Net Bible, first edition

 A few years ago, I was introduced to the NET Bible and in this case, NET stands for New English Translation.  After learning more about it, I ended up purchasing the First Beta editon and it has only 57,875 translation notes.  This is fine but I have never been completely content with that, in the back of my mind, I have kept thinking, "I need more notes, I need more!" 

Well, life is good now, after 10 years, the first edition of this Bible has been released and it boasts 60,932 translation notes.  By the way, this is a hard copy Bible, even though beta usually implies software or OS, but it’s more than that.  Back when I bought my first NET Bible, I also bought the version for my Palm Pilot.  It is a great translation, it is easy to read and there are many translators who contributed to it.  The notes are actually useful and, seriously, I’m not making this up, many pages in this Bible, contain more notes than text.  So, it is a great study Bible.

Here is what their site says, this is: 

• The first to be completely free for you to download completely (download the whole Bible and 60,932 notes)
• The first to offer you a "Ministry First" copyright approach
• To first to offer you insights into the Greek, Hebrew and Aramaic texts to enrich your study of God’s Word like never before

 I love doing word studies and understanding what the original Greek and Hebrew was saying and this translation offers alot of insight.  It is no Strong’s, but it’s adequate.

They are doing all they can to get this Bible out in more people’s hands, the Ministry First copyright is unique and the highpoints are as follows:

• It’s our purpose. Ministry is our whole purpose. Supporting the vision of bible.org to see all people become mature followers of Jesus Christ.
• It’s our philosophy, our approach to the world and ministry which all bible.org leaders, team members, partners and participants are challenged to adhere to. It is the lense through which we evaluate everything we do.
• It’s our goal,  to say "YES" to any idea, opportunity or request to do ministry using the NET BIBLE and/or bible.org resources.
• It’s our practice of introducing innovative methods, practices and approaches that put ministry ahead of profits
• It’s our passion, and be careful… it’s infectious. And we pray you will desire to join with us and other like-minded individuals and organizations to seek "Ministry First"!

It’s available in electronic format first, then in print.  So, here’s the breakdown, the Net Bible, first edition is available in:

• hard copy (soon)
• online (free to use)
• downloadable (free to use)
• palm
• e-sword.net (free to use)
• any other way you can conceive to get it into more people’s hands

Check this out, it is an awesome translation, I’ll be upgrading my translation at some point, simply because I need those 3,000 or so additional translation notes!

Man, I thought Firefox was slow getting to version 1.0