|
God's Word for Boys and God's Word for Girls are Bibles targeted for children ages 8 to 12. They use the God's Word translation by the Nations Bible Society. The translators' theory of translation is to use the "closest natural equivalent" to the original language. That means they try "to find equivalent English ways of expressing the meaning of the original text." They also focus on making the text more readable. In fact, they definitely have made the Bible more readable and accessible to people, including kids. I like the fact that the God's Word translation takes passages of Scripture that can frustrate you (like Paul's run-on sentences) and clarify them so you can really "get" what the author wanted to say.
A couple other notes on the translation: God's Word translation uses gender-neutral language in those passages that apply to all people. Psalm 1:1 in my NJKV starts out "Blessed is the man ..." God's Word starts it out as "Blessed is the person ..." Gender neutering is not used for God as our father, nor have any alterations been made to passages that refer specifically to men or women.
Another feature of the translation is that it replaces theological terms such as covenant, grace, justify, and repent with more understandable words. For example, righteous and righteousness are translated "God's approval" in Romans 4.
God's Word for Boys has study helps that appeal to boys. Each book has an introduction containing activities and life lessons. "Men's World" describes what life was like in Bible times. The "Be All You Can Be" section includes notes to help your son become a godly man. Drawing your son closer to God are little devotionals called "Good Morning, God." Finally, "Heroes" and "Heroines" are studies on Biblical role models.
God's Word for Girls has the same categories (except substituting "Women's World" for "Men's World") with topics that appeal to girls.
I think this Bible would be a great asset to your child's spiritual walk. It is easy enough to understand that he or she will love reading it on his or her own. It's also a great version to read aloud during devotions or homeschool classes because it breaks things down enough so even little ones can understand the concepts.
Product review by Dawn King, The Old Schoolhouse Magazine, LLC, July 2006
| 
