Red letter edition bibles are those in which the words considered as being spoken by Jesus Christ are printed in red ink.
The inspiration for printing the words of Jesus in red comes from Luke 22:20: "This cup is the new testament in my blood, which I shed for you." On 19 June 1899, Louis Klopsch, then editor of The Christian Herald magazine, conceived the idea while working on an editorial. Klopsch asked his mentor Rev. Thomas De Witt Talmage what he thought of a New Testament with the words of Jesus in red and Dr. Talmage replied, "It could do no harm and it most certainly could do much good." [1]
Klopsch published the first modern red letter edition New Testament later in 1899. The first modern, fully "red letter" bible was published in 1901. [2] The red letter bible instantly became popular, and is sometimes favored by Protestant Christians in the United States. The format has been cited as particularly useful in King James Version editions, which do not use quotation marks. [1] [2]
Because the original texts of the Bible do not have quotation marks, which words exactly are of Jesus has been interpreted, as opposed to explanatory text that follows them. For example, a footnote in the New International Version for John, 3:21 explains that "Some interpreters end the quotation after verse 15." [3]
The Deir Alla Inscription, the oldest alphabetic West Semitic epigraph, uses red for emphasis. Levine says red was "used in certain parts of the inscriptions for magical effect." [4] It could be an indicator for a different type or source of communication in the writing; authors have various ideas. [5] [6] The same technique was used Kuntillet Ajrud inscriptions, the earlier still Book of the Dead, and others.
The Epistle of James is a general epistle and one of the 21 epistles in the New Testament. It was written originally in Koine Greek.
The Epistle of Jude is the penultimate book of the New Testament as well as the Christian Bible. It is traditionally attributed to Jude, brother of James.
The Epistle to the Hebrews is one of the books of the New Testament.
The King James Version (KJV), also the King James Bible (KJB) and the Authorized Version (AV), is an Early Modern English translation of the Christian Bible for the Church of England, which was commissioned in 1604 and published in 1611, by sponsorship of King James VI and I. The 80 books of the King James Version include 39 books of the Old Testament, 14 books of Apocrypha, and the 27 books of the New Testament.
The New Testament (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events relating to first-century Christianity. The New Testament's background, the first division of the Christian Bible, is called the Old Testament, which is based primarily upon the Hebrew Bible; together they are regarded as Sacred Scripture by Christians.
The New International Version (NIV) is a translation of the Bible into contemporary English. Published by Biblica, the complete NIV was released on October 27, 1978 with a minor revision in 1984 and a major revision in 2011. The NIV relies on recently-published critical editions of the original Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek texts.
The Old Testament (OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible, or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew and occasionally Aramaic writings by the Israelites. The second division of Christian Bibles is the New Testament, written in Koine Greek.
Jah or Yah is a short form of the tetragrammaton יהוה (YHWH), the personal name of God: Yahweh, which the ancient Israelites used. The conventional Christian English pronunciation of Jah is, even though the letter J here transliterates the palatal approximant. The spelling Yah is designed to make the pronunciation explicit in an English-language context, especially for Christians who may not use Hebrew regularly during prayer and study.
The Epistle of Barnabas is an early Christian Greek epistle written between AD 70 and 132. The complete text is preserved in the 4th-century Codex Sinaiticus, where it appears at the end of the New Testament, following the Book of Revelation and before the Shepherd of Hermas. For several centuries, it was one of the "antilegomena" ("disputed") writings that some Christians looked at as sacred scripture, while others excluded them. Eusebius of Caesarea classified it with excluded texts. It is mentioned in a perhaps third-century list in the sixth-century Codex Claromontanus and in the later Stichometry of Nicephorus appended to the ninth-century Chronography of Nikephoros I of Constantinople. Some early Fathers of the Church ascribed it to the Barnabas mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles, but it is now generally attributed to an otherwise unknown early Christian teacher. It is distinct from the Gospel of Barnabas.
Gideons International is an Evangelical Christian association for men founded in 1899 in Janesville, Wisconsin. The Gideons' primary activity, along with their wives in the Auxiliary, is "encouraging each other to do the work of the Lord, focusing on who they are before God, and strengthening the power of their personal testimony for the Lord Jesus Christ". They are most recognized for distributing copies of scripture free of charge, paid for by freewill offerings from local churches and from members themselves. This Bible distribution is a worldwide enterprise taking place in around 200 countries, territories and possessions. The association's members focus on distributing complete Bibles, New Testaments, or portions thereof. These copies are printed in over 108 languages. The association is most widely known for its Bibles placed in lodging rooms. The Gideons also distribute to hospitals and other medical offices, schools and colleges, military bases, as well as jails and prisons. The association was named after the Biblical figure Gideon depicted in the Book of Judges.
A Bible society is a non-profit organization, usually nondenominational in makeup, devoted to translating, publishing, and distributing the Bible at affordable prices. In recent years they also are increasingly involved in advocating its credibility and trustworthiness in contemporary cultural life. Traditionally Bible society editions contain scripture, without any doctrinal notes or comments, although they may include non-sectarian notes on alternate translations of words, or variations in the different available manuscripts.
Red-Letter Christians is a non-denominational movement within Evangelical Christianity. "Red-Letter" refers to New Testament verses and parts of verses printed in red ink, to indicate the words attributed to Jesus without the use of quotation marks.
Matthew 20 is the twentieth chapter in the Gospel of Matthew in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. Jesus continues his final journey through Perea and Jericho, heading towards Jerusalem, which he enters in the following chapter.
El Shaddai or just Shaddai is one of the names of God in Judaism. El Shaddai is conventionally translated into English as God Almighty.
The Deir 'Alla inscription or Balaam inscription, known as KAI 312, is a famous inscription discovered during a 1967 excavation in Deir 'Alla, Jordan. It is currently at the Jordan Archaeological Museum. It is written in a peculiar Northwest Semitic dialect, and has provoked much debate among scholars and had a strong impact on the study of Canaanite and Aramaic inscriptions.
The Blue, Red and Gold Letter Edition of the Holy Bible, or BRG Bible, is a version of the King James translation of the Bible that describes itself as "an advancement of the 'Red Letter' Bible popular among many for over 110 years".
Louis Klopsch was a German-American journalist, publisher, and fundraiser for charitable causes. He originated red letter editions of the Bible.
"Red Letters" is a song performed by American contemporary Christian music singer Crowder. It was released as one of the first singles from his third studio album, I Know a Ghost (2018), alongside "Wildfire" on September 19, 2018. The song peaked at No. 9 on the US Hot Christian Songs chart, becoming his fifth top ten single. "Red Letters" was nominated for the GMA Dove Awards for Song of the Year and Short Form Video of the Year at the 2019 GMA Dove Awards.
The Canaanite and Aramaic inscriptions, also known as Northwest Semitic inscriptions, are the primary extra-Biblical source for understanding of the societies and histories of the ancient Phoenicians, Hebrews and Arameans. Semitic inscriptions may occur on stone slabs, pottery ostraca, ornaments, and range from simple names to full texts. The older inscriptions form a Canaanite–Aramaic dialect continuum, exemplified by writings which scholars have struggled to fit into either category, such as the Stele of Zakkur and the Deir Alla Inscription.