Reddit reviews ESV Study Bible
We found 26 Reddit comments about ESV Study Bible. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
Crossway Books
Reddit reviews ESV Study BibleWe found 26 Reddit comments about ESV Study Bible. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Study-Bible-Crossway-Bibles/dp/1433502410
My suggestion for a first Bible. The ESV study Bible is loaded with commentary and theologically balanced information for almost every verse. It has a well made binding and comes with color photos and clear print.
To expound a bit on /u/tbown's excellent response to /u/RomanticScorpio, the books in the Catholic Bible Reformed Christians do not consider to be part of the canon of scripture are as follows (all in the Old Testament):
Again, there's nothing wrong with reading these books, just don't use them to form your beliefs. For many years they were included in Calvinist Bibles in a separate section labeled "Apocrypha" with a note saying they should be used to establish scripture. All three branches of the Reformation considered them to be useful and good to read, just not inspired scripture.
You also might want to be careful with any explanatory notes (I don't know if your Bible has these or not). These will understandably be from a Catholic perspective. Reformed believers will likely agree with many of them, but others we might disagree.
Other than those two issues, the NAB is a perfectly fine translation. I know several Reformed Christians who use the revised edition as their primary Bible.
If you decide to get a new Bible, the ESV is probably the most popular among Reformed Christians, but there are plenty of good translations out there, such as the NIV, RSV, HCSB, NASB, etc. If you want a Bible with study notes, the Reformation Study Bible and ESV Study Bible are both good choices.
Most importantly, the best Bible is the one you read.
What books was I reading?
The Bible
Doctrine: What Christians Should Believe
God, Marriage, and Family
As a great starting point, I'd recommend the ESV Study Bible. It's very popular and can be found in many stores that sell Bibles, or you can order it from someplace like Amazon. (no affiliate code ;-)
There's been an incredible amount of scholarship done on the Bible. The ESV is one of the most recent translations done from the oldest original language sources by a team of many dozens of historical and linguistic experts over the course of a number of years. It was even updated twice since originally published when other Biblical scholars offered suggestions for minor changes. Similarly, the ESV study Bible includes very detailed notes by various scholars to explain things from the context that would have been known already to the original readers. The general term for Bible editions which include this type of information is "study Bible", but the ESV study Bible includes more detailed notes than any other I've seen. If you actually wanted even more detail than that, you'd want to move into separate commentary volumes, which can range from one to dozens of books going into the most ridiculous level of detail for any given verse.
As an aside, as others have already pointed out, OP was writing with great information on the historical background of the Greek-speaking world, but probably not the same perspective that Paul, a Greek-educated Jew, would have held.
Short answer:
Buy one of the new ESV study bibles. It's very readable and has copious notes and references. If you ever want to use external references, a "King James Version", or "KJV" is very handy to have because so many reference works use it.
Less-short answer:
I am not an expert or a professional, but I am an interested amateur. I asked that same question myself a long time ago, and still years later learn more about the issues surrounding "bible versions" every month.
Different translations have different goals. Some are more literal and focus on translation of the words themselves. Some others are called dynamic and translate the intent of the words into modern equivalents. A common example would be the phrase "not one jot or tittle shall pass from the law", which really doesn't have experiential meaning to us today. A literal translation would keep "jot and tittle" (or iota and keraia in Greek, Yod and kots in Hebrew), whereas a dynamic translation might say "dot of an i, or cross of a t", which would have more meaning for us while keeping the spirit of the original and being close in the actual wording as well. Then you have the paraphrase bibles that just reword it into very readable form, but not necessarily keeping the words or structure of the original. In the same example, a paraphrase might say "not even the tinest part". Rather than giving specific examples of each version type, just know that the search phrases would be "dynamic", "literal", and "paraphrase".
Also, if we had a clear "original", there would be far fewer versions. Everything we have is a copy, and there are so many manuscripts and fragments with slightly different readings, and what weight the translators place on the different manuscripts and or manuscript heritage determines what they're translating from, much less how they choose to translate it to the target language. The existence of so many manuscripts with slightly different portions in them has made more than one christian lose his faith. However, once you remove obvious copying errors, like the easy-to-make error of dropping of the end of a sentence and continuing from that same word in a later sentence, the similarities in the manuscripts is far larger than the differences. I have heard 99% is the same, but I don't know for sure.
One thing I'd like to mention is that when asking this question, eventually a KJV-onlyist person will answer, and try to scare you away from any non-KJV versions. Since you're not christian, it probably won't matter to you, but should you ever become a believer, I want to say that many of their arguments for the superiority of the KJV are not good arguments, though I won't go into a big list here. While most (including me) think the KJV is a good translation, KJV-onlyists have the opinion that any versions other than the KJV are designed to fill your head with lies.
Long-answer:
There are many books on this subject, and probably hundreds of Web sites.
My favorite version and why here. It's not that I don't want to put forth effort for you, just that I already have (the comment I've linked too is very thorough). Long story short I've found NASB and ESV to be most literal of the ones I've used.
You might want to consider the ESV Study Bible as it would give you plenty of commentary to go off of. It was awarded 2009 Bible of the Year and Book of the Year by the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association.
I heard someone say not to trust someone if they are too adamant about one version or another. In my case I push NASB or ESV 'cause I've done a good bit of translating for school and in my opinion, they are the most literal.
On The Message and other Paraphrases: This sort of thing would be detestable for any other book. Imagine if someone told you they were reading The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn except all the cultural references were "updated" to modern ones and anything hard to understand was rewritten so 21st century readers could understand it better? In a way, that might be neat, but that person still hasn't read the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. They're reading something altogether different.
Hey Peach,
First, regarding the Bible, I HIGHLY recommend that you pick up a Study Bible. These include maps, thorough explanations of particular words and verses, and even great intros and summaries of individual books. They're fantastic because you basically get the insight of hundreds of Biblical scholars for $20. I would recommend the ESV study Bible. If I were you, stay away from the King James version since it uses outdated/difficult/boring language and less accurate translations.
2.) C.S. Lewis was an atheist who became a Christian thanks to a sincere examination of Christianity and due to the influence of his close friend J.R.R. Tolkien (author of Lord of the Rings/The Hobbit). Lewis' Mere Christianity lays out the argument for Christianity from the viewpoint of a former atheist. I, too, was a lifelong atheist but was convinced of the truth of Christianity through this book.
In my opinion, single volume commentaries are always going to be frustratingly brief. I usually advise people to study one biblical book and buy one or two good commentaries on that book. Buying a whole series is more expensive and will put books on your shelf you may not use for a while (like that Obadiah commentary....)
Sometimes you are better off with a serious Study Bible, and there are plenty of those. I often recommend the ESV Study Bible, which is mostly conservative. There are many essays in the appendices which are with the price of the book. If you are interested in background material, try the NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible. Also on the conservative side of the spectrum, but it has good notes from John Walton and Craig Keener.
If you insist on a one voume commentary, the venerable Jerome Bible Commentary edited by Raymond Brown (and others) is very good, with a Catholic perspective. It is one of the larger one volume commentaries and can be found used inexpensively.
Hopefully someone else can add their voice to the conversation.
I recommend the ESV Study Bible. The ESV strives to take as few translation liberties (similar to the NRSV) while remaining accessible to readers. The notes are detailed and robust. I use one for most of my work in Seminary.
I find study bibles to be the most helpful because they have very detailed notes at the bottom of each page as well as thorough introductions. That way, if you get hung up on something, there are references. Also, Bible Gateway allows you to type in a verse or book and see what other translations have for that verse. Very nice for comparison
Maybe Orthodox posters can provide a better opttion but on Amazon, this is the top Orthodox study bible
ESV study Bible is a favorite among a lot of r/Christianity posters
Good luck with your journey, brother
I've put shameless plugs of this Bible on r/Christianity before, because it's just amazing. Every translation is flawed and biased, since ancient hebrew and greek had very limited vocabularies, which included words that have multiple translations to English.
If you want to keep to the KJV, I'd still recommend a more modern translation just for comparison sake. That Bible I linked to contains extensive commentary in the footnotes of each page (here's an example, it's a very large picture).
If you'd rather not go out and spend the money on another Bible, then research commentaries. Look for the least bias, as some denominations or organizations will put out their own commentaries that reflect their personal translational beliefs.
I'd also recommend looking into different plans on how to read the Bible. Obviously you should read Genesis - Deuteronomy together, as well as the Kings, Samuels, and Chronicles. Different sections of the Bible correspond to different events and situations, but it's really up to you.
It depends on how you want to read it. Most (if not all) Christians read the old testament through the lens of Jesus, so it may be beneficial to read the new testament first. On the other hand Christianity comes out of Jewish tradition so it would also be good to read O.T. first.
Some people find bible study plans where you read a book of the O.T. then switch to a book of the N.T.
Any way you choose, I suggest getting a study bible. They are great for giving cultural context and background to what you are reading. Try the ESV (English Standard Version) Study bible.
http://www.amazon.ca/gp/aw/d/1433502410
I apologize in advance if this seems preachy or me trying to influence you, that's not my intention. I just want to help you understand what Christianity really is. There's lots of confusion.
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First, you don't have to be baptized to get saved, or go to heaven (Jesus told one of the criminals on the cross that "today you will be with me in paradise.", and he didn't get baptized). Baptism is a demonstration of your faith, but not a prerequisite to salvation.
Second, be careful any time you start adding/removing parts of the Bible, that you aren't doing so just because you don't like it. Because if that's the case, you will end up worshiping a god of your own creation, rather than the God of all Creation. (not saying that there are no transcription/translation errors in the Bible, but just be careful, and make sure you have substantial evidence [not just the opinions of random guys on the internet] supporting your decision).
 
But to address your worry about not being a "true Christian" for a while: Christianity is not about following rules, going to church, or trying to do good. These are all byproducts of Christianity, but if you try to just go after these, you WILL fail (1). Being a Christian is just about making a decision that you will give the creator of the universe complete and total control of your life (2).
The benefits of this, is that when we seek after God (try to get to know him better through prayer and reading the Bible), all those things people think are Christianity will start to show up in your life. You don't have to stop drinking, but you'll want to at some point once you have spent time with God.
 
And as far as finding a denomination, I'd suggest a careful, methodical approach: be incredibly suspicious of anything the pastor says, and do your own research. Pastor says healing is not for today? Go up to him after service and ask him (politely) where you can find more reading about how he came to that opinion. Pastor says healing is for today, but not for everyone? Same thing. Pastor says healing is for today, but and is for everyone? Ditto.
Combine that with constant prayer asking God to show you the right church for you, and you should find the right one in God's time. (I personally had to do this, since I grew up non-denominational, and then moved out of state to a small-ish city for work, and had to find a new church to go to). You may not find a church you 100% agree with, but before leaving after a small disagreement, ask yourself how important your disagreement is. Is the pastor saying Jesus wasn't actually the Christ? Probably time to find a new church (is that even a church at that point?). Does the pastor say God's favorite color is red? Maybe not a big deal.
Another thing to look at is the results of the ministry. (3) If the church is changing peoples lives for the better, then it's probably a good church (maybe not your church, but a good church none the less).
Make sure you take time observing any church you go to though. You can't tell how good or bad a car is in a glance. Sure you can notice if something's really bad, but some problems don't show up unless you take your time to really examine the car, and/or give them time to exasperate.
 
Bottom line is, think analytically about scripture, compare that to what's being preached, and judge (examine) the ministry by the effects they have on those around them.
 
P.S. Strong's Concordance, and a good study Bible (4) are essential tools to study and understand the original text, to check for translation errors. I prefer physical copies, but you can find Strong's and plenty of free study bibles here. The Strong's is like a Dictionary for Greek and Hebrew words, so if aren't sure of the meaning of a word, you can look it up there. Study Bibles are great resources for looking up if a verse or group of verses mean what you think they mean (obviously this one is more subject to the author's opinion).
 
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(1) "all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God", Rom 3:23. The Greek word translated sin means continuous, habitual, intentional disobedience to God.
(2) The Greek word translated "Lord" in Romans 10:9 is the same word used to describe slave-masters. So we should consider God in this way. We submit our lives to him, not on a case-by-case basis, but overall, in every area. Note that this does not become a reality immediately, but is instead a continuous process of change.
(3) "You can identify them by their fruit, that is, by the way they act. [...] A good tree produces good fruit, and a bad tree produces bad fruit." Matt 7:16-17.
(4) the link is to my favorite (and a theologically neutral) study bible. It puts things into context, giving you insight into the culture of the time, and scholar's notes on events and their significance. Obviously remember that the study texts are the opinions of a man, or group of men, and are not infallible.
I would highly recommend the ESV Study Bible, it's a pretty big Bible so not exactly a pocket version but it is packed full of great information to help in your Bible study!
http://smile.amazon.com/ESV-Study-Bible-Crossway-Bibles/dp/1433502410/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1450746634&sr=1-1&keywords=esv+study+bible
This is one that I really like a lot. A ton of background information for any verse or passage out there.
The ESV study bible is a great one
Agreed I 100% reccommend the ESV
This Study Bible is absolutely amazing for such a great price! It has so much study content to better understand the bible, and is great for people new to english as well
However KJV and NIV are prefectly fine, KJV is quite hard to understand, because it uses much older slang I guess is the word. NIV is great as well, I just find ESV more useful. I do see many teenagers and grade schoolers utilizing NIV as it is found in bibles like the message and a popular teenage bible that I forget the name of.
In conclusion I reccomend ESV :)
I carry Crossway's ESV study bible around on my Kindle and the YouTrack Bible app on my phone.
My main physical bible is a leather bound copy of the New Oxford Annotated Bible (NRSV study bible). I also have The Source New Testament which is a secular translation.
There are book son the history of interpretation. Has the church always got it right? No. But, there has always been a consistent core of beliefs that are on the text plainly read. However, it's also become apparent as of late that reading books of the Bible according to genre with an eye to it's cultural context yields great results. If you want to read more on this, a book that has become pretty helpful to this would be How To Read The Bible For All Its Worth
Another book on the subject would be the book Grasping God's Word. Covers hermeneutics and exegesis and the latest ideas shaping those areas. Great for beginners. I should add that a Good study bible, like the [ESV Study Bible](http://www.amazon.com/ESV-Study-Bible-Crossway- Bibles/dp/1433502410/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1324140894&sr=1-1) will cover a lot of these issues. Lately I've found great use from the ESV Literary Study Bible. They authors highlight all the literary styles and genres and motifs in the Bible. The glossary in the back is worth the price of it alone. Reading books of the Bible with their genre in my mind has been SO enlightening.
A lot depends upon the resources that you have at your disposal. If you don't have any physical resources (books, commentaries, etc) then you can find most of what you need online. So let's start with resources and then go on to techniques. I'm going to assume that you don't know things, so please don't be offended if I explain something that you already know.
There's a great program available for PC called e-Sword and it allows you to have access to a ton of different Bible translations, commentaries, word studies, and other resources all for free. You also have the option of purchasing additional study material from within the program, but I've found that the free options are quite extensive.
I highly recommend buying at least one study Bible if you don't already have one. The one that I currently use is the ESV Study Bible. There's a Kindle version if you don't want a physical copy, but I prefer a physical copy.
I used to have a hard-copy concordance, but I actually got rid of it because I found myself using electronic versions more. If you don't already know, a concordance is just a giant index. It lets you look up a word (baptism, salvation, propitiation, whatever...) and it gives you a list of all the verses in the Bible that use that word. It can be very useful if you're doing a word study (more on that later). You can find them online or download them (like e-Sword or any other similar tool), so a physical copy isn't necessary.
Once you have those, you're ready to start. So now what?
Well, there are several different ways to study the Bible. If you don't already have a copy, I highly recommend Rick Warren's Bible Study Methods. Regardless of what you think about Rick Warren, that book is a very practical hands-on discussion of different methods of studying the Bible. If memory serves, he covers most (if not all) of the methods I'll talk about.
Now, onward!
There are other methods, of course, but that should give you a good start. Hopefully this is helpful.
Get a study Bible. The bottom third of the page is explanations of the text above and it gives you a lot of background information on the book before you read it. I have the ESV study Bible. It's pretty sweet.
The Bible is a very important book in human history. Even if you don't believe in it's religion, reading it can make you more aware and enlightened.
I wouldn't try to skip over parts, just read it from beginning to end. I would also recommend one of the modern translations, such as ESV (English Standard Version) instead KJV (King James Version), unless you like reading ole english. If you really want to get the most out of it, you might want to get a study bible. Something like this
to help get more information, i suggest reading the notes in a study bible that correspond with your reading (ESV Study Bible) or get a book like "Talk Thru the Bible" by Wilkinson & Boa.
These will help with understanding key concepts, date, setting, author, themes, purposes, and provide outlines and maps to really understand why certain books/passages are in the Bible and what they mean.
And, ask questions of trusted individuals about stuff that doesn't make sense.
>It seems to me that there is a slight logical fallacy here - accepting that the story of Jesus was written down with sufficient haste to preserve a solid core of historical fact does not necessarily mean that there is no embellishment.
Well-taken point!
In this case, our analysis becomes much more complex. We need to start cross-referencing doctrinal points from the various New Testament documents and seeing how they overlap, keeping in mind the respective dates and historical context of each document. (Another separate tactic is to see what doctrines the early-sourced creeds affirm.) Of course, this is far too much for a reddit post.
However, I do believe the scholars who have done this will tell you that the central and important doctrines of Christianity (the foremost being Christ's death and Resurrection) are very well-supported from this method.
>I'm considering buying a study bible - do you have any recommendations?
I do, in fact! :) Here is a link to the ESV Study Bible which I use, and have bought for several friends.
You may also enjoy The Bible Project's series called "Read Scripture" on Youtube. It consists of short, 8-12 minute videos summarizing books of the Bible, complete with excellent illustrations and graphics. The videos are designed to be watched before you read the respective book. I find it highly insightful.
Here is their Old Testament playlist and here is their New Testament playlist.
I use this ESV Study Bible and I love it. It has provided really great commentary and insight during my studying.
A good segway into commentaries that I've been recommended is the ESV Study Bible.
Although I've always been wary of it because if it's more contemporary translation, so far I've heard nothing but praise. It contains lots of resources like maps, timelines, explanations, etc. I'm still waiting for the price to drop before grabbing one!