Nostalgia. Christians only: What was the first version of the Bible you ever read?

Michie

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I realize for Catholics this might be a bit foreign but I'm a convert. I read the Bible for the first time at 14 and still cherish that version out of nostalgia. It was the 'Good News Bible' a very traumatic period on my life so it holds a special place in my heart. What was the first Bible you read?
 

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King James Version, almost 40 years ago, and it is still the only version that just feels right.
I like to look at other versions for comparison, but when memorizing, I always stick with the KJV.
 
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thecolorsblend

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I was raised Church of Christ. When I was about 14, my parents bought me my first Bible. The basic attitude seemed to be "Here's the Bible, you figure it out, be downstairs for dinner later". Not sure if that's a Church of Christ policy or a My Parents policy. But either way, that was the policy.

It was some easy English version meant not just for kids. But (probably) for stupid kids, specifically. I forget the exact name of the translation but it takes a LOT of liberties with the text. "Life Application Bible" or some such. It had some kind of cheesy interludes with (allegedly real) high school students talking about life, the universe and everything. The applicability of several of those "Here's What I Did" interstitials was dubious even in the best cases. Overall, I don't recommend this as something for children.

Needless to say, it was a bit of a struggle. Began with Genesis and right around the time I got to Deuteronomy, I'd kind of lost the plot. If I ever had it. Which is 50/50, really. So I figured I'd skip ahead to St. Matthew's gospel.

Mind. Blown.

To this day, it's always been a bit of a struggle to invest myself into the Old Testament. Psalms, Proverbs and that stuff are fine. But other books therein can be a bit of a slog sometimes.
 
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tulc

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I realize for Catholics this might be a bit foreign but I'm a convert. I read the Bible for the first time at 14 and still cherish that version out of nostalgia. It was the 'Good News Bible' a very traumatic period on my life so it holds a special place in my heart. What was the first Bible you read?
King James version. That's the version I still read every day. :oldthumbsup:
tulc(along with a couple of other versions) :wave:
 
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Michie

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I started with the NT and followed with the OT. A much gentler and kinder way to see the types and shadows within Scripture.
I was raised Church of Christ. When I was about 14, my parents bought me my first Bible. The basic attitude seemed to be "Here's the Bible, you figure it out, be downstairs for dinner later". Not sure if that's a Church of Christ policy or a My Parents policy. But either way, that was the policy.

It was some easy English version meant not just for kids. But (probably) for stupid kids, specifically. I forget the exact name of the translation but it takes a LOT of liberties with the text. "Life Application Bible" or some such. It had some kind of cheesy interludes with (allegedly real) high school students talking about life, the universe and everything. The applicability of several of those "Here's What I Did" interstitials was dubious even in the best cases. Overall, I don't recommend this as something for children.

Needless to say, it was a bit of a struggle. Began with Genesis and right around the time I got to Deuteronomy, I'd kind of lost the plot. If I ever had it. Which is 50/50, really. So I figured I'd skip ahead to St. Matthew's gospel.

Mind. Blown.

To this day, it's always been a bit of a struggle to invest myself into the Old Testament. Psalms, Proverbs and that stuff are fine. But other books therein can be a bit of a slog sometimes.
 
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Michie

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We should discuss the 'begats'! Lol!
I was raised Church of Christ. When I was about 14, my parents bought me my first Bible. The basic attitude seemed to be "Here's the Bible, you figure it out, be downstairs for dinner later". Not sure if that's a Church of Christ policy or a My Parents policy. But either way, that was the policy.

It was some easy English version meant not just for kids. But (probably) for stupid kids, specifically. I forget the exact name of the translation but it takes a LOT of liberties with the text. "Life Application Bible" or some such. It had some kind of cheesy interludes with (allegedly real) high school students talking about life, the universe and everything. The applicability of several of those "Here's What I Did" interstitials was dubious even in the best cases. Overall, I don't recommend this as something for children.

Needless to say, it was a bit of a struggle. Began with Genesis and right around the time I got to Deuteronomy, I'd kind of lost the plot. If I ever had it. Which is 50/50, really. So I figured I'd skip ahead to St. Matthew's gospel.

Mind. Blown.

To this day, it's always been a bit of a struggle to invest myself into the Old Testament. Psalms, Proverbs and that stuff are fine. But other books therein can be a bit of a slog sometimes.
 
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TuxAme

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KJV for me. I tried reading it when I was beginning high school, but didn't get beyond Adam and Eve. I tried again the night of my reversion with that very same Bible, but only got through a few chapters. I'm glad I was able to get a NAB. I finished the pentateuch and got to around 1 or 2 Kings before taking a Bible class, and then I was forced to abandon my original "read it cover to cover" plan. I finished it (with psalms last) after a little over a year.

I have a lot of love for the Old Testament, even though it was not a little shocking when I first started out.
 
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chevyontheriver

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I realize for Catholics this might be a bit foreign but I'm a convert. I read the Bible for the first time at 14 and still cherish that version out of nostalgia. It was the 'Good News Bible' a very traumatic period on my life so it holds a special place in my heart. What was the first Bible you read?
There were two Bibles in our house when I was growing up. One was my mother's, an Authorized Version, with archaic language. The other was my father's, a Douay Rheims, with archaic language. I struggled with both of them. Not that fond of either. When I graduated from high school my godparents got me a Bible, the NAB, and I took that off to college. It was finally a Bible in English that I could read and understand. That's the first one I read the whole thing. Next Bible was a Jerusalem Bible. After that a NIV. Since then it has been one form or another of the RSV, either the Oxford Study Bible version, or the RSVCE, or now the new Ignatius variant slightly updated in language but almost entirely the same as the RSVCE. I also had excursions back to the DR, to the KJV, NEB, Anchor Bible, a Greek NT (very briefly because I was awful with Greek), and we had a pew Bible in one parish that was Good News Bible.
 
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Humble me Lord

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When I was young I had some kind of youth bible, and although I could read, I preferred looking at all the amazing pictures, I believe a lot of them were famous paintings. I wish I still had that one.
Today, I have a KJV, and an engraved NLT study bible my wife got me when we were first married.
If I'm going to read several chapters, I will read the NLT, but like others, for scriptures I always grab the KJV.
We also have a very old leather bound KJV that was given to us by my wife's good friend who died of cancer.
 
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faroukfarouk

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When I was young I had some kind of youth bible, and although I could read, I preferred looking at all the amazing pictures, I believe a lot of them were famous paintings. I wish I still had that one.
Today, I have a KJV, and an engraved NLT study bible my wife got me when we were first married.
If I'm going to read several chapters, I will read the NLT, but like others, for scriptures I always grab the KJV.
We also have a very old leather bound KJV that was given to us by my wife's good friend who died of cancer.
I do appreciate the KJV very much.
 
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JesusLovesOurLady

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My first time reading the Bible it was mom's King James Version, I read it back when I was around 10 or 12, naturally I had a hard time with the archaic language. I still made attempts reading the Bible every now and than out of curiosity, but I still didn't get it. Then one day around Holy Week, when I was an apostate Deist in my teens, and enslaved to my perverse sins, I started reading part of St. Matthew's Gospel, I had been reading it before and had viewed it as simple nice words of wisdom and morality, but then, I stumbled across this passage which I'll quote from the Douay-Rheims:

But what think you? A certain man had two sons; and coming to the first, he said: Son, go work to day in my vineyard.
And he answering, said: I will not. But afterwards, being moved with repentance, he went.
And coming to the other, he said in like manner. And he answering, said: I go, Sir; and he went not.
Which of the two did the father's will? They say to him: The first. Jesus saith to them: Amen I say to you, that the publicans and the harlots shall go into the kingdom of God before you.
For John came to you in the way of justice, and you did not believe him. But the publicans and the harlots believed him: but you, seeing it, did not even afterwards repent, that you might believe him.

-St. Matthew: 21:28-32 DR

That passage really struck me because, while I certainly wasn't a "harlot," I certainly felt like one due my perverse sexual sins. I had plenty of other interesting episodes with the Bible that I don't have time to go into now. I like the Knox Version, the Douay-Rheims, and the RSV-CE, in that order of preference, my favorites books in the Bible right our the ones that narrate the Israelites journey from Egypt, to the Promise Land, as the Fathers and Doctors of the Church say that this is a type of our own journey out of slavery to sin and the Devil, and to Eternal Life in Heaven.
 
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Stabat Mater dolorosa

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A Lutheran kinds bible in which my mama read to me from a very young age. I cant quite seem to remember when she started so probably very early on.
Ive been blessed to hear and read the word of God since forever which is truely Gods blessing to me.

Being in Norway our native language bibles are all written in the seven books short canon. Were the most secular country in the world, but with Lutheran origins its impossible to get hold of at Trent canon :(
 
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The first Bible I really read was my NAB Catholic Bible. I got it for my Confirmation when I was 14 but I didn't read it much until recently. I don't think I ever read the family Bible as a kid; I also had a children's Bible, I believe, but I don't think I read much of it.
 
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faroukfarouk

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The first Bible I really read was my NAB Catholic Bible. I got it for my Confirmation when I was 14 but I didn't read it much until recently. I don't think I ever read the family Bible as a kid; I also had a children's Bible, I believe, but I don't think I read much of it.
It's really good to get into a regular Bible reading habit. Such a blessing. :) Especially to concentrate on what the main body of the text says.
 
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JesusLovesOurLady

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The first Bible I really read was my NAB Catholic Bible. I got it for my Confirmation when I was 14 but I didn't read it much until recently. I don't think I ever read the family Bible as a kid; I also had a children's Bible, I believe, but I don't think I read much of it.

It's really good to get into a regular Bible reading habit. Such a blessing. :) Especially to concentrate on what the main body of the text says.
Be very careful with the NAB footnotes though, they are very, shall we say, untraditional.
 
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