Comments on: Recommendation and Review: Ten Reasons to Love The ESV Literary Study Bible

By: Initial Thoughts on the ESV Literary Study Bible | Old Testament Studies

Initial Thoughts on the ESV Literary Study Bible | Old Testament Studies — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 12:20:07 +0000

[...] thorough review of ESVLSB. Endorsements for this study Bible may be found at Between Two Worlds and Dispatches from the Post Evangelical Wilderness. You may also want to read a couple of interviews with both Dr. Leland Ryken and Dr. Philip Graham [...]

By: Mark Huntemann

Mark Huntemann — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 17:39:08 +0000

A Personal Thank You for all you do!

By: Meeky

Meeky — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 15:46:30 +0000

I would have to agree with the Bible having thin pages; that took me by surprise. But having this bible along with the Ryken Bible Handbook will be valuable resources in my devotional time.

By: BJB

BJB — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 03:45:42 +0000

Well, I have one caveat: The pages are really too thin for writing notes, even with a fine micron pen.
I was sort of led to believe the wide margins meant this would be a good Bible for notes. And since the text is in a paragraph format rather than starting each verse on a new line, there just isn’t enough space for notes next to the relevant verse. This is strictly a reader’s Bible. I guess I’m still waiting for a wide-margin ESV as good as my NASB by Foundation Publications.

By: Wonders for Oyarsa

Wonders for Oyarsa — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 14:45:32 +0000

JC – I have a feeling that “how did Cain find a wife” doesn’t qualify…

By: JC

JC — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 04:51:16 +0000

Point 6 quote
“This is absolutely the best possible Bible to develop students who will ask the right questions when reading the Bible and develop the right habits in preparing to interpret it.”

Interesting. I ask many questions. But I don’t know if they are the _right_ questions. How do we know what the right questions are? How can we know?

By: Ryan B.

Ryan B. — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 01:58:06 +0000

I am also a big fan on “The Books of the Bible” and the Archeological Study Bible. If they could be somehow integrated….

By: Wonders for Oyarsa

Wonders for Oyarsa — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 21:18:11 +0000

I must say that I was a lot more excited about this Bible before I started reading the notes in a little more depth. After recently being interviewed on an atheist podcast on the book of Job, I took a look at the commentary. I was quite disappointed. Of all the books of the Bible, this is almost certainly the most literary, and yet I felt it stick to some fairly simplistic interpretations of the poem.

I agree with the above commenter that there is a lot of meaning in literary elements that just don’t get brought out – look at the different ways falling and lifting of faces is treated in Genesis, or Leviathan as the embodiment of the chaos of the sea.

Yet, for all that, I do like the way that it does look at the large-scale structure of the books. So, I may buy the thing after all.

By: Caine

Caine — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 18:25:23 +0000

Though the Literary Study Bible looks interesting, I think I will stick with my Archaeological Study Bible. It is a brick of weight and, like you, I would prefer it had the ESV instead of the NIV. However, the information within is almost worth its weight if you are interested in cultural and historical context. I also really like the Christian Community Bible. Though it is a Roman Catholic Study Bible, I still find a lot of worth in it as a Protestant. Since the notes were written by a priest in the third world rather than a large American publishing house, it helps me get around some of my own preconceived ideas on what the text means. Both together are invaluable for my reading of the text. Again, I wish I could get either in the ESV, which, barring doing my own translation, is the best that is out there right now.

By: Michael Spencer

Michael Spencer — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 18:15:52 +0000

The pdfs show actual pages, and the specifications should be on the web site.