Bible teachers, Bible students, and Evangelical Christians will especially welcome this edition of the English Standard Version (ESV) published by Crossway. Most Bible lovers will love it too!
In one thick volume, Crossway has packed scholarly but reader-friendly articles and extensive footnotes not usually found in a single study edition. For example, resources include:
Biblical Doctrine: An Overview
Biblical Ethics: An Overview
Interpreting the Bible
Reading the Bible
The Canon Scripture
The Reliability of Bible Manuscripts
Archeology of the Bible
The Original Languages of the Bible
The Septuagint
The Bible in Christianity
The Bible and World Religions
The Bible and Religious Cults
History of Salvation in the Old Testament
Concordance
Daily Bible Reading Plan
Weights and Measures
Map Supplement
And those are just the main headings.
Under each primary topic, you might find two well-researched articles – or a dozen! For instance, the section on “Reading the Bible” includes five articles on five perspectives: reading theologically, reading as literature, reading in prayer, reading for personal application, and reading for preaching and worship.
ESV: The editors deem the ESV “an essentially literal translation,” and I agree, considering it to akin to the New American Standard Bible but more contemporary and updated, which makes sense since it’s a few decades younger.
Binding: The ad shows a hardback cover that works well for any study edition as thick as this. However, the leather cover will last longer, which is important as this edition is one you'll want to carry to Bible study and read a lot.
Size: We’re talking big! So you might want to get two to equalize your balance and get a beneficial workout as you carry a hefty copy in each hand. To be more precise, Amazon stats weigh in the 2752 info-packed pages at 4.3 pounds compressed into 9.6 x 6.8 x 2.2 inches.
Font: The readable text comes in a serif font with the smaller but still readable footnotes in san serif.
More Notes on Notes: The amazingly thorough footnotes occasionally include maps, charts, or whatever is needed to illustrate the text on that particular page. Also, I find that the extensive information in this single volume might take 3 or 4 other study Bibles to find – if then! In addition, this ESV edition should include a code you can use to access the study materials online.
© 2012, ©2015 Mary Harwell Sayler
ESV Study Bible, hardcover
ESV Study Bible, genuine leather, indexed
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Reviews study Bibles, new translations, large print editions, children's Bibles, commentaries, and other Bible resources
April 18, 2012
April 7, 2012
Good News Bible: good to read
Many contemporary English translations, paraphrases, and Bible story books have been published since the Good News Bible came out years ago, but this remains a favorite. Also known as the Today’s English Version (TEV), the translation (not a paraphrase) is crisp, lively, and direct, avoiding the big problem that paraphrased Bibles have in adding too many words when one good word would do!
As soon as you open a TEV, you get the picture. Yes, this is the translation with those amazingly brief yet potent line drawings by Annie Vallotton that look like a quick sketch but totally capture a mood or scene. Those illustrations also illustrate the brevity and clarity of the word choices in the entire translation.
“Entire” describes the TEV, too, because you can get either a version that excludes the “apocryphal” or deuterocanonical books or an edition that includes them. I want it all! So I prefer the latter but have the former since I bought my leather-bound copy, published by Thomas Nelson, in 1976. That edition is no longer available, and maybe it’s just as well since the quality of glue produced a few decades ago does not hold as long as the adhesive used now, so I’ve had to reattach some pages. But then, I’ve read my copy over and over and over, giving hard wear to the easy-to-read pages because this is THE Bible that first let me know what the King James Version actually says!
Hmmm. I just noticed that my brown leather-bound TEV in the photo on the upper right was sitting between the KJV with Apocrypha that I reviewed last time and the Oxford Study Bible, Revised English Bible with the Apocrypha discussed the time before. That wasn't planned, but I like it.
I'd also like it if I could find a duplicate of my beloved brown leather copy of the Good News, but I haven't been able to, so I looked through newer copies on the Internet and found one I’d probably pick today for Today’s English Version. And, in case you haven't guessed, I still highly recommend this translation, produced by the American Bible Association and United Bible Societies, especially for its readability and artwork, both of which are worth serious study by Christian artists, poets, curriculum writers, children, Bible teachers, Bible students, and anyone who likes a "good read" from cover to cover of any kind.
Good News Bible, large print, hardback
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© 2012, Mary Harwell Sayler
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As soon as you open a TEV, you get the picture. Yes, this is the translation with those amazingly brief yet potent line drawings by Annie Vallotton that look like a quick sketch but totally capture a mood or scene. Those illustrations also illustrate the brevity and clarity of the word choices in the entire translation.
“Entire” describes the TEV, too, because you can get either a version that excludes the “apocryphal” or deuterocanonical books or an edition that includes them. I want it all! So I prefer the latter but have the former since I bought my leather-bound copy, published by Thomas Nelson, in 1976. That edition is no longer available, and maybe it’s just as well since the quality of glue produced a few decades ago does not hold as long as the adhesive used now, so I’ve had to reattach some pages. But then, I’ve read my copy over and over and over, giving hard wear to the easy-to-read pages because this is THE Bible that first let me know what the King James Version actually says!
Hmmm. I just noticed that my brown leather-bound TEV in the photo on the upper right was sitting between the KJV with Apocrypha that I reviewed last time and the Oxford Study Bible, Revised English Bible with the Apocrypha discussed the time before. That wasn't planned, but I like it.
I'd also like it if I could find a duplicate of my beloved brown leather copy of the Good News, but I haven't been able to, so I looked through newer copies on the Internet and found one I’d probably pick today for Today’s English Version. And, in case you haven't guessed, I still highly recommend this translation, produced by the American Bible Association and United Bible Societies, especially for its readability and artwork, both of which are worth serious study by Christian artists, poets, curriculum writers, children, Bible teachers, Bible students, and anyone who likes a "good read" from cover to cover of any kind.
Good News Bible, large print, hardback
~~
© 2012, Mary Harwell Sayler
~~
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