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The Author
Paul Mallison has a BA Dip Ed from Macquarie University, Sydney. He has spent the majority of his working life teaching students from a cross section of ages and backgrounds. In his work he has composed numerous teaching materials.
Paul’s father was the late Rev. Dr John Mallison, a best-selling Australian author and international educator (cf. Christian Mentoring – John Mallison Ministries). Paul is credited with extensive work on the final drafts of the last two of his father’s books.
Paul considers the theology of his The Bible Unpacked material to be “evangelical”. As for a statement of faith, he adheres to the Apostle’s Creed.
Paul lives in Sydney, Australia. He can be contacted by email.
Reason for TBU
The author was originally moved to begin work on the project in an attempt to develop some material based largely on Bible verses, to give to non-Christians who were open to looking at the Bible’s teachings. Additionally, a non-Christian friend had suggested composing some material containing the Bible’s instructions regarding everyday living. These ideas led to a desire to systematically collate all of the Bible’s teaching and present it in forms applicable to non-Christians as well as to Christians.
Development of TBU
This structure has been derived from Bible verses. In developing the In‑Depth Edition, which all the other editions ultimately come from, Bible verses with common themes were grouped together. These groups were subdivided and ordered. A subheading was given to each group of verses, derived from the common theme of the verses in each group. As such the headings are based on the verses, rather than the verses being selected to support the headings.
These groups or subsections were themselves grouped together. The resulting larger sections were given headings reflecting the overall theme of the subsections within them. These larger sections were in turn grouped together, forming chapters. The chapters were also grouped together, into eight parts – giving the structure below. Thus the structure, despite its symmetry and its 40 chapters, was not simply designed by the author, but ultimately derived from the Bible. Likewise the number of major subsections (365) is not contrived. To see this structure, go to Topics Overview.
Each edition was abbreviated to form the next one down in size. The colors used for the eight parts is consistent across the editions that contain them.
Apart from the In-Depth Edition, there are usually just one or two verses (or short passages) under each subheading. The verses in the Comprehensive Edition – and so ultimately all the other editions – were selected from the original groups of verses under the corresponding subheadings in the In-Depth Edition.
Translations Used
The In-Depth Edition uses the ESV translation (cf. ESV Bible Online). The other editions use a variety of translations. The Intermediate Edition and Comprehensive Edition draw heavily from the NET translation (cf. NET Bible home page). The four shorter editions largely use translations with simple English.
Particularly in the In-Depth Edition, there are numerous quotations of words or phrases from the AMP, CEV, GNT, NASB, NCV™, NIrV®, NIV®, NKJV, NLT and NRSV.
Details of all the translations used are given in the copyright page at the start of each edition of The Bible Unpacked . The author would like to thank the publishers of these translations for their generosity in allowing verses from their translations to be used for this project.