Review: "NIV Kids' Visual Study Bible"

NIV Kids Visual Study Bible published by Zondervan is a recent repackaging that I would encourage you not to buy or recommend.  For the things it has going for it, I cannot recommend it for the following reasons:

I believe it is a mistake to start kids with a dynamic equivalence translation.  A word-for-word translation may be a little stiffer, but dynamic equivalence can border on paraphrase – or, at least, mislead – intentionally or unintentionally.

Second, in the first chapter of Genesis, the study notes say that the “days” of Creation could be 24 hours days or they could be long periods of time.  In putting it this way, it gives kids the impression that the Creation is a story, not history, and allows for evolution as an acceptable add-on to God’s work.

Similarly, the study notes dismiss a mythology or make ridiculous claims about creatures such as “Leviathan.”  The notes on page 806 say that Leviathan was likely a crocodile or symbolic of evil powers.  Really?  With scales as large as shields.

In an effort to provide a study Bible for kids, Zondervan has produced a confusing study Bible that dumbs down and mythologizes sections of the Scripture.

Let us teach our children to read and think, and not to pander to popular culture and the need to make everything bite-sized and comprehensible.

#NIVKids’VisualStudyBible

[This review appears on my blog and on Amazon.com.  I received this book free in exchange for an honest review.]