In this excelling book the late Jerry Bridges presents a wealth of scripture on the chapter’s subject, “Seeking a Deeper Devotion” to God.
The chapter is divided into seven Sections:
- (an untitled introduction)
- Praying for Growth
- Meditating on God
- Worshipping God
- Fellowship with God
- The Ultimate Test (obedience)
- A Deeper Longing
In the pdf that follows here, I have collected all of Jerry Bridges’s Bible citations in his Ch 4 separately grouped by each of the above Sections. Shown are three different Bible source texts for these citations: NASB95 (New American Standard Bible translation), Young’s Literal Translation (YLT), and the Newberry Greek New Testament. The YLT may not be familiar to the reader. I have found it to be an excellent, faithful translation of the Greek text (to the extent of my limited abilities to make such comparison); its translator, Robert Young (1822-1888), strove to reflect as exactly in English as it was possible (to his abilities) what exists in the original manuscript (mss) of the NT, willing to forgo (largely) smoothness of reading in exchange for precision of translation.
A particular distinctive of Young’s translation is that it was based on the “Received Text” (RT) of the Koine Greek mss. This distinguishes his work from essentially all modern translations which use a mss “apparatus” known as the “Critical Text” (CT). Much debate, not all of it with kindness, has been spawned by the small distinctions between the RT and CT. Simply put, the RT is (approximately) the Koine Greek mss of the KJV (and earlier translations such as Tyndale’s Bible, The Geneva Bible, et. at) whereas the CT is not a single mss but a compendium of mss generally older than those of the RT–hence the term “apparatus” for the source mss rather than a single or few mss as is the primary source document for the RT.
Again, with the exception a relatively few passages the practical distinctions between the RT and CT need not cause anxiety for us ‘ordinary’ believers, however much scholars and a sub-group known as “The King James Only” (KJO) may debate these matters. In almost every instance, the translation differences between the NASB95 and YLT is not attributable to the CT of the NASB as distinguished from the RT of the YLT.
The Koine Greek text in the right-most column (which of course only is shown for NT citations) is from the Newberry edition which, like the YLT, is based (primarily) on the RT with selected reference to CT mss. In contrast, the NASB95 is a translation of a particular CT edition known as NA26 (Nestle Aland, 26th Edition. More recent versions of the NASB, including the Legacy Standard Bible (LSB) deriving from the NASB, rely on NA 28, but in addition reflect certain changes in translation philosophy.
The pdf below was created from Logos S/W “passage list’ tool. It is easy to change the mix of translations used, which I could do if there are special requests.