Reading level ratings of various Bibles

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Faithdancer

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I saw a couple of interesting analyses this week about the “reading levels” of various Bibles. The NIV is written at a 7th grade reading level. The New King James Version is written at a 7th to 9th grade reading level. The original King James Version, however, is at a 12th grade level, probably because of the language. Presumably this would hold true for the Douay Rheims as well. Elsewhere on the Catholic Christian side, the New American Bible is written at a high school level, as is the New Jerusalem Bible. The Ignatius RSV (my favorite!) is written at a collegiate reading level, quite possibly because the notes are by Hahn and Mitch. I haven’t found any reading level rating for the Jerusalem Bible though (the original one) or the Navarre Bible. I’ve been wanting to buy a Navarre Bible and wonder if it may be more on the graduate school level. Anybody know?
 
The Navarre Bible uses the text of the RSV, but has additional commentaries, including from the Church Fathers, inserted into the reference material. It seems to me that the difference is the scope and amount of reference material included, so it may be more convenient for someone who is doing more scholarly research.

I recall back in the early 1970s when I was a high school freshman we were required to purchase a Jerusalem Bible (not the New Jerusalem Bible) for our religion courses through high school. Given that this school was a college preparatory school, I suspect the Jerusalem Bible was at the late high school or collegiate reading level.
 
Does the reading level of the word of God matter? Fortunately nobody needs an advanced degree or thesaurus to read the word He inscribes in our heart.

Consider 1 Corinthians 1:19-31:

19 For it is written: “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the learning of the learned I will set aside.” 20 Where is the wise one? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made the wisdom of the world foolish? 21 For since in the wisdom of God the world did not come to know God through wisdom, it was the will of God through the foolishness of the proclamation to save those who have faith. 22 For Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, 23 but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, 24 but to those who are called, Jews and Greeks alike, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength. 26 Consider your own calling, brothers. Not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. 27 Rather, God chose the foolish of the world to shame the wise, and God chose the weak of the world to shame the strong, 28 and God chose the lowly and despised of the world, those who count for nothing, to reduce to nothing those who are something, 29 so that no human being might boast before God. 30 It is due to him that you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, as well as righteousness, sanctification, and redemption, 31 so that, as it is written, “Whoever boasts, should boast in the Lord.”

Peace and all good!

Don Jackson, GED
 
Interesting…info…never heard this before…but makes (human) sense. The Navarre Study Bible (New Testament) is a RSV-CE also…with Latin Text also included as subset below English text. Notes are more Scriptural homiletic style than Scriptural theology/apologetic style of the Ignatius…IMO…both excellent…but different objectives.

Thank God it is the Living Word of God…not a book of simply “written words”…and the Holy Spirit comes to meet me whenever I read the Bible…and His “level” trumps anything lacking in my “level”…if he wants me to get something out of the Scriptures that I pray/read…I am going to get it better than a Rhodes Scholar…Praise be to God.

Pax Christi
POST-SYNODAL
APOSTOLIC EXHORTATION
VERBUM DOMINI
OF THE HOLY FATHER
BENEDICT XVI
TO THE BISHOPS, CLERGY,
CONSECRATED PERSONS
AND THE LAY FAITHFUL
ON THE WORD OF GOD
IN THE LIFE AND MISSION
OF THE CHURCH
Click to expand...
The Synod of Bishops on the Word of God
4. In the twelfth synodal assembly, Bishops
from throughout the world gathered around the
word of God and symbolically placed the text of
the Bible at the centre of the assembly, in order to
stress anew something** we risk taking for granted
in everyday life: the fact that God speaks and responds
to our questions**.
Click to expand...
The Prologue of John’s Gospel as a guide
5. With this Apostolic Exhortation I would like
the work of the Synod to have a real effect on the
life of the Church: on our personal relationship
with the sacred Scriptures, on their interpretation
in the liturgy and catechesis, and in scientifi c research,** so that the Bible may not be simply a word from the past, but a living and timely word.**
Click to expand...
**The analogy of the word of God
**
All this helps us to see
that, while in the Church we greatly venerate the
sacred Scriptures, the Christian faith is not a “ religion of the book ”: Christianity is the “ religion of the word of God ”, not of “ a written and mute
word, but of the incarnate and living Word ”.
Click to expand...
Given in Rome, at Saint Peter’s, on 30 September, the Memorial of Saint Jerome, in the year 2010, the sixth of my Pontifi cate.
Click to expand...
vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/apost_exhortations/documents/hf_ben-xvi_exh_20100930_verbum-domini_en.pdf
Click to expand...
 
Don_Jackson said:
Does the reading level of the word of God matter? Fortunately nobody needs an advanced degree or thesaurus to read the word He inscribes in our heart.

Consider 1 Corinthians 1:19-31:

19 For it is written: “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the learning of the learned I will set aside.” 20 Where is the wise one? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made the wisdom of the world foolish? 21 For since in the wisdom of God the world did not come to know God through wisdom, it was the will of God through the foolishness of the proclamation to save those who have faith. 22 For Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, 23 but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, 24 but to those who are called, Jews and Greeks alike, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength. 26 Consider your own calling, brothers. Not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. 27 Rather, God chose the foolish of the world to shame the wise, and God chose the weak of the world to shame the strong, 28 and God chose the lowly and despised of the world, those who count for nothing, to reduce to nothing those who are something, 29 so that no human being might boast before God. 30 It is due to him that you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, as well as righteousness, sanctification, and redemption, 31 so that, as it is written, “Whoever boasts, should boast in the Lord.”

Peace and all good!

Don Jackson, GED
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don , i have you beat .kicked out of school at age 16 in the 8th grade,after 3 years in same. but i still know the o.p. wasn’t inferring that you need a phd to read the Bible.
 
I wasn’t implying the OP was claiming someone needed a pHd to read the bible. I was implying that it sounded (along with his tag line of being a mensa member) that he wanted a bible commenserate with his perceived high academic levels, which just struck me as slightly haughty.

But, I could be wrong…I have been many tmes in the past!😃
 
Don_Jackson said:
I wasn’t implying the OP was claiming someone needed a pHd to read the bible. I was implying that it sounded (along with his tag line of being a mensa member) that he wanted a bible commenserate with his perceived high academic levels, which just struck me as slightly haughty.

But, I could be wrong…I have been many tmes in the past!😃
Click to expand...
imply |imˈplī|
verb ( -plies, -plied) trans. ]
strongly suggest the truth or existence of (something not expressly stated)
Click to expand...
oh i see, making stuff up about someone.
 
Is there an accurate way of rating the reading level of Bible translations? I’ve looked this up in the past and couldn’t even find matching ratings for the same translation.:confused:
 
Faithdancer said:
I… The original King James Version, however, is at a 12th grade level, probably because of the language. …
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I think that that is by today’s standards. When I was in a one-room country school some 60+ years ago we read it in grades 5-8 with no problem.
 
The NT was written in “Koine Greek”…the language of the common people. It was a simple Greek, not classical or “fancy”…the Vulgate get it’s name from the same word we get our word “vulgar”…common…base.
 
Thanks for everyone who has given (name removed by moderator)ut here. The ratings I quoted are from different publishing sites…obviously the Catholic and Protestant Bibles aren’t rated on the same sites, and all the ratings should be taken with a grain of salt. It stands to reason, to me, that the NAB would be written at a level that is a little easier, not that any Bible is “easy,” because it is used in the liturgy. I have heard that the reason most seminaries don’t use it is partly because it is more of a “dynamic equivalency” translation than the RSV CE II, Navarre, or original Jerusalem, and partly because some theologians have issues with some of the notes accompanying the NAB. The ratings may be largely based on the difficulty of the notes as well, for all I know.

I agree that the word of God is the word of God, whichever translation is used. My main interest is to get more information on the two academically recommended Bibles I’m not familiar with- the Navarre and the original Jerusalem Bible. I’ve found the latter in a couple of places- heard it’s out of print?- but the font, though the right size, for some reason made me a little dizzy. It wasn’t Arial or Times New Roman or something common that I recognized right off.

As far as “Mensa” being in my signature, it’s funny but nobody ever mentioned it in the last 1+ years I’ve been on these forums until today, and now two people on two different threads have mentioned it. Perhaps because I shortened my signature recently and it stands out more, I don’t know. All I can say is I snuck into Mensa by a back door- the GRE analytical test, which doesn’t even exist anymore. It means absolutely nothing relative to anyone else- as an educator I believe everyone is highly intelligent in one or more of the multiple intelligences, most of which our narrow, standardized test-based educational system doesn’t measure. But it’s just part of who I am, no reason why anybody should take offense. At least I’m completely non-materialistic! And a Mensa membership card + two bucks will get me a grande coffee at Starbucks, if you know what I mean. It has gotten me at least one job that I know of, though, which was kind of cool. Until the employer found out I’m a couple of cards short of a deck…
 
HillbillyHermit said:
Is there an accurate way of rating the reading level of Bible translations? I’ve looked this up in the past and couldn’t even find matching ratings for the same translation.:confused:
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We used to use something called the fog index to do this. Uses a formula based on the sample of number of words in sentence, average syllables per word, etc. I don’t know if that’s the method they used here, though.

Whatever, it usually uses a sample. You could theoretically have different books and even verses which have different level ratings. Some of this can even be skewed by the type of punctuation used.
 
ProVobis said:
We used to use something called the fog index to do this. Uses a formula based on the sample of number of words in sentence, average syllables per word, etc. I don’t know if that’s the method they used here, though.

Whatever, it usually uses a sample. You could theoretically have different books and even verses which have different level ratings. Some of this can even be skewed by the type of punctuation used.
Click to expand...
This is interesting. Your first paragraph sounds like something the state boards of education might do to determine what the appropriate reading material for the successive grades is. Personally, even beyond the bawdy Act 1, Scene 1, I’ve always thought Romeo and Juliet was a little too advanced for high school freshmen, at least for the boys. But that’s the standard in Californy.
 
april32010 said:
don , i have you beat .kicked out of school at age 16 in the 8th grade,after 3 years in same. but i still know the o.p. wasn’t inferring that you need a phd to read the Bible.
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Thanks, I’m glad that came through. Sometimes the little kids in catechism get it clearer than any of us.🙂
 
ProVobis said:
We used to use something called the fog index to do this. Uses a formula based on the sample of number of words in sentence, average syllables per word, etc. I don’t know if that’s the method they used here, though.

Whatever, it usually uses a sample. You could theoretically have different books and even verses which have different level ratings. Some of this can even be skewed by the type of punctuation used.
Click to expand...
So basically there isn’t really an accurate way. It’s more of a ballpark figure?

In my experience when reading the Bible, which is probably less than a lot of folks here, it isn’t so much the reading level, i.e. more difficult words and phrasing, it’s the content that takes some time to understand.
 
HillbillyHermit said:
In my experience when reading the Bible, which is probably less than a lot of folks here, it isn’t so much the reading level, i.e. more difficult words and phrasing, it’s the content that takes some time to understand.
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Okay, but understandability is difficult to measure. Besides some read it for its poetic value, some read it for prayer, some read it because it sounds good, some read it because the Church tells them to, some read it as an epic, and so on. Simple words, even from Shakespeare, can be easily defined by a 4th-grader but when taken together, may not make any sense to a 12th-grader. So the reading level ratings may not mean that much, but it still could be interesting tool to use to compare one translation against one another.
 
ProVobis said:
Okay, but understandability is difficult to measure. Besides some read it for its poetic value, some read it for prayer, some read it because it sounds good, some read it because the Church tells them to, some read it as an epic, and so on. Simple words, even from Shakespeare, can be easily defined by a 4th-grader but when taken together, may not make any sense to a 12th-grader. So the reading level ratings may not mean that much, but it still could be interesting tool to use to compare one translation against one another.
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I know understandability is difficult to measure. I guess my point is that maybe we need explanations for what is read at a level understandable for those of us who aren’t Biblical scholars.

26 But an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Rise and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” This is a desert road. 27 And he rose and went. And behold, an Ethiopian, a eunuch, a minister of the Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, in charge of all her treasure, had come to Jerusalem to worship 28 and was returning; seated in his chariot, he was reading the prophet Isaiah. 29 And the Spirit said to Philip, “Go up and join this chariot.” 30 So Philip ran to him, and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet, and asked, *"**Do you understand what you are reading?" 31 And he said, “How can I, unless some one guides me?” ***And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. (Acts (RSV) 8)
 
I recall a Mark Twain quote: t’s not the parts that I don’t understand that bother me; it’s the parts that I do understand." 😃
 
Joe_Kelley said:
I recall a Mark Twain quote: t’s not the parts that I don’t understand that bother me; it’s the parts that I do understand." 😃
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Great point! The ones I do understand will keep me busy for the rest of my days.
🙂
 
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