We use the ESV at HLPC. This chart is offered as a rationale for its use. The NASB is not in this comparison which is an excellent translation as well. If ESV is my #1, then the Updated NASB is my #1b. This chart is from Crossway Publishers so their inherent bias toward the ESV is duly noted:
Al Mohler (president of Southern Baptist Seminary in Louisville, KY) gives some helpful advice on “how to use a Study Bible” that you can read HERE - this should come in handy as I’m sure some of you will be unwrapping a study Bible this Christmas. Good stuff though I differ a little on his recommended study Bibles. While I wholeheartedly concur on his ESV Study Bible recommendation, I would give the next nod to the Reformation Study Bible published by Ligonier Ministries. I’ve not yet used the MacArthur or Apologetics Study Bibles that Mohler recommends so I’ll refrain from comment.
Ligonier is offering a limited time special for the Reformation Study Bible for any size donation to their ministry! Check it out HERE.
I received my new ESV Study Bible yesterday. I’m a big fan of the ESV translation and was eager to see this new edition to the pantheon of Study Bibles now available. Admittedly, things have gotten a bit ridiculous when it comes to Study Bibles. I just saw the “Leader’s” Study Bible yesterday where the Bible is filtered through a leadership paradigm. Those attempts at study Bibles hit me as niche marketing and poor hermeneutics as editors make the text fit with their personal agendas.
Back to the ESV Study Bible. I eagerly rushed home yesterday afternoon having been alerted by Connie it had come via UPS. It is a big Bible- it may be the largest study Bible on the market. It is filled with resources. What do I like so far?
What I’ve read of the notes are quite good. This Study Bible will not have the distinctly Reformed perspective that I would hold to, but it certainly is committed to solid, evangelical orthodoxy. It is not anti-Reformed. I looked at Romans 9, for example, and the notes affirm God’s Sovereign election. There are a lot of “our guys” who went to work on this effort with J.I. Packer being the theological editor. Covenant Theological Seminary, the denominational seminary of the PCA, had a few professors who worked on it.
Bottom line: I’ll still keep my Reformation Study Bible handy, but I look forward to using the ESV Study Bible as well. It will make for a very helpful tool for personal Bible study as well as for teaching others. I give it two thumbs up.
Ligonier Ministries, the teaching ministry of R.C. Sproul, puts out an EXCELLENT monthly devotional publication called Tabletalk that has great articles and daily Scripture reading and study material. You can peruse a complete copy of a recent issue by going HERE. (Ain’t the internet a great thing! Thanks Al Gore!) I highly recommend all HLPC folk (and others reading this blog) to subscribe!
From wordle.net:
“Wordle is a toy for generating “word clouds” from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text.”
The ESV Blog has depictions of the New Testament and entire Bible done in this format- it has been “wordled”. Interesting to see which words get prominence. Here’s the New Testament:
(HT: ESV Blog, Justin Taylor)
According to an online dictionary, an apotheosis is the supreme example, the ideal, the quintessence. That’s what Dr. Phil Ryken (pastor of Tenth Presbyterian in Philadelphia and one of the guys I like to read and listen to) calls the new ESV Study Bible in this post on the Reformation21 blog. This really whets my appetite for the release of this new study tool in October.
Ryken notes that the ESV Study Bible will pay particular attention to the literary features of the Biblical text as well as give attention to the redemptive-historical themes of the Bible- that is, it will bring out how the entire Bible points to Christ and his work. The Old Testament pictures and pre-figures Christ while the New records His life and work and the Apostles through their epistles explain and apply that work.
We use the ESV here at HLPC. Why not add the ESV Study Bible to your “to be bought” list?
Just received my new Logos Bible software yesterday in the mail. Thanks to my student status with Reformed Theological Seminary in Orlando (I’m working toward a D.Min) I was able to get a sizable discount. I received the “Original Languages” package which has more resources in Hebrew, Greek, and even Aramaic than I’ll ever use. Word studies along with verb parsing has never been easier!
Any other Logos users out there? I also looked into BibleWorks but couldn’t pass up the good price from Logos. Now, back to Habakkuk.
Crossway publishes the English Standard Version (ESV) which we use here at HLPC. As noted in an earlier post, the ESV Study Bible is coming out this October. If you pre-order by THIS THURSDAY, May 15th, you get a 35% discount. Just wanted to pass that along! You can pre-order HERE.
Bible Gateway is a terrific web site for Scripture study. They have MANY translations and search options along with the ability to compare translations side by side. This is a great tool for Bible Study that I use often in sermon prep. Just wanted to share the wealth!
