SOMETHING IS ABOUT TO HAPPEN the week of May 12 that hasn't happened in nearly 100 years. The Bible Lesson "Mortals and Immortals" that will be studied that week and read in churches on Sunday, May 18, will contain passages in the Golden Text and Responsive Reading from a Bible translation other than the King James Version. The Golden Text will be from the New International Reader's Version, and the Responsive Reading will be from the New International Version.
I'd like to share with you how this came about and the thinking that is behind the Publishing Society's decision to occasionally use Bible translations other than the King James Version. And please note—this will only be done occasionally in the Golden Text and Responsive Reading. The main text of the Lesson will still use the King James Version.
About five years ago, the Bible Lesson Committee asked me to research the early Bible Lessons from 1898 until 1916. I looked at the total number of sections, number of citations within sections, total number of citations in the Lesson, as well as the use of different Bible translations in the Golden Text and Responsive Reading.
