A Bible teacher looks at popular Bibles for kids!

I want to thank my friend, Rev. Andy Hargrove (Gordon's Chapel UMC) for sending me a stack of Kids' Bibles to review. I was not paid by Zondervan or ZonderKidz, nor do I have any affiliation with them. These are simply my honest thoughts on some popular Bibles in their line.

*shoutout to @TheLutheranSatire on the subject of bad Trinity analogies! Go check them out to hear Donall and Conall set the record straight!

------- Subscribe to the Disciple Dojo podcast for more in-depth teaching and discussions:

[weightlessliving]

Definitely points for name dropping Carmen San Diego! Love the shirt as well. I actually saw the Adventure Bible in Hobby Lobby today while looking for something else, lead me to your video. And down the rabbit hole of Disciple Dojo I go. 👍

[Cmac]

I know its far from being a legit bible... but even as an adult i enjoy flipping through the action bible once in a while!

For what it is, it is beautifully done.

[bella-bee]

From your analyses, you could write/edit and excellent children’s bible! I’d like to see that.

[warholcow]

I even like using this Bible in addition to commentary to help me understand some of the more complex/confusing stories or the parts that might be a bit less interesting shall we say and it helps invigorate me to continue on versus having to labor through long sentences and be a little bit confused on what’s happening. Like an additional resource to my regular Bible since it puts things in simpler language wording.

[BillWalkerWarren]

Those look cool for kids . Each look like a good tool and would have a great application depending on who it’s for .
One thing I would like is if something as simple as these children’s Bibles were reformatted for adults. The big issue I run into is adults with a underdeveloped reading ability. Thanks for the video!
One additional thing my smellovision isn’t working, what’s with the shirt ? 😆
Blessings

[tp]

But are they reformed? 😜 Thanks for the reviews. Will revisit when my kids get a couple years older.

[TaylorFisher-ckqr]

i appreciate this sooo much! also i love the shirt!

[rebekahherr]

This was great! Have you reviewed the girls NLT life application study Bible for kids? I was curious to compare that and the kids visual study Bible.

[jordonminer]

I’m adult with learning disability I’m wondering is it okay for me to buy a kids bibles.

[chantellek]

Can you speak to how the adventure bible handles topics that are divided among Christians? Like you did with the kids Study Bible and how it explained both stances of egalitarian and complimentarian? Also - do you have a video of the adventure bible that is NIrV? Maybe it’s new?

[BagsPackedFamily]

Long story short, we've lived overseas for the last 8 years, and I'm looking to get a youth Bible for my 10 and 8 year old. The Visual Study Bible was recommended by a friend, and I really liked your explanation of it, but now, because of their age, I might go with the Investigator's Holy Bible. Do you still recommend Investigator's Holy Bible for 3rd and 5th grade over Visual Study Bible? Or is it more a six to one and half dozen to the other situation?

I have no idea how to lead them in an actual bible study. Do you have any recommendations for an online youth Bible study resource or possible youtube channel? I will say that I also lean egalitarian in my approach.

[hain]

I am looking for a larger print Bible for kids, not too distracting. But with photos. Any ideas?

[BBC]

I'm guessing you're Protestant (so am I) but after watching your video of the Oxford study Bible which contains the Apocrypha it makes me wonder if you'd be able to do a review of the Catholic Children's/Youth Bibles by St Mary's Press?

[Yesica]

Wow, Amazon has that NIrV, Kids' Quest at $129.98 for the imitation leather and $129.27 for paperback. That's outrageous.

[Servant_of_Yeshua]

I am looking for good bibles for my niece and nephew. He has adhd and ASD so I want to get him a good one but also a normal kids Bible when he’s ready and my niece is 5.

[maggieprice]

Love the NIrV for little kids! Learned about it from Mark Ward’s channel. I really don’t like truncated and patronizing Bible info for anyone, even children. My four year old and I have had lots of conversations about the Bible and I don’t sugarcoat it for him. I keep it age appropriate for understanding purposes but I don’t dumb it down. Your small child can grasp more than you think and even if they don’t fully understand it now, familiarizing them with actual biblical terminology and concepts is helpful, in my opinion.

[stard]

Thanks! Any thoughts on the Hands on Bible?

[buffyspivey]

I am 53 I use a kids Bible everyday I have a learning disability and I don't understand the adult bibles

[Jeymez]

that scripture you mentioned that's constantly misinterpreted, that is what Paul is trying to say, but when you read it out of the King James, that's how some might take it as is.
by the way John is a Calvinist i think, not evangelical, Paul Washer is in that same Calvinist camp. they tend to be King James only types.

[vigilantezack]

Children's bibles have such a great opportunity to call out interesting things for children to learn. I haven't found one that does everything. Perhaps that would make it too large? A split of old and new testaments might be a better option. Some features that are nice:
Dictionary
Concordance
Maps
Ancient life (what life was like in those days, pictures, how children themselves might have lived and worshiped)
Accurate pictures and illustrations, not too cartoonish
Key theology - important to callout and grasp high level concepts like God's nature, trinity, law, sin, fall, coventants, punishments, prophets, kings, etc etc
Key historical shifts - callouts to very memorable and large moments in history
Key figures - blurbs that summarize the biography of people
Gender focus - despite the modern world we live in, I think it would be good to have callouts specifically written with male/female points, how something relates more uniquely to them.
Callout key points in the OT that forshadow Jesus or future events, prophesies etc.
Daily living - Callout how the child can consider the passage and apply to their life
Prayer - Callout when a certain passage can be used for a prayer or type of prayer (for healing, for wisdom, etc) help kids learn how to pray scripture
Callout (in the NT) where something was a fullfillment of OT prophesy.
Gospel callouts - Key passages that directly relate to what it means to become a Christian, share the gospel, what to believe etc


You get the idea. Even though my daughter has an NIrV, she gets bogged down by walls of text. After all, you have to see 4 columns of text when open to any page. So all the above types of callouts and info blurbs are a good way to break up the boring nature of walls of text. It helps you think about what you're reading a little more deeper, despite being simpler English.