The Bible exists to help us grow in our relationship with God. That’s why I like the NIV Verse Mapping Bible.
As a member of the Bible Gateway Blogger Grid, I was provided (at no cost to me) with three resources to review and enjoy: 1) The NIV Verse Mapping Bible, 2) The NIV Verse Mapping Bible for Girls, and 3) The Verse Mapping Bible Study Journal.
When I heard about these resources, I was confused as to why there was an edition specifically for girls, but not boys. Flipping through the Bibles, I didn’t notice that the girls’ edition was substantially different from the generic edition. But the differences are in the details. The “letter from the editor” is customized for each edition, as well as “how to verse map,” and the specific wordings for much of the supplementary notes throughout the Bible are also different.
Sometimes these differences are insignificant – they merely attempt to use language that will be better understood by a younger audience. But sometimes these differences actually change the meaning of what it said.
In the introduction to the book of Genesis, for example, the girls’ edition states that the author of Genesis is “believed to be Moses.” But the non-gender specific edition states that the author is “almost certainly Moses.” Aside from the fact that Jesus stated that the author WAS Moses (not just “believed to be,” nor “almost certainly”), these different wordings seem to be saying two different things.