On my desk at home I have the following study Bibles, in no
particular order: the NLT Study Bible, the NKJV Study Bible, the ESV Study
Bible, the Reformation Study Bible (2015 edition), the CEB Study Bible, and the
Reformation Heritage KJV Study Bible. In my office at school I have at least
the following (there may be more, but since I’m not there right now, I’ll
probably miss some): the 1599 Geneva Bible, the Harper-Collins Study Bible (1st
and 2nd editions), and the Apologetics Study Bible. In the past I
have also owned the NIV Study Bible, the Open Bible, the Thompson
Chain-Reference Bible, and no doubt others. In addition, there are dozens more
study Bibles on the market, some for general use, and many intended for niche
markets.
There are two strengths to study Bibles. First, they all
include helps to understanding the message of the Bible. These usually include
introductions to the books of the Bible, a concordance, maps, timelines,
additional theological notes, and brief running comments on the biblical text.
In that sense, they are a mini-library for biblical study. For ordinary
Christian folks, who have neither the time, the training, nor the patience to
labor through larger commentaries, Bible encyclopedias, and other reference
works, these Bibles can be an immense help for working through what is often a
puzzling book.
Second, because of the helps the reader can often be
directed away from dangerous misunderstandings of the Bible that are
promulgated by various cults. Or the reader may misread something, due to a
failure to understand the language. Study Bibles can generally help the reader
avoid these kinds of mistakes.
But study Bibles also have shortcomings. In order to keep
the size of the Bible within a reasonable scope (the ESV Study Bible really
pushes the envelope here, at almost 2,800 pages) something has to give. Generally
what is lost is commentary on the text itself. Comments on difficult passages
are often the first to suffer in this regard. Comments can be terse to the
point of being incomprehensible. The comments are usually written by
specialists on the various books of the Bible, who sometimes do not have a good
sense of what the ordinary reader needs. In that sense, it can be like the old
computer “help” manuals. They were written by the people who wrote the
programs, so they did not understand the needs of the computer-illiterate user.
Second, study Bibles can interfere with actually reading the
Bible. Having the text of the Bible surrounded with cross-references,
commentary, devotional paragraphs, and theological notes easily distracts the
reader from actual reading. They are Bibles, as the name says, for study, not
for reading.
Do I recommend study Bibles? Yes, for study. My current
preferences are for the new edition of the Reformation Study Bible and the
Reformation Heritage KJV Study Bible. The former is a significant improvement
over its previous edition, with better and clearer commentary, as well as
improved additional materials. The latter, while being somewhat hobbled by the
KJV, is a very fine resource for family worship.
However, in addition to a study Bible, I also recommend a
reading Bible. My preference here is for the ESV Reader’s Bible. Until you
begin to read a Bible such as this one, you will not realize how distracting
verse numbers, chapter divisions, and textual notes can be to the progress of
your reading. It is much easier to read continuously without those
distractions, and that continuous reading helps the reader to get a good grasp
of the big picture of the Bible.
3 comments:
Dr. Shaw, I visited your church a few weeks ago (you were traveling that day, I believe) and met your courteous wife.
You might be interested in a little presentation I did on reader's Bibles: Why Bible Typography Matters.
Thanks, Mark. I have watched that video before. Very much appreciate your work.
The Reverend Mr. James Erskine Moore, who was the Reverend Dr. Morton H. Smith's pastor when Dr. Smith was in high school and college, believed that every Christian (or Christian family) should have a religious library with a minimum of three books: a text Bible (Mr. Moore preferred the KJV); an exhaustive concordance (he preferred Young's); and a one-volume Bible Commentary (he preferred the New Bible Commentary).
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