Monday, June 09, 2008

Words of Christ in RED?

Some like 'em red. Some like 'em black.

Should the words of Christ be printed in red in our Bibles? Or, should they be black just like all the other words of God's Word?

Place your vote at the poll on the right.

Just to clarify the discussion:

1. We all should be against placing more "weight" on Christ's words than the rest of God's Word. Every word of God is valuable and authoritative. We should avoid the "cannon within the cannon" mentality.
2. Some like the words of Christ in red simply to help them recognize who is talking in a particular dialogue.
3. Some think printing the words of Christ in red confuses less mature Christians as to the importance of the entire Word of God.

13 comments:

Unknown said...

I am personally not a big fan of red letter. But I have no qualms with those who prefer it. As long as the thought process does not become "they are more biblical" than the black letters.

It would be interesting to see each character of the bible color coded.

joking

Presley said...

to be consistent with how many reacted to 'the prayer of jabez', that whole "whole" story would be the ONLY thing in black.
(just keeping in step with the humor here - please hammer don't hurt me)

Presley said...

p.s. - i voted 'yes' simply because i probably would break out the highlighter for all of Jesus' quotes anyway. might as well have that done for me already to limit the 'bleeding through the paper' happeningns. perhaps i'm being too simplistic, though. love your q's justin!

Pastor Randy said...

There is a danger in thinking that everything in red Jesus necessarily said. There is some question to some of that as to whether John (for instance) is giving a commentary or if Jesus is speaking. Even red letter is a translation.

pastor justin said...

Randy, you are exactly right. I thought about that when I got to John 3:16-21. Many commentators says that this is probably John's reflection on the Nicodemus discussion. My ESV has it in red.

Who really knows?

Jason,
That would be funny: all the characters in different colors. Moses' words in Magenta.

Presley said...

good call randy and j-chil. i had not thought about that. good stuff. in addition, how lame is "go ahead and highlight it for me"? i'm going to pull a john kerry and flip flop my vote. can? peace, pres

BoldLion said...

I had vote in Red but didn't read all the comments when I voted.

To me, it makes it easy for me to read in a lot of way and to get my thinking cap on the right track.

Now, I can see why as you are saying. I am learning a lot by reading your Blog and the comment from others to you!

Hungry to eat His Word (the Whole Bible should be in RED)!
'Guerite ~ BoldLion

pastor justin said...

Pres,
no more John Kerry references on my blog.

Thanks for calling today. It was good to hear your voice.

Pastor Randy said...

Justin,
I was thinking about John 3 as well. I remember reading D. A. Carson's commentary on John and found his argument convincing. Ultimately I don't know if it Jesus or John's commentary, but it is equally inspired either way. It was funny that you talked about that because I was talking about it tonight at Bible study with the group.

Presley said...

Laughing at loud at your response, Justin. Good stuff. Great to chat with you as well. Peace, pres

HD_BD_OD said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
HD_BD_OD said...

I vote red. When I am asked what I think of Joel Osteen by my co-workers. I tell them to get a red-letter Bible and read the words of Jesus and then go back and listen to Joel. A great contrast.

The Taras' said...

yeah, I prefer not to have the red letters. BUT my Thompson chain-reference bible has them. I was bummed a little but I like having all the references over not having red letters. To me its just destracting from the flow. But thats just me.