New Cambridge Paragraph Bible with Apocrypha, KJ590:TA: Personal size Hardcover – 3 Nov. 2011

I've always flirted with the KJV, in my collection the KJV (King James Version) is the most prevalent, you can go anywhere in the world, visit the second hand shops and are near guaranteed to find a KJV. Theres a good reason for that of course, throughout the 20th century, vast swathes of people replace their trusty KJVs with the plethora of modern bibles, NEB, NASB, NIV, RSV, NRSV etc etc. But the KJV still has a place in people's hearts.For me the only problem with the KJV is the two column, verse by verse format, it makes it incredibly difficult to read, I know this because I can read my 1525 Tyndale NT in single column format and can hold a line of thought, despite it being almost unintelligble to the people I have shown it to (font, even spellings are quite alien to the modern reader). Yet give me a traditional KJV and I'm struggling, I want to cast it from me lest my head explode. I knew something had to be done, the modern versions tend to be quite bland and often make great theological leaps (NLT's "repent of your sins") which need not be added.I decided that after looking at my Tyndale, a KJV single column may just be the way to go, so after a google-fest that lasted a good hour or two, I decided upon this bible. I went with hardback because it's cheaper, and if I didn't like it I hadn't lost £60+Then it arrived. My version was second hand, but in great condition, and as soon as I opened the page I knew I had made the right choice. The paragraphing is quite obvious, the formatting updated to modern standards. it may be unnoticeable to some, but trust me, it taxes your brain far less than the traditional. The font is modern but traditional in style; the "swift" font. Its so nice to have a KJV formatted to modern specifications. It reads far more easily, it looks classy - compared to say the ESV personal reference. Its made to read like literature, rather than a dictionary and truly benefits from it.in certain places, for consistencies sake, words are altered, so thine will be thy, an hungered will be a-hungered. I noticed this when reading along to Alexander Scourby's KJV, but trust me, this will help in general reading. This is the KJV, and these changes are about the same as Daniell's Tyndale NT. The intention is to make this the 1611 KJV through and through, and frankly, its almost identical to the 1769, and in this formatting, wow.There is ghosting, its not too bad, certainly readable, definitely enjoyable.This has become my main bible. I would use the modern ones now for clarification purposes only. Now to find £60 from somewhere.

Excellent modernised King James Version. Easier to read than my original King James Bible. The Apocrypha addition is very interesting, I do not see why it is normally ommitted as I could not see anything 'subversive' about it. The format of using paragraphs works extremely well. This affords a flowing text presentation which I found easier on the brain than verses separated as is traditional. I particularly like the way that the 1611 phraseology, wording and some translations have been retained or, where correct, re-introduced, yet the overall effect is to facilitate a text that is perfectly readable to the 21st Century Reader. Also not using a two-column of texts to the page is the correct decision, allowing for a good sized font and plenty of space for notes.

I bought this as I like the King James style as well as the Apocrypha. In addition I like the way it has been set in paragraph style rather than in verse format.

The print is just a little bit small, but the layout into paragraphs compensates

The Authorised "King James" Version (A.V.) of the Christian Bible, which includes the Apocrypha as well as the Old and New Testaments, is my Bible and not much of any other! The Douay-Rheims-Challoner Roman Catholic Bible has a lesser place, too, but the A.V. reigns supreme. The Authorised Version long has been recognised as the most beautiful Bible in use among Protestants and Eastern Orthodox (the Douay-Rheims-Challoner and Knox Versions having that honour among Roman Catholics), but the A.V. has many other virtues and points of superiority as well, which I have recounted in numerous other Amazon reviews that I have written and which, therefore, I shall not repeat in detail here, except to say that the ancient Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, and Latin text types underlying the A.V. Bible, despite a lot of special pleading, casuistry, and misrepresentation in recent times, remain the best and the wisest ones to use.The New Cambrige Paragraph Bible also avoids the occasional liberties that Scrivener took with the A.V. in the first Cambridge Paragraph Bible. This means that one no longer needs to seek out Scrivener's old edition on the antiquarian or reprint market. The new one is BETTER. There are some slight adjustments to even out some tiny stylistic inconsistencies within the A.V. text from one place to another within it, which the editor, David Norton, successfully has made for smoother reading, but these are of no consequence regarding the A.V.'s own vocabulary and the learned and pious A.V. scholars' treatment of the underlying Greek and Hebrew texts.I have "The Oxford Paragraph Bible with the Apocrypha" in both the full size and in the "personal size", as well, alike in the hardbound binding option. This edition of the A.V. is so much easier on the eyes, eminently readable than most other editions of the A.V. The more portable "personal size" loses nothing, really, in legibility. The text as printed is aesthetically pleasing in both cases, as well as highly legible. I cannot think of an edition of the A.V. that is better in those regards. All of the A.V. Bible is here, too, including the original marginal readings and references which the original translators made (among them those to and from the Apocrypha, such cross-references usually omitted in the Old and New Testaments in editions of the A.V. shorn of the deuteron-canonical writings which do not derive from Cambridge University Press), also the essay "The Translators to the Readers", the Preface Dedicatory to King James I of England (a.k.a. James VI of Scotland), and much else that less seriously minded editors and publishers too often drop from editions of this Bible (not to mention their worst omission, i.e. that of the Apocrypha, a.k.a. the O.T.'s deutero-canonical writings).There is, of course, no concordance with this edition of the A.V., due to the lack of that feature in the A.V. Bible as such. For those who wish to have a concordance of compact size to carry about with the "personal size" edition of the Cambridge Paragraph Bible, "Cruden's Complete [sic] Concordance, Crusade Edition", as published in slender paperback by Zondervan (although Zondervan does not include Cruden's own appended section indexing the Apocrypha within it), is a practical volume to carry about conveniently with the Cambridge Paragraph Bible's "personal size" edition.I acquired the "personal size" in order to have an A.V. Bible including the Apocrypha which I can carry about when away from home. I still think that there is a market for an even smaller "pocket" size edition, of, say, 17 cm. (6-1/2 in.), such as those which the various Bible societies typically publish, but the "personal size" edition of the Cambridge Paragraph Bible, which measures 22 cm. (8-3/4 in.) already is of manageable dimensions to tote about handily.Bravo to Cambridge University Press!

I find it impossible to go past the beauty and English tradition of the King James Version. I have never used a paragraph Bible, and found the ease of reading, the grouping in appropriate paragraphs and the use of contemporary English spelling, made the Bible far easier to read than the traditionally presented Bible. The font is good for even my eyes, and the quality of paper and print says "Cambridge". For Orthodox Christians for whom the Deutero-canonical Books are requisite with the Bible, as well as for Roman Catholics and Anglicans and others who appreciate the Apocrypha, this is a must have Bible. It really lends itself to scholastic reading and inquiry and exegesis.