This is NOT your grandfather's Bible

Lutheran, The, Oct 2001

Modern Bible translators are making Scripture accessible in revolutionary ways, including Bibles that are video-based and electronic-even pocket-sized.

Some are computer software packages, such as Hermeneutika's Bibleworks (800-742-4253), which offers 64 Bible translations in 22 modern languages, original language texts and a variety of exegetical and research tools. You can watch and listen to The Four Gospels, Contemporary English Version, on videos from the American Bible Society (800-32-BIBLE or www.americanbible.org). And online Bibles and study tools that include concordances linked to Christian artwork and movie themes are available on the ELCA's Web site at: www.elca.org/ os/bookshlf.html#Bibles.

Eventually translators believe developments may lead to "virtual reality Bibles" where people could experience a biblical narrative as if actually present. Robert Hodgson of the American Bible Society in New York said such media could prove as revolutionary as Gutenberg's Bible: "There are dimensions to the new media we're only now grasping." Hodgson believes these Bibles enhance, rather than threaten, church tradition. "If you believe God's word is alive and active, then that hypothesis has to be tested in all forms," he said.