Author: John Bunyan
Carefully translated from the original seventeenth century text and further edited and annotated by
L. Edward Hazelbaker
Publisher: Bridge-Logos
Published: 1998
Paperback: 528 pages
This book is available on Amazon.com, ChristianBook.com, BarnesAndNoble.com, BooksaMillion.com, and other outlets.
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Description
Now in modern English and packed full of helpful features, this new edition will enable you to enjoy this "classic of classics" with greater understanding—more than ever before.
The Pilgrim's Progress has been called the greatest allegory ever written. Its appeal sweeps across the scope of age, intellect, and education. Children read it for the excitement of the story; all believers are challenged and trained by its invaluable teaching; Bible students and scholars alike read it for its depth of doctrine.
Just as relevant today as it was when John Bunyan wrote it from his cell in prison, The Pilgrim's Progress is the story of every Christian—from the first stirrings of the Holy Spirit beckoning us to follow Christ to our final arrival in the Celestial City of God.
Many recognize this book (the most-popular of Bunyan's writings) to be the one book that has out-sold all other books written and published in English—outside of the Bible—since it was first published in 1678. The Pilgrim's Progress has been used in all levels of education to teach English literature, and for over three hundred years Bunyan's Pilgrim has held a place of honor on the bookshelves of multitudes of Christian households the world over.
L. Edward Hazelbaker found such value in Bunyan's remarkable work that he undertook the project of translating/updating, and annotating this book. He began the work not only because he felt moved by the Holy Spirit to do so but also because he determined that even if his manuscript were never published, the substantial work would be worth it if only his own children could benefit from the book's story. According to Hazelbaker:
I was raised in church, and the King James Bible was all I knew. I also attended a Christian school, so I have always been pretty familiar and comfortable with the seventeenth century English. I read The Pilgrim's Progress as a young person, and since I found it so valuable, I decided to read it to my children. That did not really work out well; they just had a hard time following it. Bunyan's original work is even harder to follow for today's readers than the King James Version of the Bible because it contains so much colloquial content. Also, not only words have changed over the last three hundred years, sentence structure and punctuation has changed a lot, too.
Hazelbaker's goal was to make Bunyan's work more available and easily understood by modern readers while carefully staying true to the original author's purpose. He certainly was successful in that effort.
This is an unabridged version of Bunyan's classic carefully revised in modern English. In addition to updating the language, Hazelbaker researched and added hundreds of additional Scripture references and annotations to those included by the original author. This book was helpfully divided into 34 logical chapters, and to aid serious readers in studying Bunyan's work, he also developed an index of meaningful words, names, titles, places, and characters.