Subscribe
Jason Barker is Currently...
New Yorker Article on Study Bibles
Posted on Friday, December 22, 2006 at 11:33 AM by Jason Barker
The New Yorker has published an article on study Bibles, The Good Book Business: Why publishers love the Bible. A large portion in the middle of the article provides a brief history of the proliferation of modern translations (with a notable statement by the influential translator Kenneth Barker - no relation - “We like to think that the motivation [for many modern translations] is all holy and pure, but finances do enter the picture, and publishers and Bible societies like to have their slice of the pie"), but the majority of the article focuses on the niche marketing of study Bibles.
The article has several paragraphs about "Biblezines," the popular tabloid-formatted publications marketed to teens (although, as some commentators have claimed, are probably largely chosen by parents for their teenaged children). Of particular note is a quotation of one of the ostensible "study notes" in the 2007 edition of the Revolve Biblezine:
Have you ever had a white stain appear underneath the arms of your favorite dark blouse? Don’t freak out. You can quickly give deodorant spots the boot. Just grab a spare toothbrush, dampen with a little water and liquid soap, and gently scrub until the stain fades away. As you wash away the stain, praise God for cleansing us from all the wrong things we have done. (1 John 1:9)
This quotation reminds me of a paragraph I wrote in my MA thesis (I've removed the paranthetical citations for this blog):
Interpreters and instructors must avoid the danger of trying to “fit” the biblical texts into adolescent interests. As an example of this danger, the Teen Devotional Bible describes the depiction in Genesis of the fracturing of human language at the Tower of Babel as “the result of a bunch of folks way back when who thought they were way too cool,” and similarly summarizes the Song of Songs as a dialogue between “Solomon and his love-muffin.” In another example, Revolve, a tabloid-styled Bible targeted to early adolescent girls, describes the role of Christ in the life of a Christian by comparing it to makeup: “You need a good, balanced foundation for the rest of your makeup, kinda how like Jesus is the strong foundation in our lives.” Rendering modern culture preeminent, and then adapting the biblical text to fit that culture - not to mention a consumer culture - ultimately trivializes the Bible; furthermore, many adolescents - particularly those who are not already active in the Evangelical Protestant circles which publish and promote these Bibles - will find such adaptations to be condescending and unsuccessful in meeting their needs.
I believe the last sentence summarizes the problem with these niche Bibles: they trivialize the Bible, and they are ultimately ineffective in their intended purpose. The most significant problem is that these niche study Bibles are in fact seldom truly study Bibles: they are simply the biblical text surrounded by - and too frequently, suffocated by - silly pop culture references and self-help snippets. These so-called study Bibles therefore fail, in the words of Phyllis Tickle in The New Yorker article, to "separate out the culturally transient and trashy from the eternal," and thus violate “something close to moral or spiritual barriers.”
Furthermore, even if these study Bibles were not too often simply culture-dictated fluff, they are often ineffective in their intended purpose: to repeat Mark Oppenheimer's claim from my thesis, non-Evangelical Protestants will find the Biblezines to be condescending and irrelevant. Since the stated purpose of the Biblezines is to attract individuals who do not currently read the Bible (see, for example, The New Yorker's description of the product proposal for Revolve), this is yet another significant failure of these products.
This is not to condemn the entire concept of study Bibles: my point is to criticize squeezing the Bible into a niche. The Orthodox Study Bible, for example, avoids the perils of the niche-targeted study Bibles by giving general study notes about the biblical text that are applicable to all Christians, rather than "helpful hints" that are at best only loosely related to the text (if at all related), and also are limiting the audience of the text to - for example - girls aged thirteen to sixteen in the year 2007 (and, in the Biblezine genre, literally only the year 2007).
I need to point out that there are significant differences between these so-called study Bibles and Bible studies like the studies I create. First, there is a significant difference between providing an external set of commentaries and application articles about the Bible (as the Department of Youth Ministry does with our Bible studies), and packaging a set of cultural ephemera with the biblical text in a single volume and calling it the Bible (as the Biblezines and niche study Bibles do).
Secondly, the focus of our Bible studies is always on the biblical text. The majority of the articles in each Bible study are on the text itself: textual commentary, explanations of biblical terminology, historical background, etc. In addition, the articles are grouped into three clearly-defined categories: the biblical text and commentaries; articles about life application and Orthodox faith and practice; and overview materials (summaries, handouts, and quizzes). Thus, as helpful as I hope my life application articles will be in assisting youth in applying the principles brought out in the biblical text to their lives, I never want the reader to believe that my application articles are in any way on a par with the biblical text, or believe that one of my life application articles is a complete summary of everything they need to know about the biblical text.
Posted in Bible Studies, Miscellaneous