The Rivera Bible Collection (RBC) has been many things. At the top, it was a ministry to glorify God by reintroducing and educating people on biblical truth and translation, sharing our family’s passion for the Word of God. It also was a ministry that grew out of a desire to reach and disciple the current and future generations of Rivera’s. While the name, Rivera Bible Collection, for the website has been rebranded as “Cultivated Faith”, the mission and purpose remain. The RBC remains the name for the physical collection of Bibles and Bible related materials.
The physical collection started in 1976 when for my birthday my parents gave me my first “grown-up” Bible, a black leather KJV Scofield Reference Bible. This was really more of a study Bible. My sister also gave me a Living Bible for my birthday, which was so different than how the KJV read. Along with a plain text KJV Bible, these Bibles were the beginning of the “collection”. As I added a Good News Bible and a New International Version, I also would pick up different study Bibles to help me go deeper into the Word. I didn’t realize what God was in the process of building; I had no plan or idea of gathering a collection of Bibles. I just liked Bibles and books about the Bible like ancient near east histories, and atlases.
By end of 2020, the RBC had amassed 220 items. The collection included 156 Bibles (whole or partial), 136 were unique English translations representing 77 translation families. To put these crazy numbers in context, realize that there have been upwards of 1,000 translations of all or parts of the Bible into English since the 7th century. Since the end of the 19th century, there have been nearly 400 translations. And it is ever-growing!
The emphasis of the RBC Collection (the physical collection) is to gather, preserve, and display examples of Protestant English translations of the Bible mostly from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The hope is to acquire complete sets of various translation families. To be clear, the goal is not to collect every Bible version produced. As the numbers above show, that would be almost beyond imagining. The goal is to collect Bibles that are significant and of interest to the curators. Some novelty Bibles, such as the Action Bible, have been added to the collection. This type of Bible will be kept to a minimum. At times non-Protestant and non-English Bibles will also be added. This should not be taken that we feel there is anything wrong with non-Protestant Bible or non-English translations (there are already some in the collection) but they will not be the focus of the collection. We will even add bad and heretical translations such as the Jehovah Witness’ New World Translation or the Passion Translation so we can learn to counter poor theology passed long by these bad translations and in the process gain a better understanding of why correct translation is so vital.
While we have provided the physical space where we could more than double the size of the RBC Collection, we want to be very selective about what is added. From time to time, we will add duplicate translations, these duplicates will be the exception, not the rule. For example, we may add a special edition of a duplicate translation that is of special interest, like the Waterproof Bible which is a duplicate of the English Standard Version 2016 already in the collection, but which I like because I can read it in a hot tub or floating in Jesse and Jennifer’s pool😊!
For the sake of clarity, understand when we say “Edition” we are referring to a particular rendering of a translation. The biblical text of say a NASB95 (New American Standard Bible Update 1995) has been published in all kinds of layouts, covers, and features. What we want in the RBC is one copy of the NASB95. As stated above, we would prefer to not add duplication translation to the collection. To keep duplicates to a minimum when we acquire a new translation, we will get it in an edition type such as a particular study Bible we do not have. This will not only give us one copy of a translation but also an example of an edition type.
Along with Bibles, the collection houses books, DVDs, and other media on subjects such as translation philosophy and methods, English translation history, biographies of significant contributors to the translation of the Bible into English, biblical background (e.g., history of Israel, the culture of the ancient world, atlases) and doctrinal works on revelation, inspiration, inerrancy, and biblical authority. Various works of art are included as a part of the collection such as sculptures, bookends, dioramas, and pictures.
To learn more about how we count Bibles in the collection and what we mean by the various terms we use, check out our post: “How Bibles are Counted in the RBC”.
Until the next time we see you here at CultivatingFaith.org, God Bless! #CultivatingFaithOrg