I’ve been waiting years for Rick Renner to release his interpretive version of the Bible, and at last we have James and Jude. I am thrilled!

For those unfamiliar with him, Rick Renner is not only an anointed Bible scholar and teacher, but he also has a tremendous grasp of Koine Greek, which was the form commonly spoken pretty much everywhere in the Roman Empire in Jesus’ time. Add to this technical knowledge his understanding of the culture of the New Testament period, and you have someone uniquely poised to help readers better comprehend this part of the Bible as its original readers would have.

This isn’t a task he took on of his own volition. It developed out of him exegeting the Greek New Testament for himself so that he would understand it better. Not surprisingly, God didn’t let him stop there and even today he’s working on expanding on and sharing what he’s learned. The result, which we have a small part of here, is the Renner Interpretive Version (RIV). Here’s an excerpt from page 1 to help you better understand the book’s intent.

The RIV is a conceptual interpretation of the New Testament that draws on concepts in the Greek language and brings them into the text in a contemporary way to provide a broader comprehension of what is being communicated through Scripture. To be clear, the RIV is not meant to be viewed as a word-for-word translation, but, rather as a conceptual interpretation of the Greek text.

If you are one who generally skips all front matter in favor of leaping directly into a book, I highly suggest you alter your actions for this one. “A Word About the Renner Interpretive Version” not only shares the hows and whys, but also pulls together some facts I’ve never considered before. One paragraph I have highlighted, on page 6, points out that Jesus came at a unique time in history when the Gospel would be able to be preached with relative ease throughout the known world. Why? Because, thanks to the Romans, Koine Greek was spoken by pretty much everyone at least as their second language. As Renner points out, this was the first time since the Tower of Babel that such communication was possible.

Now to the primary text.

Renner starts by introducing James, which lays a foundation for our reading. He then moves on to a parallel of the KJV and RIV, accompanied by extensive footnotes. I kid you not; James 1:1 affected me so deeply that I had to stop and head to my journal to record my thoughts. And then I couldn’t go on any further until I came here to share with you.

Yes, I’m writing this review even though I’ve not even read past page 18! This is unheard of for me, but I don’t want you to have to wait on me and this is a book with which I plan to take my time.

See for yourself.

So we have James 1:1 in the KJV, and immediately below it, shaded in blue, the first part of verse 1 in the RIV. As you can see, Renner has gone to great lengths to share helpful background information in this book. In his more than 1,200 footnotes, the man leaves me feeling like he’s sitting here talking directly to me.

So what sent me to my journal in the middle of my reading? It was seeing, for the first time, the full impact of “servant of God” or, as Paul referred to himself, “bond servant.” I’ve known what it meant to become a bond servant. It’s beautiful, really. It was common for someone to sign a contract to serve a “master” for a set number of years. When that time was up, he was given his wages and was free to leave. However, if he loved his master and couldn’t imagine being happier anywhere else, he could choose to make a lifetime commitment, to bind himself to that master permanently. I, in similar manner, have chosen to bind myself to Christ. But look at how the significance of calling oneself His servant is expressed in the RIV!

…this means my life is dedicated exclusively to doing His will and to faithfully carrying out any assignment He will ever entrust to me.

Too frequently, we gloss over things we see all the time. We may know, on an intellectual level, what words like these mean, but how often do we stop and genuinely think about them as applied to the writers or, vitally important, to ourselves? The writers of the New Testament were deadly serious when they used these expressions. In truth, considering how most of them died, “deadly serious” is pretty literal. These men had committed their entire lives to putting His will before their own. There was no room for them to disagree with their Master or fail to carry out any assignment He gave them.

So yes, I “knew” all of this but, using his understanding of the nuances of the language as well as the culture of the original readers, Renner has crafted a version that forced me to halt in my tracks and think about it, to apply it to my own life. I want to be able to say these same words, that my life is dedicated exclusively to doing His will and to faithfully carrying out any assignment He will ever entrust to me. God is my number 1, but I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that too often self likes to slide up into that higher position, to nudge God to the side for just a little while.

So yes, I find that even in this tiny sample the RIV is proving to be every bit as powerful and impactful as I had expected it to be. James and Jude just became my next focus and this time around this book will be one of my primary references in my studies.

But that’s not all. One feature I very much appreciate is that Renner chose to include two versions of each book. The first is what I’ve described. Immediately following this heavily footnoted copy of James is another copy of the full text without footnotes. In my case, I will start by reading straight through the book of James in this second section, and then I’ll go back to the beginning for my in-depth study including all the footnotes. Once I’ve completed James, I’ll approach Jude the same way.

I’m a big believer in reading and referring to a variety of translations and paraphrases as I experience the Bible. It helps give me a fresh vision, eyes that see things from a different perspective. This book is definitely a treasure to add to my Bible shelf.

The Renner Interpretive Version: James & Jude
is 7.28 x 0.91 x 10.24 inches, and 288 pages

You can purchase it at
Renner.org and Amazon

Celebrating Jesus!
Tammy C

Who am I to be reviewing Bibles? I’m the author of Experiencing the Bible, which is available in paperback, ebook, and audiobook on Amazon.