Is it wrong to have pictures of Jesus in a children's Bible?

Yes, according to the Reformed understanding of the second commandment, images of God and Christ are forbidden, and children's Bibles with pictures of Jesus constitute a violation of that commandment.

Are children's Bibles acceptable for Christian families?

Children's Bibles without images of Jesus may serve a limited purpose, but parents are primarily called to teach their children from the actual Bible, building familiarity with its language and verses from an early age.

How should a parent evaluate a children's Bible?

A good children's Bible must accurately represent the sense of Scripture without obscuring meaning through loose paraphrase, and it should not contain pictures of Jesus or other images that violate the second commandment.

Why does God save people through the Word rather than through images?

Scripture itself is the ordained means by which God saves sinners and edifies his people, and therefore it is to the Word — not to visual representations — that Christians should direct themselves and their children.

Ask FGBC #40: Is It Okay to Have Children’s Bibles With Pictures of Jesus?

Pictures of Jesus in Children's Bibles

Is it okay to have children's Bibles with pictures of Jesus in them? I think that's another simple answer. I think the answer is no. We believe, traditionally, the Reformed believe, with respect to the second commandment, that images of God and Christ, of course, are forbidden.

Do you want to elaborate on that one? I think, yeah, that's the basic argument. It's a second commandment violation when you have pictures of Jesus. And again, I know that there's a lot of people that say, well, that's not what the second commandment means.

Well, we could have that debate or we could have that argument. You know, children's Bibles per se, pictureless children's Bibles, I get the desire to make it simpler and to make it understandable for children, so I don't necessarily have an ax to grind with that, but I do think teaching your kids to read and read their own Bibles is probably the number one option. Again, not denigrating the place of a pictureless children's Bible, or there can be pictures of trees. plants and fish and birds and all that. But, yeah, and, you know, explaining simply when you read Scripture can do that work as well.

Yeah.

Good Intentions, Wrong Method

I think there's a, you know, there's a measure of sentimentality and I think good intentions on the part of parents and family members because they want their children to learn more about God, to learn more about the Lord Jesus Christ. and to bring a measure of excitement and familiarity and to sort of have some measure of connection. But I think, as Jim mentioned, a great exercise would be in instructing those children in the Word of God from the Bibles that we have in order that as they grow, they have a knowledge of language, they have a knowledge of these sentences, they have a knowledge of the verses and how the Bible reads and to avail of the Word and not images because it is by the Word of God that God saves sinners and how God edifies his people. And so we go by the Word and certainly not by the picture and certainly not by pictures that violate the second commandment.

Evaluating Children's Bibles

And in the children's Bible market, some are better than others. I think it's due diligence on the part of the parents to find the good ones. You know, things that change meaning or things that paraphrase in a way that obscures meaning, I would stay away from that. Just like I'd stay away from an adult translation that obscured rather than shown the light upon the glory of God's Word.

Yeah. And if you're going after a children's Bible, you know, tear out all the pictures and make sure it's a good, good, accurate summary, because that's ultimately what it's going to do. It's going to summarize or paraphrase biblical text, but it has to do that properly. It cannot give up the sense of scripture to communicate to little Johnny.

Yeah. Yeah, I agree with that.

Christ's Physical Presence and Images

But I was getting to thinking if Jesus came today, well first, much of the church would reject him. But secondly, his picture would be in the media and everywhere, right? I don't think he'd say, take it down or don't take pictures of me. He's like, I'm a man, right?

Yeah, well, and you know, I think there's a difference between Christ himself being here and an image construction by the vanity of man's mind. They embellish. And in the fullness of the time, it was not the age of smartphones and cameras. God orchestrated that according to his purpose and plan.