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AccomplishedBasil700 t1_ix7r5jg wrote

For literary history and cultural reference: King James Version is the one. This was influential in western literature from later Jacobean writers until today.

For readability and scholarly responsibility: New Revised Standard Version (NRSV). This is modern enough to be read clearly today.

For a Jewish and historical point of view: Robert Alter’s Hebrew Bible, which also comes in particular books. Tons of notes and interesting interpretations/translations.

And a recommended way of reading: Lots of Christians like to read particular verses of the Bible for spiritual purposes. I’d recommend reading entire books of the Bible for literary purposes. Many of them really are incredible—Genesis, Exodus, Joshua, Judges, and 1 and 2 Samuel are a good place to start, and those and Isaiah will give you a lot of reference points for reading the New Testament.

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Zerokku t1_ix9e6cf wrote

As the kind of weirdo that isn't Christian/traditionally religious but likes to study the Bible for fun - seconding this comment.

In particular for the NRSV I'd recommend the Oxford Annotated NRSV for the annotations and essays alone which provides a lot of great info. It also includes the apocrypha which is missing from a large percentage of Protestant Bibles, but many of those books are hugely influential on the development of Christianity, and a lot of the references you may see are also touched on in those books.

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AccomplishedBasil700 t1_ixa1e6b wrote

Yes! The Oxford Annotated is a must. Thank you! I’d actually just conflated NRSV with the Oxford Annotated because that’s the only NRSV I’ve ever had.

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No_Wolf_3134 t1_ixb7y82 wrote

YES! My undergrad degree is in English and I took a Bible as literature course. We used the Oxford annotated Bible and hot damn it was so fascinating. I've recommended it just to regular friends as reading.

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pineapplesf t1_ix9q9yv wrote

KJV was written after Shakespeare....

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AccomplishedBasil700 t1_ixa14eq wrote

KJV was published in 1611 (commissioned in 1605), but Shakespeare died in 1616. Not many of his plays were written after KJV’s publication, but some of them were.

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