10.03.2007

Study Bible

I'm trying to pick a study Bible for my small group and youth groups to use here at the church; right now we have the plain New Revised Standard, the pew version, with no footnotes or other useful goodies. I like having the Word straight up like that, but I also like having a version that includes some background and cross-references so that my kids start to get that it's one big picture, not a bunch of random ones.

Who's got a good one that works for the group you have? Why'd you pick it and where did you get it from?

My conditions:

No "named" versions, aka Steve and Sarah Everyminister's Get-Your-Life-Straightened-Out-In-90-Days Study Bible. Adding a person's name to the Word does not make it more valuable or useful to a kid's life.

No cheesy theme Bibles-- "half-pipe of life" type thing.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Our group currently uses the NIV Study Bible. It's a standby, yes, but a good one nonetheless. I have also recommended a NLT Study Bible, as it is written for a lower reading level. Just make sure when you use it to cross-reference on passages such as Romans 13 (which the NLT advocated blind obedience to governmental authority instead of intelligent submission).

On occasion, we have also used Revolve and Refuel, New Testament "Biblezines) which use the New Century Version, and are incredibly readable. Their weaknesses are readily apparent (only NT, not so much study, more Life Application, etc.) but a worthhwile resource.

All in all, I guess I would really recommend more than one translation if you truly want to get real study done...(I personally use the NASB, the NIV, the NLT and The Message a lot).

cmcgill said...

The ESV has a new study Bible that I'm hearing really good things about. We use a paperback version of the ESV with our youth.

Another interesting addition might be Ryken's Bible handbook. It's published by Tyndale. If you do a Bible survey it will be invaluable. It has helped me personally and it seems to be something that the high school (or even college) could get a lot of use out of.