Should I keep any of these?

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BasBleu

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Hello Friends,

I’m in the process of moving from my parents home into one my soon-to-be-husband and I just purchased. I’ve been weeding my personal library and have come reached my section of religion. Before joing the Church over a year ago, I spent many years as a confused Protestant and accumulated many different versions of the Bible and several study aids. My question is: are any of them worth keeping? Would I find any useful in my continuing study of Scripture, Catholicism, and Christianity?

Here’s roughly what I have:

KJV (with MANY reference tools)
NKJV (my Precious Moments from childhood and a Life Applications version)
NLT
NIV (also Life Application and a pocket NIV)
Scofield Reference version
Halley’s Bible Handbook (pretty sure this should go, but maybe not)
Strong’s Concordance (think this should stay, but again, maybe not)

NAB and RCV-CE, of course!

That’s all that comes to mind…thanks for all your help!
 
I probably have no business answering this as I am a pack rat but I would probably keep it all. If you have a home library you could keep most of those as reference material. If you decide to get rid of anything consider donating the Handbook and concordance to a budding apologist. I know I would appreciate those. And I’m not a budding apologist so wasn’t referring to me :D.

If the study of religion is a hobby or avocation consider keeping any of those books. If not, consider giving them to family when appropriate or a used bookstore or even a church library.
 
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BasBleu:
Hello Friends,

I’m in the process of moving from my parents home into one my soon-to-be-husband and I just purchased. I’ve been weeding my personal library and have come reached my section of religion. Before joing the Church over a year ago, I spent many years as a confused Protestant and accumulated many different versions of the Bible and several study aids. My question is: are any of them worth keeping? Would I find any useful in my continuing study of Scripture, Catholicism, and Christianity?

Here’s roughly what I have:

KJV (with MANY reference tools)
NKJV (my Precious Moments from childhood and a Life Applications version)
NLT
NIV (also Life Application and a pocket NIV)
Scofield Reference version
Halley’s Bible Handbook (pretty sure this should go, but maybe not)
Strong’s Concordance (think this should stay, but again, maybe not)

NAB and RCV-CE, of course!

That’s all that comes to mind…thanks for all your help!
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Continuing study will most likely be of avail only in defending the faith. But if one thinks about it, if you believe the Lord’s words, that the Holy Spirit will always guide the church, then you don’t need any of it.

You could always live in accordance with the church and let its scholars and theologian bear the intellectual burden. It all depends on how much you trust the church.

Sometimes I think people are more concerned with studying the faith, as compared to devoting their time and energy living the faith.

Thal59
 
Of course, KJV and NKJV aren’t very good translations, based on faulty texts. I’d pitch them for that reason alone. If you like the language, find yourself a Douhay.

The NLT I’d suggest you pitch merely because it waters down the text such that it’s almost tasteless. Mum described it once as “sapping the power out of the Word of God.” I’m inclined to agree, frankly.

Definitely keep Strong’s.
 
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Thal59:
Continuing study will most likely be of avail only in defending the faith. But if one thinks about it, if you believe the Lord’s words, that the Holy Spirit will always guide the church, then you don’t need any of it.

You could always live in accordance with the church and let its scholars and theologian bear the intellectual burden. It all depends on how much you trust the church.

Sometimes I think people are more concerned with studying the faith, as compared to devoting their time and energy living the faith.

Thal59
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Not to encourage Biblical illiteracy, of course, eh? True, I trust the Church to guide me, and the Paraclete to guide it. But I also think there’s something for us all in the call St Augustine heard: “Take it and read.”
 
I would probably ditch the Scofield, Halley’s, and the NLT. Bad translations and commentaries are simply not of much use, unless you’re trying to refute things written in them. The CCC trumps anything they may have to say. The rest are nice just to get a different translation - the KJV is fairly poetic, if you ask me, and the NKJV is pretty nice as well. The Strong’s is a great tool, but there are a few online if you’re an internet junkie (like me), so it’s really not necessary to keep. They should turn enough money at the local used book store to get you an Ignatius Press RSV-CE booklet with commentary by Scott Hahn!😃

RyanL
 
I have an NAB (2), a KJV (given to me in 2nd grade), a jw version (NWT) and Strong’s Strongest.
I keep and use them for reference. I enjoy comparing the translations and there’s nothing like talking to jws with their own mis- translation on hand.
 
I’d keep them all. In fact I have kept my Strongs, Halleys, Vines, many commentaries other reference books as well as many KJV, NKJV, NASB, Amplified, NIV, CEV Bibles. On second thought I would get rid of the NLT, Living and New Living translation as well as the Mesage are useless.
 
Definitely throw out Halley’s Bible Handbook (which contains much anti-Catholic material, including implying that the Catholic Church is the whore of Babylon) and the Scofield Bible. KEEP the KJV (contrary to popular belief, it isn’t really a bad translation); or better still, find a KJV that includes the deuterocanonicals (a.k.a. the “apocrypha”) and use that if you wish. Keep your childhood Bible too, but throw all the other Protestant Bibles out (NIV, NLT, etc.)
 
Anima Christi:
Definitely throw out Halley’s Bible Handbook (which contains much anti-Catholic material, including implying that the Catholic Church is the whore of Babylon) and the Scofield Bible. KEEP the KJV (contrary to popular belief, it isn’t really a bad translation); or better still, find a KJV that includes the deuterocanonicals (a.k.a. the “apocrypha”) and use that if you wish. Keep your childhood Bible too, but throw all the other Protestant Bibles out (NIV, NLT, etc.)
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From an active apologetics standpoint, I’d probably keep them all. If you are going to be refuting the arguments of anti-Catholics, you need to know what they believe.

If this isn’t the case, I’d trade in all the non-Catholic stuff, especially if you have impressionable family members (or you are overly impressionable yourself! 😉 )
 
Keep it all – it will be useful when you do apologetics with people who use these resources. The Scoffield Bible is where all the millenialist/rapture stuff comes from, isn’t it?

Biggest library mistake I ever made was tossing my copy of Loraine Boettner’s Roman Catholicism!
 
Anima Christi:
KEEP the KJV (contrary to popular belief, it isn’t really a bad translation)
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I’m sure they did the best with what they had, but the KJV was translated using less reliable manuscripts. It’s not the most unreliable version, of course, but it’s certainly not the one to go to first.
 
Well…As another pack rat, I have to say KEEP IT ALL! I have lots of different versions/translations of the Bible, and find that it is fun to compare them. I have collected these Bibles over many years, and would not get rid of even ONE. They all have stories behind them, and each of is special.

My personal favorite, for accuracy and clarity is the Ignatius Revised Standard Version Bible, Cathoilc Edidtion. I like the notes in the NAB, and find the Jerusalem Bible to be lyrical in tone. My old KJV Bibles (I have more than one) are precious to me because they were gifts, and reperesent a time of my life when I was being gifted with my first glimmerings of faith (as a child). I have others…All precious…the NIV, NKJV, The Good News Bible, you name it, and I have it…I know I’ve left some out here.

**So…Keep all those Bibles…They are part of your Christian journey…To get rid of them would be saying that your life as a Protestant Christian was not worth anything. **

I do sometimes think of my spirtiual life as “before” and “after” my conversin to Catholicisim, but I know that what I had as a Protestant was part of my walk with the Lord, and that it was an imporatant part of my development as a mature Christian. Becoming a Roman Catholic was the “next” logical step for me…One I have never regretted.
 
Thanks for all the replies, everyone! I’ve decided to ditch the NLT, Halley’s, and the Scofield, but keep everything else. A year or so ago, I threw out my Jerusalem Bible, now I wish I’d kept it! I don’t want to make that mistake twice. Several of the others were gifts, so I’d hate to get rid of them, and many of my Bibles have excellent reference tools (Harmony of the Gospels, maps, etc.)

Thanks again,and God Bless you all! 👋
 
I too would keep them all. The best bible is the one you read. Even an incomplete one like the Protestant versions.

Just remember that some of the books you listed have a very anti-Catholic slant!

Keep all your books and use them to point out to your Protestant friends where the books are written different or where they have problems. You can also use their versions of Scripture to prove their points wrong! They hate this when I do it to them.
 
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Malachi4U:
Just remember that some of the books you listed have a very anti-Catholic slant!
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Would you include Strong’s Concordance in there? I honestly haven’t used mine that much, though I would expect it to be, but you never know, I guess.
 
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BasBleu:
Would you include Strong’s Concordance in there? I honestly haven’t used mine that much, though I would expect it to be, but you never know, I guess.
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Oh my gosh! Let’s not get irrational here! Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance is one of the best tools you have! Especially if you’re a person who has half the KJV committed to memory. When you want to find something in your Catholic Bible, but you don’t know how to look it up because the language is different, you go to Strong’s, locate the book, chapter, and verse, then go to your NAB or RSVCE or Douay-Rheims . . .
 
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BasBleu:
Thanks for all the replies, everyone! I’ve decided to ditch the NLT, Halley’s, and the Scofield, but keep everything else. A year or so ago, I threw out my Jerusalem Bible, now I wish I’d kept it! I don’t want to make that mistake twice. Several of the others were gifts, so I’d hate to get rid of them, and many of my Bibles have excellent reference tools (Harmony of the Gospels, maps, etc.)

Thanks again,and God Bless you all! 👋
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Keep everything. In five years, you’ll know what you’re really using and what not. As I mentioned before, throwing out my Boettner was a BIG mistake. Your Scofield will be invaluable when conversing with people who believe in the rapture.
 
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mercygate:
Oh my gosh! Let’s not get irrational here! Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance is one of the best tools you have! Especially if you’re a person who has half the KJV committed to memory. When you want to find something in your Catholic Bible, but you don’t know how to look it up because the language is different, you go to Strong’s, locate the book, chapter, and verse, then go to your NAB or RSVCE or Douay-Rheims . . .
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No, no, no! I’m the least irrational person you’ll ever meet! I AM a librarian after all! I meant I WOULDN’T expect it (Strong’s) to be anti-Catholic! I didn’t bother to proofread that last night… I just wanted to make sure I wasn’t missing something after reading the post about several of those sources being anti-Catholic, since I am very anti-censorship and can find redeeming qualities in practically every source…no Harry Potter banning here! (That’s a discussion for another thread, though! 🙂 )

Good catch, though! Whew. That’ll teach me to type and post so quickly!
 
Pack everything in boxes, and make your decisions sometime in the future when you don’t want the stuff anymore.
 
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