Today I was compelled to go back to the website which I discovered and wrote of a couple of days ago in regards to The Two Powers. The one I refer to is the website of the Institute for Bible Reading.
Being a nosey person my eye was drawn to the word Immerse at the top of the page. It’s a good word and when related to the Bible must be something desirable. I’m going there I thought. So I did.
Immerse is a project or programme designed specifically to be read in community. The Bible according to IBR has particularly in America, having declining readership. One of the reasons for this put forward by those involved in IBR is it has been made complicated. The library of the Bible has been, over the centuries, made more into a reference book. It is more of a readable experience and enjoyable at that when laid out like a novel.
What Tyndale and IBR have created is a whole new system into what looks to be well thought out one. They have created a readers experience which does not involve distracting numbers all the way down the page and chapters numbers dividing up the experience. Instead if you want to know where you are a lighter range of numbers is given at the top of the page.
The designers have also grouped up the sections into more related chunks. It is designed to be easier on the eye both by the text and also the margins. There are 6 of these books:
- Messiah
- Beginnings
- Kingdoms
- Prophets
- Poets
- Chronicles
(Unless this is what their website means here:
Custom Book Introductions
Immerse Bible.com
Each book includes a historical and literary introduction to set the scene and immerse you in the Bible’s story
There is a concern whether the material in the books connects to the wider Biblical story. For example reading ‘Messiah’ you wouldn’t necessarily know that there was a connection to the prophet’s or any of the other books and what that means in the timeline).
There is an e-reader version of the book which can be read on Kindle.
For a review of the series I recommend this 13 minute video by Tim Wildsmith