Today I received a gem of a resource in the mail from Zondervan: The Reader’s Hebrew and Greek Bible. it’s the combined text of their “Readers” versions of the Greek NT and the Hebrew OT, complete with all the glosses, glossaries, and notes.  Pretty sweet. It’s over 2200 pages and retails for $79.95. Anyone who’s had a year of Greek and Hebrew (and actually did well, and has retained a decent amount of vocabulary) ought to have one to nurture and maintain their reading skill. Really. It’s designed to provide English glosses for words that are uncommon so you can develop reading facility in the text. While I don’t encourage it, it’s a nice thing to have in the pew if the sermon gets dull (hey, like B. B. Warfield said, if there’s no fire in the pulpit, it needs to start in the pew).

So why give it away?

Well, I already have both halves and take them to church now. Granted, I like the notion of having them both in one volume (but come to think of it, that would make me look less geeky). However, the others are worn and so I can’t give them away. Since I don’t need two versions, one of my lucky readers will get my brand spanking new copy.

Now for the catch–how to decide who gets it?

I thought the most interesting thing to do would be to trade it for something, so here’s the idea. For the next two weeks (up until tax time, April 15), I’ll entertain offers by email: mshmichaelsheiser@gmail.com. Whoever comes up with the coolest / most interesting thing to trade me will win the Hebrew and Greek Bible. The possibilities are myriad. I like books, so maybe that will be the trade (check my blogs and websites for the kind of stuff that catches my eye). I also like black tea (except for Earl Grey), baseball (no Yankee gear, please), football (keep your Vikings paraphernalia), tinkering with websites and blogs (how to do things better), Dilbert, WWII stuff, clever satire and parody, geeky gadgets, (certain) old time radio shows, science fiction movies, the X-Files, and classic comedy shows from my past (Get Smart, Three Stooges – no, I’m not that old – that sort of thing).

Let’s trade!