My wife wanted to get a new study Bible as she said after growing, she realised her current one was full of charismatic nonsense.
So she asked me for some reccomendations- we both agreed about choosing between the ESV Study Bible and the CSB Spurgeon Study Bible.
Soon, she told me she wanted the ESV Study Bible (she is a huge fan of the contributor Conrad Mbewe, and she loves the fact he is from her Country too).
You see, Study Bibles should be highly important to us as Christians, so we can look at the commentary and context, so we can get a deeper understanding of what we are reading and a great refresher.
My reccomended Study Bibles:
. Reformation Study Bible- my main Bible! This is a Bible that makes you think "I never thought of it that way."
. The Macarthur Study Bible- I use the app when away from home, I do the main reading from my pocket travel bible and then read the commentary on the app after my reading ( DO NOT do your main reading of the Bible from an app unless ABSOLUTELY necessary). Anyways this study bible is great but highly systematic, which not everyone may enjoy.
. CSB Spurgeon Study Bible
. ESV Study Bible
Still not convinced reading a study Bible is important? I'll let Steven Lawson do the talking:
This explains why you are so deceived. Firstly, you use false bibles; modern perversions and corruptions. Secondly, you spend too much time in reference bibles. If a reference bible is your main bible, then you are never alone with just God and His words and you are not allowing the Holy Ghost to guide you in all truth. You always have mans words to mislead you. You see, you don't just read the Bible and believe it, you base truth on the words of theologians and "scholars" (professional liars).
This is why you laughed at God's word when I proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that God's word teaches that Hell is in the heart of the earth. You laugh at God's word and think you are smarter than God. You are so puffed up with arrogance and pride that you have the gall to accuse God of trivializing Hell. You completely reject God's word. You say that Hell is actually another dimension, when God's word says no such thing! You couldn't and can't give me one verse on that, because it is not in the Bible. You trust in the traditions of men and neoplatonic metaphysics. You need to repent!
Btw, John Macarthur is an unsaved modernist, a wicked false prophet who denies the literal blood of Christ, teaches that you can take the mark of the beast and still be saved, teaches a hardcore works based salvation and is a straight up Bible corrector. If you fear God, burn his study bible.
The only good reference Bible out there is Peter Ruckman's reference Bible.
God has always given His word to one people in one language to do one job; convert the world. The supposition that there must be a perfect translation in every language is erroneous and inconsistent with God’s proven practice.
EXPLANATION: This explanation comes in three parts: the Old Testament, the New Testament, the entire Bible. (1) The Old Testament:
It is an accepted fact that, with the exception of some portions of Ezra and Daniel, the Old Testament was written in Hebrew. It is also accepted that it was divinely given to the Jews.
Thus God initiates His pattern of operation. He gave His words to one people in only one language.
God, apparently unintimidated by modem scholarship, did not feel obligated to supply His words in Egyptian, Chaldian, Syrian, Ethiopian, or any other of the languages in use on the earth at the time the Old Testament was written.
The Old Testament was given exclusively to the Jews. Anyone desiring the word of God would have to convert to Judaism. Ample provision was made for such occurrences.
(2) New Testament:
It is also an accepted fact that the New Testament was written in Greek. Koine Greek to be exact. Again, the Lord apparently saw no reason to inspire a perfect original in all of the languages of the world extant at that time.
Only this time, instead of giving His Book to a nation, such as Israel, He simply gave it to the Christians who were told to go out and convert the world. (Matthew 28:19) His choice of Greek as the language of the New Testament was obvious in that it was the predominant language of the world at the time.
(3) The Entire Bible:
It is obvious that God now needed to get both His Old Testament and His New Testament welded together in a language that was common to the world. Only English can be considered such a language.
The English language had been developing for many centuries until the late sixteenth century. About that time it finally reached a state of excellence that no language on earth has ever attained. It would seem that God did the rest. He chose this perfect language for the consummation of his perfect Book.
First England and later the United States swept the globe as the most powerful nations on earth, establishing English in all corners of the globe as either a primary or secondary language.
Today nations who do not speak English must still teach English to many of their citizens. Even nations antagonistic to the West such as Russia and Red China must teach English to their business and military personnel.
Thus in choosing English in which to combine His two Testaments, God chose the only language which the world would know. Just as He has shown in His choosing only one language for the Old Testament and only one language for the New Testament, He continued that practice by combining those two testaments in only one language.
But let us not forget the fact that, by choosing the English language, God has given us a mandate to carry out the great commission. He did not give us a perfect Bible to set placidly on the coffee table in our living room to let our guests know that we are “religious”. He did not give it to us to press a flower from our first date, or to have a record of our family tree. He gave it to us to read! And to tuck under our arm and share with the lost world the good news of Jesus’ payment for sin that is found inside.
If a reference bible is your main bible, then you are never alone with just God and His words and you are not allowing the Holy Ghost to guide you in all truth.
Thanks for this post ESV SB is indeed extraordinary. I've got 15 or so that i'm using now, it's interesting to be comparing what they say from different theological persuasions. God speaks through his servants all through time, it takes humility to let oneself to be taught under those gifted more than you. To be of the mind that you shouldn't be aware of what teachers say is absolute hubris and prideful. So many errors are born because the problems dealt with by sound expositors were ignored.
Those are all good study Bibles. My first Study Bible was the Ryrie New American Standard Study Bible that I used for a long time. I then bought the Life Application Study Bible NIV, which has gotten many years of usage. On the coffee table in my home sits a large print NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, which I picked up a couple of years ago.
Personally, I use Bible Commentaries for more in depth background study than my study Bibles, but study Bibles are great aids in better understanding the Scriptures.
