Jay P. Green (1918–2008)

Once, in college, I failed to get a perfect score on a Numerical Analysis exam when I carefully and accurately solved a very complicated problem -- which wasn't the problem the professor had set.

That's pretty much what Jay P. Green did with this book. He has started with F. H. A. Scrivener's reconstruction of the Greek text of the King James Bible. He has created an interlinear translation, and a parallel running translation which is sort of King James-ish but with modernization. All this is show more competently done.

The only problem is in the title. Scrivener's Greek text is not the New Testament. It is the New Testament as badly scrambled in the centuries which passed from the writing of the New Testament to the time of Erasmus, who hurried a Greek edition of the Bible to his printer, further corrupting it along the way, and after that the Greek was further scrambled by later editors.

The scrambling is significant. The best data I've seen is that the Textus Receptus, that is, the Greek text translated in the King James Bible, is about 2% longer than the best modern editions. And the King James Bible isn't even that great a translation of the Textus Receptus!

This is not to deny the literary brilliance of the King James Bible. It is brilliant. But the Greek text is substantially corrupt. If you want to study a New Testament edition that was "precipitated rather than edited" (Erasmus's own words of his edition), then this book is for you. If you want to study the best available New Testament... get an edition based on the United Bible Studies text. show less

Jay Green did an amazing job putting together the works he did. By providing the Strong's number (used by James Strong in his Strong's Concordance) interlinearly, and then republishing several of the old (public domain) materials after adding in the Strong's number to them, he made minor linguistic research of the Bible possible for the masses. Why did I say minor - because it is also easy to misconstrue facts by not knowing enough ("A little knowledge is a dangerous thing"). That is not the show more fault of the people who make such works available, but of the ones who use them without understanding enough.
As useful as all this work Green did/had done, I had to knock off a star because Green way over-extended himself. That is clear from the occasional omissions, errors, and such like. Personally, I don't understand how he did such a good job without the computers we all require today. But for someone working, much of the time alone, with such a multiplicity of materials, making mistakes was unavoidable (how many times have you seen a book with typos the modern spell-checker missed?), but by trying to do everything, there are additional mistakes made that would have been caught if he had had the time.
I have been using his materials since the mid-70s and find them so invaluable that I am able to work around the mistakes. I put the correct number in my copy, and continue on. The occasional typo is not a problem for me, but could mess somebody up if not prepared for them. The materials are well worth it, and the newer books with better work are not worth the extreme extra cost for someone on a budget. I have caught typos in them as well!
When I bought this, it was perfect for my needs. But my eyes are changing, and I wish now I had bought the four-volume set (much larger characters) instead of the one-volume set, because even with good light and a magnifier, especially on the Hebrew vowel pointing, this version can be difficult to read for me now, when it wasn't back in the 80s! show less

Number one in my books. Why? This author comes across as one who actually asked a Jew what some of the Hebrew means. Clue: Shinantam actually being translated as Sharpen and NOT teach. Why is sharpen the better word? Easy. How many teachers taught you something that you forgot? I'd dare say most if not all of them. How many kitchen knives have you sharpened? If you care about your knives, all of them would have been resharpened several times. So it is with the brain. If you do not resharpen show more the brain with the Holy Bible, it will forget the principles in the Bible and become dull. show less

Until I outgrew it, Green's Interlinear was one of my most prized possessions. Despite its size and weight (about equal to a Strong's), I carried it everywhere. I affectionately referred to it as my Mother Bible.

This is Bible built for learning. The large margins, thick paper, and hefty/durable binding are perfect for the job. I would highly recommend it to anyone who 1. is a layman in education, but clergyman at heart 2. isn't an internet and computer age savant and 3. wants to journey out show more from someone else's translation and start figuring the text out for themselves. For you, consider this a 5 star rating.

The more professional will not favor it so highly. They will be disappointed with its underlying source texts. They will recognize its inherent interpretational bias. The many misspellings and errors throughout (at least in earlier editions) will be annoying. And they will know of other, better resources-—both in book form and electronically. show less