Yea, that would make a lot of sense...but I would like to read the Bible chronologically...that was why I was looking at 1 Year type Bibles to begin with.
It still looks as though my choices are down to NIV or HCSB...the NKJV 1 year Bible lacks commentary and some reviews claim parts of the NKJV 1 year Bible are out of place chronologically.
Thanks for everyone's input so far!
TripleB
Then HCSB is the one I'd recommend, even though it's my last favorite out of all the choices. I cannot in good conscience recommend the NIV. See why below - bad trees cannot bear good fruit
You could still consider printing out a list of books to read to get things chronologically, it shouldn't be more than a page or two, and then you can get whatever bible you want. Once you get out of the one year niche bibles, you can get whatever you want, and the sky will be the limit for binding quality.
i like both...
but the HCSB's translations are a little 'unpolished' in some places...hopefully there will be a second edition sooner or later...
i prefer the NKJV over the HCSB...the NKJV is especially a beautiful read in the gospels...
of the bibles other people mentioned...the NASB is my favorite...you might pair that with an NLT or NIV...1984 edition instead of the 2011 edition if possible...if you want to compare it with a more 'readable' translation... as for the ESV i find it almost grating when it comes to readability sometimes...the grammar is not especially articulate...a second edition of the ESV would benefit a lot from an english style consultant...
Why don't we just tell people to stop buying the NIV and send a clear message - mess with the underlying text in an attempt to force gender neutrality, and lose sales of your very profitable bible translation.
The driving force behind the 2011 NIV wasn't a bunch of scholars, it was the love of mammon. What they did wasn't even a paraphrase to try to make the bible more understandable, it was a bold faced deception. Their market data showed that there was a need for a gender neutral bible, so decisions in the boardroom drove the translation. That's not biblical Christianity, it's pandering. Christ is male, God is referred to as male, the Holy Spirit is referred to as male, tinkering with gender in the bible is a very dangerous game.
If a pastor was doing this, we'd be screaming he's a false teacher. Why give Zondervan a pass? The NIV should be dead in the minds of believers. A good tree cannot bring forth bad fruit, and this gender neutrality is bad fruit. It's meddling with the underlying text, and ironically gives the KJV only advocates quite a bit of ammunition.