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Logos Bible Software, Part 2: Does It Help With Bible Study?

June 17, 2016 By Peter Krol

Last week, I wrote about Logos Bible Software’s unlimited power to search resources and give historical background on the Scriptures. This week, I would like to ask, “How well does it assist observation, interpretation, and application in Bible study?”

Discipline Required

Please use me responsibly

I must confess, Logos has so much power that using it can sometimes feel like bringing an ICBM to a game of darts. Will I hit the bullseye? Without a doubt. But what else might I hit in the process?

What I mean is this: My task in Bible study is to know God through understanding the text, and Logos helps tremendously with understanding the text. But it’s way too easy for me to let Logos help by taking me away from the text to other resources and expert opinions. For example, I’m glad to know what ancient Jewish rabbis and modern scholars have to say about Exodus 1; I must consider such things. But first, I must know what Exodus 1 itself says. And with a powerful tool like Logos I might trick myself into thinking I’ve learned Exodus 1, when in fact I’ve learned more about what others have said about it.

The potential problem here, of course, is not with the software but with the person using it. I’ve written about mistakes we can make with commentaries and the curses of study Bibles. Every one of these cautions applies to a tool such as Logos. For example, word studies and topic studies can do a lot of damage when they take you away from the context of specific passages. And Logos makes it easier than ever to move away from the contexts of specific passages.

OIA in Action

With those cautions out of the way, how does Logos help with observing, interpreting, and applying (OIA) the Bible?

1. Notes & Highlights

I’ve never seen anything like Logos’s ability to take notes and highlight text. I can customize formatting, colors, shapes, and styles. I can go free-form text or copy and paste. I can attach notes to one verse or to many. I can link ideas together. And I can keep it all easily filed and searchable for later use.

2. Reading Plans

I couldn’t be more impressed with Logos’s approach to reading plans. If I want to read the Bible, Logos is going to be where I turn. I can customize a reading plan any way I want. Start and end dates. Defined passage limits and breakdowns. Schedule it every day or just certain days each week or each month. I will use Logos for my annual read-through, as I no longer will have to squish a full-year digital schedule into my speed-reading approach.

Here’s another example. My church’s preaching team is scheduled to meet on August 6 to overview the book of Exodus for our next sermon series. I would like to prepare by reading Exodus 5 times. So I had Logos create a reading plan as follows: “Read Exodus, Exodus, Exodus, Exodus, Exodus every day, in the ESV, divided by story units, beginning today and ending on August 5.” It spit out a schedule with check boxes and breakdowns. Each day, Logos’s home screen (either desktop or mobile, doesn’t matter) presents a link to open that day’s reading. Easy peasy. If I miss a day, I can adjust the rest of the schedule with a few clicks. I can also adjust the translation manually each time I start the book over.

3. Typography

Logos can turn any Bible translation into a reader’s version, with no headings, chapter or verse numbers, or footnotes. Or I can turn those features back on. I can do one verse per line or paragraphs. Basically, I can make the text look any way I want it to look. Whatever will assist my study is there.

4. Quotes and Illustrations

Once I’ve done my own observing and interpreting, I can then turn to my library of commentaries and resources. I can find quotable quotes or illustration ideas to stimulate application. All is easily searchable and well packaged.

OIA on the Horizon

The features I’ve mentioned so far are available in any Logos base package. Logos also has a subscription package (called Logos Now) that gives you access to beta features that will show up in the next version of the software. If you want them now, you can have them for $8.99/month. [August 2016 Update: These features are now built right into Logos 7.]

1. Repeated words

With a Logos base package, I can see a word cloud of repeated words. But I have to guess from the font sizes which ones occur more frequently than others. If I simply want a list of repeated words and their frequency, Logos Now gives me access to the “concordance tool.” And this tool offers much more than a typical concordance. I can get repeated words for a single book or chapter (or any defined text range). I can search within the list for similar concepts. I can print, rearrange, or save the list for later.

2. Auto highlighting

Logos Now has a “corresponding words” tool that will automatically highlight those repeated words for me.

3. Old Testament logical outlines

Logos base packages give you logical outlines for every New Testament passage. These are extremely helpful for tracing the flow of thought within a passage. But to get such outlines for the Old Testament you must subscribe to Logos Now or wait for the new version.

Recommendations

In conclusion, if you have the discipline not to jump away from the text or into a useless sort of word study, you’ll find powerful assistance here for your Bible study.

If your interest in the Bible comes as an academic or theologian, Logos will be indispensable to you. I bet you couldn’t find a better research tool.

If you are a pastor, missionary, or Bible study leader, you may at first find Logos’s price tag prohibitive. However, think of Logos not as luxury software but as your library. If you take what you’ve spent on books and save it up for a year or two, I bet you’ll be able to afford a decently sized package. You’ll likely also want to make future book purchases through Logos. The larger your library, the more power you give to your research assistant.

If you’re an average person studying the Bible without a sizable book budget, Logos may not be for you. You can still do excellent OIA Bible study without it. However, if the search functions and reading options intrigue you, you may want to consider trying the Logos core engine, which is free. You won’t get much of a library with it, but you’ll have access to the biblical text and primary software features. If you like it, you can always grow your library later.

Also, I must say Logos has a steep learning curve. I had to watch 2-3 hours of training videos before I felt like I could control the beast and unleash it in my study. But I am convinced it was worth it. I can’t wait to continue building my library and getting new features.

Use this link or the coupon code KNOWABLE6 to get 10% off a Logos base package. Disclaimer: If you buy Logos with the code or links above, this blog will receive a commission. Thanks for supporting this work so we can help ordinary people learn to study the Bible!

Logos Bible Software, Part 1: Unlimited Power

June 10, 2016 By Peter Krol

A core value of this blog is that ordinary people can learn to study the Bible. That means you don’t need specialized software to know God through his word. But can good software help? Absolutely, as long as you move in the right direction. Software is a tool that will accelerate your momentum. Start off in the right direction, and you’ll go farther than ever before. Shift your direction just a bit, though, and you’ll find yourself in a desert waste wondering if you missed an exit somewhere.

So when the good people at Faithlife offered me a review copy of Logos Bible Software, I was eager to try it. How much farther could it take me in my Bible study? So I’ve used it for detailed study, daily devotions, rapid reading, and sermon preparation. I was curious to see how the software would hold up in these different uses, and I wanted to know whether Logos would help or hinder OIA Bible study. And the more I use Logos, the more a single word comes to mind: power. In this post, I’ll write about the software’s power. Next week, I’ll write about how well it supports OIA Bible study.

More Power!

In order to show the power, I need to set the stage. Logos Bible software is not merely a software package; it is a digital library. Imagine hiring a research assistant who, knowing you’re studying Exodus 1 today, finds everything in your home library that references Exodus 1. And then finds everything in your church library. Then, the researcher taps into everything from 36 seminary libraries. And the Library of Congress. And Google. Now before you can say “over-realized eschatology,” you’ll have access to virtual piles of ancient Jewish texts, manuscript variants, commentaries, atlases, and dictionaries; and you can sift through them until Jesus returns. You don’t have to spend hours or weeks finding these things yourself. Your assistant beheads every possible resource and serves it up on a silver platter. That’s Logos.

And Logos goes beyond libraries; its power extends to the Scriptures themselves. With Logos, and studying Exodus 1, I can do any of the following in seconds:

Find every reference to the Nile River in Scripture. List everyone and everything that goes into, comes out of, or exists near it.
Discover two other Bible characters named Puah.
Identify every New Testament reference to Exodus 1.
Open a list of 126 cross-references—and not just references but the full text of the verses.
Outline the passage based on literary forms (speech, narrative, names list, etc.).
Search the Bible for every case of infanticide, childbirth, revolt, or slavery.
Learn the Hebrew word behind the translation “fruitful” (Ex 1:7) and search for every occurrence of that word in the Old Testament. Search for every use of that word, or for just particular forms or tenses of that word.
View artwork that portrays the Israelites enslaved in Egypt.
Get a word-by-word grammatical analysis of every form and part of speech.
Learn that, outside of Exodus 1, this very Pharaoh is referenced 8 more times in Exodus, 3 times in Acts, and 2 times in Hebrews.
View sentence diagrams of the entire chapter.

I could go on. I can quickly find photos of Egypt and the pyramids. I can highlight the text and create my own notes on it. I can find an infographic with the birth order of Jacob’s 12 sons. I can make a list of every time a Pharaoh speaks in the Bible, and I can order the list based on what kinds of people the Pharaohs speak to. I can generate a list of quotes or sermon illustrations for the topics within the passage. I can completely customize a reading plan for the Bible or any book in my library.

Recommendation

Where Logos shines most brightly is in its power to search resources and give historical background. Before studying Mark 13:1-37 with Logos, I had never seen Jerusalem’s temple mount from the Mount of Olives. At a few clicks, I could see breathtaking photos from multiple angles, and all I could say was, “Wow.”

Here is incredible power. The only limit to what I can seek or find is my imagination.

If you would like unbelievable access to oodles of historical research and search capacity, I am happy to recommend Logos to you. With this link, or the coupon code KNOWABLE6, you can get 10% off.

Next week, I’ll consider further how well Logos supports the steps of observation, interpretation, and application.

Disclaimer: If you buy Logos with the code or links above, this blog will receive a commission. Thanks for supporting this work so we can help ordinary people learn to study the Bible!

Women in the Church: Great, But Technical

April 22, 2016 By Peter Krol

Sometimes we need to read larger chunks of the Bible more quickly. And sometimes we need to drill down into a single chapter or verse. Either way, our goal is to understand clearly what God has spoken, so we can know him and live for his good pleasure.

Because too much study of verses-in-isolation can give us a mistaken picture of God’s intentions, my interest lies more with the first, broad type of reading. But I’m also committed to regularly studying small portions of text, in context, to gain deeper insight into the big picture. To that end, I was delighted to receive from Crossway a review copy of Women in the Church (3rd Edition): An Interpretation and Application of 1 Timothy 2:9-15 in exchange for an honest review.

And this book goes deep. The subtitle deceives, as this book is really about not the paragraph of 1 Timothy 2:9-15, but the lone controversial verse of 1 Timothy 2:12: “I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; rather, she is to remain quiet.” Though parts of the book look at the paragraph – and even the full chapter – to explain the passage’s logic, the book targets verse 12 as the chief subject. Beyond that, one chapter of Women in the Church examines, nearly exhaustively, the lone Greek word behind the English phrase “exercise authority.” So after discussing the cultural context of first-century Ephesus, the contributors move from the word “exercise authority,” to the phrase “teach or exercise authority,” to the sentence, to the paragraph, to the chapter, to contemporary non-Western cultural applications, and finally to a virtual round table discussion about contemporary Western-culture applications.

As I said, this book goes deep. The material is thorough and exhaustive. The controversial verse gets tackled from almost every direction. I benefited greatly from this book, and I’m glad to have read it. I highly recommend the book for pastors, scholars, and academically minded Christians familiar with the Bible’s original languages.

However, I can’t recommend it for the average reader for three reasons:

It is long.
It is technical.
It uses much Greek without ever transliterating it. For example, when discussing the word for “exercise authority,” the book never uses authentein. It uses αὐθεντεῖν. If Greek study will play a role in a work of scholarship I prefer this approach; but I admit it makes it difficult for people who don’t know the difference between v and nu.

The contributors try to make the book more accessible in the last chapter, where they interview a panel of pastors and Christian writers about their own church experiences. And this chapter begins exceptionally well:

“Tried-and-true Bible study moves from observation to interpretation to application. In this volume so far, we’ve done plenty of observing and interpreting…But while the detailed efforts at observation and interpretation have clarified the meaning of the passage, many questions remain on the level of significance, that is, with regard to specific points of application in the myriad of contexts in which many of us find ourselves today.”

I couldn’t agree more with this quotation. But unfortunately, the chapter doesn’t follow through on its promise to offer “specific points of application.” The round table discussion remains vaguely general. And in the end, I found it less than satisfying.

With that said, the rest of the book offers careful scholarship on key questions that arise over this passage. Is Paul addressing a specific cultural situation that no longer holds true today? Does “teach or exercise authority” really mean “teach authoritatively”? Is authentein best translated as “assume authority” (NIV) and not as “exercise authority” (ESV) or “have authority” (NKJV, HCSB)? Is the prohibition time-bound, as is the prohibitions on braided hair and jewelry in 1 Tim 2:9? How do we make sense of the many objections to the “traditional” understanding of this verse?

So my feelings on the book are mixed. If you have these burning questions, and you’re not threatened by a technical approach to them, go for it. There is much here for you. But if you just want plain English, you may want to wait for another book that takes this research and adapts it for ordinary folks.

Disclaimer: The Amazon links in this post are affiliate links. Clicking them and buying stuff will help us continue to maintain this blog, at no extra cost to yourself.

Mark’s Marvellous Book: A New Kind of Storybook Bible

January 15, 2016 By Peter Krol

While the children’s book market offers a number of beautiful, theologically rich, and gospel-centered volumes, Mark’s Marvellous Book by Alan Mann offers something I haven’t seen before: A children’s story Bible driven not by topic but by the text. Mann presents Bible stories from Mark’s Gospel with clarity, precision, and a simplicity worth imitating. If you want to learn how to teach Bible stories to your children, read this book to them and learn to do what Mann does.

Mark’s Marvellous Book has 18 chapters, each focusing on a single episode in the life of Jesus. Each chapter has:

a one-word title stating the main point
5 storybook pages, applying the story’s main point to a 4-6-year-old child
a single-page explanation of the Bible story and its main point
a memory verse from the story, again highlighting the main point

Perhaps you see where I’m going: Alan Mann gets the main points of these stories! And he centres his storytelling around those main points. (Dear fellow North Americans: Please don’t be put off by the anglicized spellings of words like centre and marvellous. This book will serve all English-speaking families.)

Since Mann doesn’t cover every episode from Mark, I felt a little misled by the advertisement labelling this book “A commentary on Mark for kids.” Yet the book still won over both me and my two young daughters. I could barely get the book away from them so I could finish reading it for this review.

The physical volume meets all my standard expectations for a children’s book: strong cover, good binding, shiny paper, sturdiness to take a beating. I’m grateful to Christian Focus Publications for providing a review copy.

I hope we see more books like this in the future. Mann has a great thing going here, and I would love to see similar storybook Bibles that expound texts with such skill.

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Study Bible Buying Guide

December 11, 2015 By Peter Krol

I’ve recently reviewed many study Bibles, and I’ve now also evaluated and compared each one according to how it helps or hinders OIA Bible study (observe, interpret, apply). I’ve given each Bible a score based on the blessings and curses of study Bibles I’ve written about before. Because some study Bibles get much more hype than others, I find it helpful to know which study Bibles will actually help people to study the Bible.

If you’re ready to see my evaluation:

Check it Out

I still recommend Tim Challies’s infographic if you’re interested in just the facts and stats for some of these study Bibles. My buying guide provides more detailed evaluation of OIA principles (and of ways the study Bibles help or hinder OIA study).

I’ve also added this buying guide to the resources page so you don’t have to navigate back to this blog post to find the buying guide in the future.

Reformation Heritage KJV Study Bible: There’s an Elephant in Here

October 16, 2015 By Peter Krol

I confess: I have never read the entire King James Version of the Bible. I grew up in the 1980s, and I vaguely remember some dispute in my church when the New International Version replaced the KJV in the pews. But Bibles in my possession have always been either “New” or “Standard,” or both.

I confess further: I have at times been numbered among those who find KJV language to be quaint, outdated, “not modern English,” and an easy target for ridicule. Thou shalt not claim the KJV as good enough for Jesus or Paul. And everybody who is anybody knows there is no art in heaven. We pray to our Father who is in heaven. Hallowed be his name.

Yet the Reformation Heritage KJV Study Bible intrigued me, and the publisher graciously gave me a free copy to review. And I must say: This Bible almost persuaded me to use the KJV for my 2016 speed read.* This study Bible is something special.

What it Does

Like other study Bibles, the Reformation Heritage KJV Study Bible (RHKJV) presents the full text of Scripture with study notes at the bottom of the page. But the RHKJV notes do a few things that make it unlike other study Bibles:

One-sentence summaries for each chapter.
Plain-language definitions for archaic terms. (Granted, most other translations don’t use as many archaic terms, but it would still be nice if they “translated” Christianese jargon into ordinary language.)
Application!

Allow me to expand on this third point. Every chapter of the Bible has study notes ending with “Thoughts for Personal/Family Worship,” which suggest potential applications of the chapter. These applications don’t always flow from the chapter’s main point, but they’re still usually very good. They’re not so specific as to become dated, and they’re not so general as to be useless to real people. I couldn’t believe the amount of space dedicated to such thoughtful application, but it fits with the editors’ vision to offer “a study Bible to feed your soul…a study Bible to instruct your mind…a study Bible to discover your roots.”

The RHKJV has short book introductions that get to the point quickly. Three cheers!

In addition, the RHKJV has three sets of articles.

Theological topics (57 one-page articles). These articles are inserted at relevant points in the biblical text, such that you can read about Satan after Job 1-2 or about adoption after Romans 8.
How to live as a Christian (36 one-page articles). At the end of the volume, these articles direct Christians on topics such as the fear of God, how to pray, and fleeing worldliness.
Church history (20 one-page articles and 9 creeds & confessions). There is one article for each century of church history, along with ecumenical creeds (such as Apostles’ and Nicene) and Reformed confessions (such as Belgic and Westminster). When I hit the articles about church history, I could not put this volume down.

There is a little more standard fare at the end: yearly reading plan, table of weights & measures, concordance, and maps.

What it Doesn’t Do

Unfortunately, this Bible does not please the eye. It has so many words that it may discourage some before they give it much of a chance.

There are no maps except for those on the last 14 pages.
There are no charts or tables to make information more digestible.
The typesetting of the KJV text retains some ancient conventions that might turn off many readers. The font has an ancient feel and is not easy to read. Every verse is printed as its own paragraph, and paragraph symbols (¶) show up along the way.
The notes and articles use a sans serif font, which is more suitable to digital reading than print.

Also, this Bible doesn’t offer a range of perspectives on hot topics. The editors tended to choose one perspective and run with it. If you’re into 6-day creationism, a young earth, a global flood, reading the Song of Solomon as an allegory of Christ and the church, amillennialism, and a presbyterian and reformed flavor of Protestantism, you’ll be at home here. It’s not so in-your-face as to be uncharitable, though, so if you have different perspectives on any of these issues, you’ll still gain much from this Bible as it feeds your soul and instructs your mind.

Conclusion

I’m happy to recommend the Reformation Heritage KJV Study Bible to you. Of course, the KJV is something of an elephant in this Bible. But if you remember to use your study Bible as a reference and not as a Bible, the translation is no big deal. Of course, if you already love the KJV, this purchase should be a no-brainer.

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Disclaimer: My son, if thou wilt receive my words and click my Amazon links with thine own right hand, thou shalt supply an odour of a sweet smell when a commission from thy purchases provideth this blog with new tablets of stone upon which to engrave its writings. Blessed be ye of the Lord. But I say unto all which clicketh not: Wherefore kick ye at my sacrifice?

*I had so much fun with my ESV Reader’s Bible last year that I must do it again. But the KJV might be just the thing for 2017.

NIV Zondervan Study Bible: Too Much?

September 25, 2015 By Peter Krol

Update: This Study Bible has since be re-named the NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible.

“English-speaking people have no shortage of study Bibles,” writes Dr. D.A. Carson in his preface to the NIV Zondervan Study Bible. But do these English speakers need another one? Does the NIV Zondervan Study Bible stand out in this crowded marketplace?

What it does

The NIV Zondervan Study Bible (ZSB) offers a library of resources in a single volume, focusing on biblical theology—”the ways in which many important themes work their way through Scripture and come to a focus in Jesus Christ.” The body of the book contains:

the full text of the NIV Bible
study notes (commentary) on the text
introductions to all 66 books of the Bible
section introductions (wisdom books, prophetic books, gospels, etc.)
maps
charts
photos
cross-references

Between Malachi and Matthew lies a very helpful article and timeline on “The Time Between the Testaments,” which brings modern readers into the cultural shifts that took place in Israel in the centuries before the Son of God entered history.

Following this body come further resources for the curious Bible student:

28 short articles on topics examined through a biblical-theological perspective
a 160-page concordance
14 large maps indexed by location

What it does well

The ZSB has a lot of material. If you love swimming in large amounts of information about the Bible, you’ll love the ZSB.

The commentary generally directs your attention to the text and not merely to what others have said about the text. Tremper Longman’s notes on Daniel stand out as a prime example.
The book introductions have lots of historical, literary, and theological details. Along with the section introductions, they give much attention to the Bible’s storyline and historical context.
The 28 articles tell and re-tell the single story of the Bible (creation, fall, redemption, consummation) through different filters: Temple, City of God, Holiness, Sonship, Worship, etc.

The charts in this study Bible are outstanding. Page 197 has a full-page chart of Old Testament offerings and sacrifices, tracing the 5 main types of offerings and their materials, associated offerings, blood manipulation, portions burnt on altar, portions eaten, and purpose. Between John and Acts, a 7-page chart lists the 186 enscripturated events of Jesus’ life and places them in chronological order, with probable dates, probable locations, and references to show which Gospel records the event.

What I find unique in this study Bible, however, is the photos. Perhaps other study Bibles include color photographs, but they haven’t hit my desk. Here I can see the ruins of ancient Laodicea, the massive theater in Ephesus, the shore of the Sea of Galilee, a preserved seal impression that mentions Baruch son of Neriah, a carved ivory of a chariot with horses, and a branch of hyssop. If you are a visual learner, you will love this study Bible.

I must also mention that Kevin DeYoung shines brightly over a sea of bland academese. One gets used to phrases like “The essential concerns,” “a regular part of life in ancient Israel,” and “among significant theological concepts, few are as fundamental and comprehensive in scope as….” But hitting DeYoung’s article on “Sin” is like voluntary shock therapy:

Sin is another name for that hideous rebellion, that God-defiance, that wretched opposition to the Creator that crouches at the door of every fallen human heart. Sin is both a condition, inherited from Adam, and an action—manifesting itself in thought, word, and deed—that when full-grown gives birth to death.

Would that more scholars wrote like this!

What could be better

The massive amounts of information may be this Bible’s greatest detraction. At almost 2900 pages, this is the largest study Bible I’ve handled. It’s huge and heavy, and unfortunately wordy.

In a world of search engines, do folks still use concordances? This Bible could have dropped a quarter of an inch right there.
The book introductions are long (usually 6-8 pages), and their length limits their usefulness. For example, you might want to know what 1 John is about. The answer is here to be found (“1 John was written to bolster their assurance by providing criteria they could use to evaluate the spurious claims of the secessionists and with which they could reassure themselves”), but it’s buried on the second page in the middle of a long paragraph.
The 28 articles at the end are concise in themselves, but they get repetitive when read one after another. I’m not clear on the need for separate articles on “The Glory of God,” “Worship,” and “Mission.” Or “Holiness” and “Justice.” Or “Love and Grace” and “The Gospel.”

The ZSB’s Assistant Editor, Andrew Naselli, recently claimed this volume to be one of the two best study Bibles on the market. If you’re totally juiced by color photographs of ancient ruins and archaeological finds, go for this one. If not, I suggest you’re better off with the other one.

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Reformation Study Bible (2015 Edition): It’s Big

August 28, 2015 By Peter Krol

There must be quite a market for study Bibles, because they keep making more of them. And some older ones are being updated and revised. Like The Reformation Study Bible.

It was published in 1995 as The New Geneva Study Bible, using the New King James translation. 1998 saw the name changed to The Reformation Study Bible. In 2005, a second edition emerged, switching translations from NKJV to ESV. Now in 2015, a third edition hit the market with a long list of new features. It’s already out in ESV, and an NKJV version is on its way.

Study notes multiplied from 760,000 to 1.1 million words. Ten more maps, fourteen theological articles, ten creeds and confessions, almost 600 pages, and an extra 3/8 of an inch in thickness expand the contents. In addition, purchasers of this Bible gain access to over $400 worth of e-books, subscriptions, and online teaching series.

There’s a lot here. Is it worth it?

First Impressions

This study Bible is beautiful. I’ve been reading the leather-like light gray version, but cheaper hardbacks are also available. I’m tempted to judge this book by its cover, with its soft leather-like substance and three marvelous, protruding ribbon bookmarks.

Upon opening and flipping, I find the page layout pleasing. The font of the biblical text is easy to read and in single-column format. Theological notes in shaded gray boxes pepper the volume. The back matter (articles, creeds, and maps) draws my attention.

This study Bible is a delight to handle and to read.

Diving In

The Reformation Study Bible (RSB) will appeal to some and not to others. I trust it will help many; I fear it will hinder some. The difference depends on how it is used.

If you know how to determine the main points and trains of thought of Bible passages, you will find some real help here. The RSB will clarify the meanings of words. It will connect many passages to each other. It will tie things nicely with larger theological issues. But if you look to the RSB to give you the main points and trains of thought of Bible books, I think you’ll be disappointed. The RSB is heavy on correlation and observation of words, but it is light on main points, trains of thought, and application.

In addition, if you’re already familiar with the significance and teachings of the Reformation, you’ll be at home with the RSB. It explains the Reformation and Reformed theology (the covenants, Christ-centered interpretation, doctrines of grace, etc.) with plain language and clarity. It makes lofty concepts understandable and accessible. But if you’re not sure about Reformed theology, or if you’d like to understand how these teachings are drawn out of careful literary analysis of the Scripture, you’ll be disappointed. While I wouldn’t say this study Bible imposes its teaching on the Scripture, I must admit it often doesn’t show its work by drawing its teaching from the Scripture.

Study Bibles serve well as reference works, but sometimes they distract people from studying the text itself. Therefore, if we think of study Bibles as commentaries, we can be on guard against detrimental addictions. If you can resist the addiction, I’m happy to recommend The Reformation Study Bible. You can buy it at Amazon or Westminster Books.

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Study note: Disclaimer. Amazon and WTS links are affiliate links, so this blog gets a small commission if you click and buy anything. The Greek word for disclaimer is “disklaemeros.” Pliny the Younger used this word in his famous work Natural History.

NIrV Study Bible for Kids: Fine for What it Does

July 10, 2015 By Peter Krol

As soon as our children can read, my wife and I are committed to giving them each a Bible and teaching them how to use it. Four of our five now have full title to their own copies of the Good Book, and said property has quickly become used, bumped, beaten, carried about, dropped, and otherwise handled with great frequency and fervor. Just as we’d hoped. (Hardbacks are a must at these young ages.)

The first two children to reach this milestone won themselves the ESV Grow! Bible, which appears to be out of print now and drawing a high price on Amazon. I wouldn’t recommend capitulating, though. The Bible has a solid hipster feel to it, but there’s generally too much on the page. Kids can struggle to figure out which words are Bible words and which words are not.

Because that design was too busy, we took a different route with the third child and provided her with the ESV Children’s Bible. This Bible is nice and clean, giving full attention to the sacred text while peppering it with full-page pictures of key stories. This was great for her, but we still found our new reader struggling with the ESV translation. The words were too big, the sentences were too long, and she regularly lost her place. She often gave up and went back to board book children’s Bibles.

So we changed it up altogether for the fourth child. While our church uses the ESV, we wanted to make sure our child would develop motivation to read on her own. And since we had no problem with simplified children’s paraphrases (like those found in the board books or in The Jesus Storybook Bible), we decided to try a simplified translation keenly focused on being clear. We went with the NIrV.

Now our 3rd child (6 years old) and our 4th child (almost 5 years old) generally share the NIrV. Both love it and can read it well. Just the other day, I overheard my 6-year-old reading about designing the priest’s clothes in Exodus 28. She had a blast with it, and I’m all about encouraging such delight in even the stranger parts of the Bible.

I was delighted to receive a free copy of the NIrV Study Bible for Kids from BookLookBloggers.com in exchange for an honest review. Small price to pay to get a second NIrV in the house.

I like many things about this Bible:

My youngest readers can read it well on their own.
The “study Bible” parts of it aren’t too bossy. Full-page pictures are scattered throughout. There is generally one small box of extras every 4-5 pages (though the frequency is higher in the gospels).
The extras highlight memory verses or simple cultural facts that children can relate to.
Books have one-paragraph introductions followed by a list of “good verses [really, passages] to read” within the book.
The front has two pages to orient young children to the Bible’s layout.
The physical volume has a sturdy cover and binding.

This edition has limitations, of course.

I love it for beginning readers, but I want to graduate these children to another translation as soon as they’re ready for it.
I tried to read Ephesians in one sitting, and it drove me nuts. Because the sentences are so short, many words must be repeated, thus making the text longer than other translations. For example (I’ve italicized the repetitions that don’t show up in most translations):

God’s grace has saved you because of your faith in Christ. Your salvation doesn’t come from anything you do. It is God’s gift. It is not based on anything you have done. No one can brag about earning it. We are God’s creation. He created us to belong to Christ Jesus. Now we can do good works. Long ago God prepared these works for us to do. (Eph 2:8-10, NIRV)

For these reasons, we’ll never read the NIrV out loud as a family. The children do just fine listening to adults reading a mature translation.

But that said, I must agree with the NIrV’s preface: “People who are just starting to read will understand and enjoy the NIrV.” For it’s intended purpose, it’s great. I’m happy to recommend it as a stepping stool, but not as a cornerstone, for early childhood Bible education. 3 out of 5 stars.

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Disclaimer: The Amazon links are affiliate links. If you click them and buy stuff, you’ll enable us to continue blogging about our children’s Bible reading habits. “It is not that I want your gifts. What I really want is what is best for you” (Phil 4:17, NIRV).

NIV Proclamation Bible: The Best Non-Study-Bible Study Bible I’ve Seen

June 5, 2015 By Peter Krol

The NIV Proclamation Bible does everything I want a study Bible to do and nothing I don’t want a study Bible to do. It gets the Bible student moving in the right direction, and then it gets out of the way. Perhaps that’s why the front cover boasts Timothy Keller’s polarizing endorsement: “There are many Study Bibles, but none better.” And for these reasons, this “Study Bible” won’t feel like a study Bible to typical users of study Bibles. In fact, I prefer not to call it a study Bible. The NIV Proclamation Bible is not much more than a Bible with helps, and therein lies the beauty of it.

It has a hardy cover and binding, along with two shiny ribbon bookmarks. The paper is slightly thicker than average for Bibles. It has the text laid out in two columns, with center-column cross-references, translation footnotes, and other typical apparatus. The back offers a decent concordance and 14 terrific maps. But there are no study notes beneath the biblical text, no inline maps or theological discussions, and no charts or tables of the kings of Israel or parables of Jesus. So why might someone shell out 30 or more bucks (US) for this volume?

Because of the essays. Seventy-seven of them, to be exact. Don’t be scared, though; most of them aren’t much more than a page long. Let me explain.

Ten essays stand at the front, averaging 5 pages each, on the following topics:

What is the Bible?
A Bible overview
The historical reliability of the Bible
Finding the “melodic line” [main point] of a book*
From text to doctrine: the Bible and theology
From text to life: applying the Old Testament
From text to life: applying the New Testament*
From text to sermon: preaching the Bible*
From text to study: small groups and one-to-ones*
Biblical interpretation: a short history*

The essays I’ve marked with a * are solid gold. The rest are okay, but not much different from what you can easily find on the Internet.

The other 67 essays are merely introductions to each book of the Bible, plus a few introductions to large sections of the Bible (Pentateuch, Histories, Poets, Prophets, Gospels, Epistles). Each of these essays is barely more than a page long. And while half of the introductory essays are solid gold, I consider most of these book intros more valuable than vibranium.

Each book intro follows the same formula:

A single-sentence main point for the book
A 2-4 paragraph walk-through of the book explaining or defending the stated main point
An outline of the book’s structure
A 2-4 paragraph summary of key points to consider when teaching or leading a Bible study on the book
A bibliography of three recommended commentaries for that book or section of the Bible

I haven’t kept perfect statistics, but I believe about half of the proposed main points hit the bulls-eye with a vengeance. For example:

Ecclesiastes: “Death and judgment are the only fixed realities in life, and everything else is uncertain and often subject to frustration and sorrow.”
John: “Believe that Jesus is the Son who came from the Father to reveal him, and has returned to the Father to open up the way to life for his people.”

The other half aren’t wrong but perhaps just slightly off-center. For example:

Genesis: “The Creator God is faithful to his covenant promises and redeems humanity through the promised line, despite their sin and rebellion.”
Proverbs: “Proverbs recognizes the difficulties of living in God’s complex world and offers wise words to live by.”

There are a few I thought were off-center, until the explanations convinced me that I was the one off-center. For example:

Ephesians: “You are one in Christ now, so be united and stand firm in him.”
Luke: “You can be confident that Jesus, in his life, death, resurrection and ascension, heralds the fulfillment of all God’s promises in the Old Testament.”

I don’t typically use the 2011 NIV translation for my study, so I probably won’t use this Bible much as a Bible. But I will refer to it often when I study a book and want concise, accessible help with a book overview. I won’t let this thing get far from my fingertips. I commend the NIV Proclamation Bible as a strong help with OIA Bible study.

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Disclaimer(s): I received a free copy of this Bible from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Now you know what I think. And while I might lend out my copy if I’m not using it at the time, I’m also happy to send you to Amazon to buy it. Should you choose to accept this mission, you’ll also support the blog at no extra cost to yourself. What a great way to steward God’s resources all around! I’d say it’s like an Acts 2:44 moment, except I’d possibly be missing the point of that book: “The ascended Lord Jesus continues to draw people from every nation to himself, growing his church through the preaching of the word and the ministry of his Spirit.”

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