Proclaimer Blog
Yes, another ESV study Bible…but worth a look
I'm personally not a great fan of study Bible for their own sake. But they can serve a useful purpose if used well. Up to now, my favourites have been:
- The Archaeological Study Bible (NIV) – this comes top of my list for it is an unusual type of Study Bible – it's like having a background commentary alongside the text. The reference Bible I use most.
- The Spirit of the Reformation Study Bible (NIV) – this was a rework of the New Geneva Study Bible and with notes from such people as Vern Poythress, Greg Beale, John Frame, Jim Packer, Jim Boice, Ed Clowney, Graeme Goldsworthy etc it is still the NIV measure of excellence (though sadly often overlooked in favour of the less-good, but more popular Zondervan Study Bible) [UPDATE: though I'm happy to be corrected, it seems Zondervan may have withdrawn this Bible because it has effectively been replaced in the constituency by the ESV study Bible]
- The one everyone raves about, of course, the ESV Study Bible. I'm not sure I would ever preach from the ESV out of personal choice, but there's no doubt that this is an excellent study resource.
There's a new one on the block however. A few years ago John MacArthur published a NKJV study Bible with verse by verse notes in. They're actually pretty good (which should come as no surprise seeing as he is a good Bible teacher). He is thoroughly reformed and his notes contain some real gold (he is, however, premillennial – and if this is not your persuasion you need to read around some of that stuff).
Well, the real point is that he's now got together with Crossway and there's a new ESV edition of the study Bible – see the microsite for details. It will do a different thing from the ESV study Bible – but I've personally found John's notes to be very helpful and insightful at times.