Review of the Tyndale Live Bible (teen)

Tyndale mailed me a copy of the Live teen bible to do a review of. And the first word that comes to mind is tasteful. The Live bible is a a mix of the full NLT bible with photos, devotional poetry, study questions with a dash of a teen oriented devotional intermixed. The closest analogy I can think of is the Revolve bible (see inside) And "the revolve done better" is I think a fair way to describe this bible. There is nothing garish about this bible at all, which is a difficult line to walk mixing both extra interest and the bible in a layout that is fun but resptful. For example the non biblical text is separated off from the biblical text using different background colors and fonts so no one is likely to confuse the two (see inside view). One major distinction is that the Live bible is aimed at both sexes and there are no explicitly girl or boy topics.

This is not a study bible (though Tyndale makes a very good NLT Study bible) but it does include a reasonable concordance, daily reading plan and 6 page topical study guide. The concordance is an abridged version of the one from the study bible, where a substantially smaller percentage of the words are linked through but this is probably good enough to get a teen used to using concordance. The reading plan is very abridged with one selected chapter being read each day, so aiming for 5 min per day or less. The check boxes next to the books I think are a good touch. There is the topic index and this does appear to be all new material, based on the sorts of issues likely to confront a teen/tween. While short this does seem useful. Finally the pages themselves are marked on the lower outer margin with the chapter number which is useful for inexperienced bible reader's navigation, a very good feature one rarely finds in any book anymore.

In terms of the NLTse as a translation I've spoken elsewhere but here is my opinion. I generally prefer British (REB/NEB) to American evangelical translations in terms of translational accuracy. As far as American evangelical translations go the NLT, HCSB and TNIV are all roughly as accurate as one another and all more so than most other evangelical translations. All 3 read well but the NLT has a slight edge here. Given that this is a teen bible I'd attach more weight to readability than I normally would and say that in terms of translations the NLT is likely the best choice for the target. The teen bible does include translator footnotes which are uniformly good in the NLT. In particular since the comparison is to Revolve, the NCV is substantially less accurate in exchange for a much more limited vocabulary than the NLT. For a preteen or younger child this might be an acceptable trade off but few teens need the text simplified to the extent of the NCV. And frankly Revolve is too teenage in its topics (boyfriends, makeup, how far to go on dates...) to be good for a girl of say 8-11.

Finally the bible encourages membership in a teen site called rough edit, which is a online community for readers of the Live bible where kids post their biblical creative work and essays. Sort of a online biblical youth group for mainstream evangelical teens. It seems like a nice extra, sort of a safe myspace. Activity seems moderate at this point.

So would I recommend it? For an individual teen I'd have to go with the NLTStudy bible, or more of a pure devotional. That being said, Revolve was the top selling bible in 2003 and so this style of bible is popular. I think the Live Bible does capture the bible / teen devotional mixture better than Revolve with better content in the sidebars and a vastly better translation for a teen than the NCV/Revolve. Where I really think this bible could shine is in the Middle School and High School church youth group. The little add ons would work there when the kids get distracted and at the some time continue with a devotional theme. For this use I can recommend with any hesitation.

A tasteful teen bible that is fun is quite an accomplishment and Tyndale deserves credit.