai. Also, I will be running a context for a copy of the Mosaic.

    Up until I bought the Cambridge KJV w/Apocrypha, I hadn’t really paid attention to the red-letter issues, but Doug is right when he points out that many raise the red-lettered words – because that’s how Mark wrote them – to a canon within a canon.

  • ElShaddai Edwards

    Yes, yes, but my issue with red-letter is far more trivial – very few publishers these days seem to hold their printers to an exacting level of quality assurance and it’s not uncommon to see the red and black letter printing lines misaligned. I’ve only seen one or two NLT editions from Tyndale that didn’t suffer from this (never mind their ghastly pink “red” ink), so while I love everything they’re doing from a marketing/promotional perspective, the end products haven’t always matched. One printing pass with black letter text throughout is far simpler…

  • ElShaddai Edwards

    Yes, yes, but my issue with red-letter is far more trivial – very few publishers these days seem to hold their printers to an exacting level of quality assurance and it’s not uncommon to see the red and black letter printing lines misaligned. I’ve only seen one or two NLT editions from Tyndale that didn’t suffer from this (never mind their ghastly pink “red” ink), so while I love everything they’re doing from a marketing/promotional perspective, the end products haven’t always matched. One printing pass with black letter text throughout is far simpler…

  • http://politicaljesus.wordpress.com/ Rod

    I was referring to a song:

    httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCrVwNfbxIM

  • http://politicaljesus.wordpress.com/ Rod

    I was referring to a song:

    httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCrVwNfbxIM

  • http://www.thechurchofjesuschrist.us/ Polycarp

    Rod, I updated your comment. Feel free to post videos from youtube. If you do, add a letter ‘v’ between the ‘http’ and ‘:’ like this httpv://

  • http://www.thechurchofjesuschrist.us Polycarp

    Rod, I updated your comment. Feel free to post videos from youtube. If you do, add a letter ‘v’ between the ‘http’ and ‘:’ like this httpv://

  • http://nltblog.com/ Keith Williams

    I actually tweeted that after seeing a link to one of Doug Chaplin’s posts on the Evangelical Textual Criticism blog. Nice detective work!

  • http://nltblog.com Keith Williams

    I actually tweeted that after seeing a link to one of Doug Chaplin’s posts on the Evangelical Textual Criticism blog. Nice detective work!

  • http://www.thechurchofjesuschrist.us/ Polycarp

    Thanks, Keith! I read Doug’s blog religiously, and Peter’s as well, so when you tweeted it, I thought that it was time to share the good news.

  • http://www.thechurchofjesuschrist.us Polycarp

    Thanks, Keith! I read Doug’s blog religiously, and Peter’s as well, so when you tweeted it, I thought that it was time to share the good news.

  • http://politicaljesus.wordpress.com/ Rod

    Okay, sounds good.

  • http://politicaljesus.wordpress.com/ Rod

    Okay, sounds good.

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