Reader-Friendly Bible: Purple Letter Edition

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Glossary • World History Overview • Deep Purple Registry

It seems that every English Bible translation or version has its strengths and its weaknesses.

This Reader-Friendly Bible: Purple Letter Edition (RFP) was developed upon the base of the KJP (King James Purple) Bible, in order to retain the same 3-font-color scheme that was the catalyst for developing the KJP – which was to readily identify the nouns and pronouns that refer to Deity (Father, Son, or Holy Spirit) - a feature that KJP readers seemed to have appreciated. While the King James has long been admired for its poetic literary form, most will admit it is not the most easily read and comprehended translation. And so, the goals of the RFP Bible version are to combine: (1) that KJP feature that identified the nouns and pronouns that refer to a member of the Holy Trinity; with (2) wording and grammar more in keeping with the 21^st century, to “clearly reveal the plain truth of God’s Word”, as the apostle Paul says in 2 Cor. 4:2; and (3) to provide ‘speaker identification’, a feature much like the Red Letter edition Bibles have offered for the words of Christ in the New Testament. But unlike them, the RFP does that for the words of all three members of the Holy Trinity, in both Old and New Testament. This is done by applying the same color-coding scheme that is used to identify the nouns that refer to Deity and angels to the quotation marks around the words of Deity and angels. To achieve optimum clarity, as many as 30 different English translations of each Bible verse were evaluated, and then each verse from the KJP Bible source was rephrased to what was deemed the most succinct, accurate and easily comprehended wording. The result is a Bible that no longer reads like Wm. Shakespeare, but is hopefully a “Reader-Friendly” Bible that preserves the integrity of God’s Word while expressing it in easily understood language. The entire process was undertaken with prayer for God’s wisdom and guidance in the endeavor.

The RFP Bible also includes three supplements for the readers’ ready reference:

1. A glossary of Bible terms

2. A brief secular world history overview of the period the Bible deals with

3. The Deep Purple Registry, a compilation more than 240 entries, in the order of their occurrence in the Bible, of the “exceptions”. These entries seek to offer explanations for those nouns and pronouns where the entity (Deity, mortal man, or angel) they refer to cannot be determined with any degree of certainty. (It was this difficulty that forced the expansion from the use of a single purple font for Deity, as originally intended, to a tri-color scheme used in these two Bibles.)

This Bible version also uses two types of ‘help’ entries embedded within the Bible text:

1. Parenthetical insertions, for clarification of word meanings

2. A second, more extensive insertion, similar to Bible footnotes, as described here:

These larger entries appear where deemed appropriate, to help clarify or enhance the understanding of the passage. They are enclosed within indented ‘boxes’ as seen here, to help the reader differentiate these ‘footnotes’ from Scripture text. They represent what the editor ‘thinks he knows’ about the passage that might be helpful or offer insight.

Please note that these ‘boxed notes,’ are not God’s Word; and should be taken as intended: a best-effort to inform - but hopefully not bias or distort - what God’s Word tells us.