The [Expanded] Bible seemed like a good idea, I'm sure. And it still does. Unfortunately, this doesn't quite deliver as well as hoped. The reading of the actual text is choppy, but that is to be expected, considering the comments/notes are inline and not footnoted. The real function of the [Expanded] Bible anyway is as a pick-up-to-study-a-passage Bible, not a daily reading Bible.
However, a lot of the expanded parts fall flat. Many times, it adds in [expanded] but irrelevant synonyms or [expands] in with the literal or traditional phrasings that shed no more light on the topic than the original wording. Case in point is every time the Gospels mention "Christ". The [Expanded] Bible tacks on "[Messiah]" every single time. It also insists on putting the literal translation for every time the translation uses a name where the Greek uses a pronoun (i.e. Matt. 2:25b, "And Joseph [L. he] named him Jesus.") Some phrases are also expanded with "traditional" text, which seems to be KJV. There are times when it seems appropriate, but most often, it seems not to add anything to the text (i.e. Mat. 1:23, "[L. Look T. Behold] The virgin will be pregnant...")Actual commentary is few and far between and only occasionally insightful. As a final note, I am not a huge fan of the text "translation", the modified New Century Version (NCV) which is a paraphrase and not a translation. Sometimes the "literal" and "traditional" expansions show just how much interpretation is done in the paraphrasing.
In conclusion, the tagline for The [Expanded] Bible is "Study the Bible While You Read", but after reading through it, I don't think it accomplishes that goal. The back cover says it'll make "God's Word easier to understand", but I just found it cluttered and therefore confusing. The goal is laudable, but ultimately it doesn't deliver.
I'd pass over this one. There are much better and much more comprehensive study Bibles around. If you MUST have The [Expanded] Bible, check out the free PDF version at Nelson Bibles.
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