Jesus and the Gospels: An Introduction and Survey

Jesus and the Gospels: An Introduction and Survey by Craig Blomberg is in March Madness at $15.01. The second edition of the same book is now in prepub at $22.95. Is the second edition worth waiting for or should I go with the March Madness sale? It will probably be a while until it is released out of prepub.

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David Wilson

Cannot really tell: from what I saw in the "sample pages" shown for the second edition, I could not see any substantial difference from what is in the first edition.
Maybe others have better eyes for detail and I missed the updates, or maybe the updates are elsewhere in the volume. The write-up for the second edition sugests there have been numerous updates. Would like an idea of what they, rather than just that there are some, are before I commit to a copy of the second edition. Some second editions are substantially changed and well worth getting a copy, some second editions include only a minor inconsequential changes. I join you in asking anyone with a "dead tree" copy of each to tells us if the revisions/additions are substantial and worth the full price of the second edition.

I would like to see publishers move away from the "dead-tree" model for electronic second editions and instead go to an upgrade price for first edition owners based on the substance of the revisions/additions. IF they did that, it would matter a lot less how you decided to act on this matter as you would be paying a lower price on the second edition if you bought the first edition now. BUT we are not there YET. Because we are not there YET the overall revenues from an electronic second edition are probably a LOT lower than they could be, as I expect there are quite a lot of people who dislike paying again for the majority of the text without ANY of the advantages of now having a second copy they can loan or give away. In every case that I can think of, with the current model the first edition becomes just electronic waste if you get a the second edition. There may be a few exceptions but none come to mind.

I tend to decline most new editions based on the outdated "dead-tree" model of "pay again the same as a new owner" being applied to new electronic editions. Moving to an upgrade price model would help to compensate for the fact that it would cost more than a first edition price (in this case) to give the first edition to another user. It would also help to compensate for the lack of loanability in these electronic editions. Currently publishers seem to want to retain for themselves all the traditional "advantages" of the dead tree model yet deny many of the user advantages of that model to the new electronic edition world (like no cost ownership transfers and loanability). This will change: the current model makes little sense except to those who evolved in the "dead tree" culture who do not yet see the extent of differences in the electronic edition world and are still substantially paper book based in their mind-set. One price fits all does not work very well for marketting new editions of most software and the same principle applies to electronic book revisions. We should not have to pay again for the original code/text, just the improvements, and how much we are willing to pay will be based on the value of the improvements not the value of the original (which we already have). Once that concept clicks with a new generation in publisher marketting then we will have a winner. Until then only a "few" second editions will be worth paying again. Maybe this is one that is worth $22.95 for the improvements. Maybe there was a problem selling any copies of the old first edition to today's students so it had to be revised. Not immediately obvious from what I see on the page:

https://www.logos.com/product/30940/jesus-and-the-gospels-an-introduction-and-survey-2nd-ed

https://www.logos.com/product/7230/jesus-and-the-gospels (with March madness discount not applied)

Nevertheless, would recommend you get either/or but not neither.

NB.Mick

Jesus and the Gospels: An Introduction and Survey by Craig Blomberg is in March Madness at $15.01. The second edition of the same book is now in prepub at $22.95. Is the second edition worth waiting for or should I go with the March Madness sale? It will probably be a while until it is released out of prepub.

I personally think Logos should give owners of a prior edition a rebate of say 50% on whatever price they pay for the updated one. This would probably be a fair deal - and otherwise there's too little impulse to go for a new edition if one owns the old one (e.g. I decided against going for the 3rd edition of Erickson's Systematic Theology).

That said, I do own the first edition and signed up for the new one after reading into the preface on Amazon.com, where Blomberg basically states that this is really an overhaul after twenty-plus years, incorporating current scholarship etc. It sounded convincing (and after all, I like reading Blomberg). I think it may be years until I have to pay for it, though.

Erwin

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/473554#Comment_473554

When reading the sample pages in the first chapter in Amazon I noticed that over half the footnotes and half of the recommended resources were published after the first edition was released. This seems to indicate a major updating of the work. I really cannot believe that anyone would purchase the old addition if they have the opportunity to purchase the new one. As to the price, when you buy a new edition of a book you usually do not get a discount the revised edition. It's a new resource. The changes in this (ie references, foot notes, ....) are different enough to warrent the price charged for the work being brought out.

Graham Criddle

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/473495#Comment_473495

Hi David

https://www.logos.com/product/7230/jesus-and-the-gospels (with March madness discount not applied)

This is not the book by Blomberg.

His is at https://www.logos.com/product/3379/jesus-and-the-gospels-an-introduction-and-survey

By just looking at page numbers, there is more material in the updated edition - for example in my paper copy of the 2nd edition it has the section on "Jesus as Fulfillment of the Feast of Tabernacles" on page 345 whereas on the "look inside" preview on the product page for the 1st edition this is shown on page 297.

This is consistent with the first edition having 440 pages and the second having 512.

Scanning through the online preview of the first edition and my paper copy of the second I saw some added material but there wasn't enough to really get a good feel for the differences.

Graham