Friday, November 21, 2008

ESV Study Bible


My new ESV Study Bible arrived in the mail today.  Just a few thoughts after looking through it for the last half-hour...

1.  It's much bigger than I had anticipated.  It's not so much the length or the width, but the thickness.  It is a little over 2 inches thick, probably a good half-inch thicker than the Reformation Study Bible.

2.  The quality of the Bible appears to be excellent--solid bindings, good quality pages, etc.

3.  There seems to be a wealth of good articles and resources at the back of the Bible:  There's an overview of Biblical Doctrine, an overview of Biblical Ethics, an article on Bible manuscripts, as well as a section on cults and world religions.

4.  The online version of the ESV Study Bible (everyone who purchases a ESV Study Bible has access to this) looks to be really good!

If you are looking to buy one (or, for that matter, if you are looking to buy some books for Christmas gifts), I would recommend Monergism Books.  This is the place that I buy most of my books from.  Turn-around time is incredible (I ordered some stuff on Monday afternoon and it came today) and you can't beat the shipping ($3.99 no matter how much you order).

2 comments:

Zepmom said...

I agree with your review, but the print is much smaller than I had anticipated, and I'm having quite a bit of difficulty, even with my bifocals.

The fact that you didn't mention this as an issue, proves that you are NOT in the GRANDPA category!

Kevin Efflandt said...

Yes, you're right, the print is on the small side, although I don't think it's any smaller than what's in the Reformation Study Bible. Can you imagine the size of this thing if the size of the print was larger? You'd have to buy a suitcase just to haul it around.

I also like the single-column far better than the double-columns of the Reformation Study Bible. About the only thing that I would change is that I would like to see the Three Forms of Unity and the Westminster Standards in the back, like they did in the old NIV Spirit of the Reformation Study Bible. I know, however, that this is not particularly focused on confessional Reformed Christianity, but it would be nice to have.

Thanks, Zepmom, for the anti-Grandpa argument, although some days when I get out of bed, I feel like a grandpa :)