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Amazon.com Review

Book Description

The ESV Study Bible was created to help people understand the Bible in a deeper way--to understand the timeless truth of God's Word as a powerful, compelling, life-changing reality. To accomplish this, the ESV Study Bible combines the best and most recent evangelical Christian scholarship with the highly regarded ESV Bible text. The result is the most comprehensive study Bible ever published--with 2,752 pages of extensive, accessible Bible resources.

Sample the ESV Study Bible

Click on the images below to read the introductions to the books of the Bible as they appear in the ESV Study Bible [pdf]:

And click on these images to see samples of the detailed and authoritative historical illustrations included in the ESV Study Bible:

Golgotha

Herod's Temple

Temple Complex

Temple Mount

Product Description
The ESV Study Bible was created to help people understand the Bible in a deeper way--to understand the timeless truth of God's Word as a powerful, compelling, life-changing reality. To accomplish this, the ESV Study Bible combines the best and most recent evangelical Christian scholarship with the highly regarded ESV Bible text. The result is the most comprehensive study Bible ever published--with 2,752 pages of extensive, accessible Bible resources.

Customer Reviews: Read 40 more reviews...

5 out of 5 stars

A Superior Study Bible October 14, 2008
185 out of 195 found this review helpful

The ESV Study Bible has launched with eight editions: Hardcover, TruTone Nat Brown, TruTone Classic Black, Black Bonded Leather, Burgundy Bonded Leather, Black Genuine Leather, Burgundy Genuine Leather and Premium Calfskin Leather.

In any edition the ESV Study Bible looks great. It is contemporary in its coloring (white is dominant with orange accents in the hardcover) and in the rectangle which shows up throughout (on the cover, to mark headings, and even as a bullet for lists of information). The rectangle has no deeper significance than a simple design element. In an interesting but effective design decision, the TruTone editions have this triangle stitched to the cover. The leather editions have "ESV" in large gold letters on the spine with "Study Bible," "English Standard Version" and "Crossway" in smaller gold type. The TruTone has the same text but with the "ESV" embossed. The hardcover features black and orange backgrounds on the spine with the text printed over top. The standard ESV guarantee applies to these Bibles, meaning that a customer who discovers manufacturing defects during normal use can return the Bible to have it replaced with one of equal or greater value.

The Bible is made to be durable. It is smyth sewn which is the binding process considered by many to be the best and longest-lasting method. It allows the Bible to lie flat even on page one and on page 2,752 (at least in the TruTone). It is printed on "high-opacity, high-quality French Bible paper" and in a single-column format with the cross-references in the inside margin. The paper is thin and light but still sturdy. My two year-old put the Bible to the test when she inadvertently stepped on it while it was lying open. The page wrinkled under her heel but did not tear. I also learned from her that chewing gum can be removed from the cover of the TruTone while permanent marker cannot. The fonts are very dark and easy to read with a heavy black serif font for the biblical text and a thin black sans-serif for the notes and cross-references. The page headings are in a bold gray with page numbers in a thin gray. Chapter numbers are a large gray serif font while headings are italicized black sans-serif. The pages display a fair bit of bleed-through where, when you look at a page, you can see the ink showing through from the previous page or two. Most of us are accustomed to this bleed-through in our Bibles. Where it is a bit more apparent and distracting is where it shows through on the maps and illustrations.

One feature that has received much attention in the ESV Study Bible is its use of color. Most study Bibles offer maps and illustrations only in grayscale. The ESV Study Bible, though, offers full-color illustrations and maps. This is quite a nice feature. The splashes of color throughout, including colored highlighting and shading, are unexpected to my eye but very effective. Though the standard glossy maps in the back of the Bible are superior in quality to the ones scattered throughout, even the smaller maps are nicely done and provide important geographical context without having to slip to the Bible's final pages. The illustrations, commissioned specifically for this project, are very well done and nicely supplement the notes.

ESV Study Bible Online
The ESV Study Bible is one of only a couple of study Bibles to offer an extensive online component to accompany the Bible. Included with each Bible is a registration code that will allow the customer to access the ESV Online Study Bible. There they will find the complete text of the Bible along with all of the study notes, articles, maps, and all the other features of the Bible. Unique online features include the ability to create and save personalized online notes; to search and follow interactive links between notes, maps, articles, charts, timelines, illustrations, and cross-references; and to listen to audio recordings of the ESV. It adds interactive features that are only possible in a computer-based environment. While the online component is a useful addition to the Bible (and a free one!), at this time it seems under-developed and I suspect many readers will find that they do not refer to it very often.

Format
Each book of the Bible begins with an extensive introduction. This may include sections dealing with Time, Date and Title; Author; Theme; Key Themes; Purpose, Occasion and Background; Literary Features; Outline; and so on. Particularly important is the History of Salvation Summary which sets each of the books within the context of the wider body of Scripture and hence within the history of salvation. Introductions may also include timelines, maps, and notes on literary features specific to that book. In every case, the reader will receive a thorough explanation as to the book's authorship, purpose and context in God's plan of salvation.

The text notes vary in density but typically comprise about half of each page in the New Testament and perhaps a third in the Old Testament. They focus primarily on explanation and rarely on application. In one handy feature, highlighted notes correspond to primary points in the outline while highlighted verses and headings within the notes correspond to secondary points in the outline.

Scholarship
The ESV Study Bible has been produced by as good a group of scholars as any study Bible. The General Editor is Wayne Grudem, the Theological Editor is J.I. Packer, the Old Testament Editor is C. John Collins and the New Testament Editor is Thomas Schreiner. The study note contributors represent a broad cross-section of reputable Evangelical scholars. The articles included within the Bible have been contributed by some well-known pastors and scholars, including John Piper, David Powlison, Darrell Bock, Leland Ryken, R. Kent Hughes, Daniel Wallace, and many more.

Controversial Theology
One concern people are likely to have when considering a new study Bible concerns the theological perspective offered in the notes. Does this particular study Bible take a Reformed or Arminian position on salvation? A complementarian or egalitarian perspective on gender roles? An amillennial or premillennial position on the end times? I looked through many of the notes seeking what this Bible says on some of the more common controversies: end times, spiritual gifts and soteriology. I found this an interesting comparison with the Reformation Study Bible. It seems to me that the Reformation Study Bible came from a much more narrowly-defined theological position; it was Reformed, it was cessationist, it was amillennial. The ESV Study Bible, on the other hand, offers a wider or less-defined perspective. Where the doctrine is clear and undisputed among Evangelicals, so too are the notes. But where doctrines are controversial and within the area of Christian freedom or disputable matters, the notes tend not to take a firm position, even when the author or editor is firmly in one camp or the other. Whether this is positive or negative may well depend on the individual reader.

To satisfy my curiosity, I opened my NIV Study Bible, Reformation Study Bible, MacArthur Study Bible and ESV Study Bible and compared their notes on several areas of controversial theology--spiritual gifts, predestination and spiritual gifts. None of these Bibles offered notes that were unbiblical so I was left looking for the differences in perspective. In general I found that the MacArthur Study Bible offered the most defined position. This makes good sense as it represents the position of a single individual. This was followed by the Reformation Study Bible which offers the position of many individuals but each of them drawn from a very consistent theological position. The ESV Study Bible came next, offering a charitable but open view on most of these issues. The NIV Study Bible seemed almost to shy away from some of the issues. So while it is clear that the ESV Study Bible is not distinctly Reformed in its position, neither is it Arminian. It is not cessationist or continuationist and is neither amillennial nor postmillennial. In fact, it seems as if it emulates the parent who tells one of his children to cut the last piece of cake in half and the other to choose the first piece. In many cases a person from one perspective wrote the notes while a person from the other perspective screened them. This ensures the notes maintain both charity and some degree of objectivity in those areas of dispute.

Having looked at the areas of dispute, I would not hesitate to recommend the ESV Study Bible to either new or mature Christians. The matters at the heart of the faith are described and defended while the matters of lesser importance are presented charitably and non-dogmatically.

Conclusion
I suspect that many of the people reading this review will already be owners of at least one study Bible. I feel it is important to affirm that there is nothing innately wrong with the Reformation Study Bible, The New Geneva Study Bible, the MacArthur Study Bible and many of the other similar products. If you are currently using one of these Bibles and are happy with it, there may be few compelling reason to rush out and purchase the ESV Study Bible. I have used the Reformation Study Bible and its predecessor for many years with great benefit. I have no doubt that I will continue to refer to it.

With that said, I think the ESV Study Bible is an incredible resource. A long list of endorsers have expressed their excitement for its theological faithfulness, its accessibility, its insight, its scholarship, its practicality and its sheer excellence. I would simply append my name to this list. I agree wholeheartedly with C.J. Mahaney who writes, "I can't imagine a greater gift to the body of Christ than the ESV Study Bible. It is a potent combination indeed: the reliability and readability of the ESV translation, supplemented by the best of modern and faithful scholarship, packaged in an accessible and attractive format. A Christian could make no wiser investment for himself, a pastor could recommend no better resource for his congregation." This is a powerful resource and one that can aid any reader of Scripture. It is one I recommend wholeheartedly.

Early in this review I wrote, "Today, if you drop by my home in the early morning, you are likely to see me reading from the Literary Study Bible." I think it's safe to say that, if you drop by my home early tomorrow morning, you are likely to see me reading from the ESV Study Bible.

3 out of 5 stars

Fine resource, with flaws and incomplete perspectives October 19, 2008
61 out of 87 found this review helpful

While the ESV Study Bible will, no doubt, serve well as a reference resource, it certainly cannot, due to its very serious theological flaws and bias, serve as the study Bible of choice for all Christians interested in a study Bible that is genuinely faithful to the whole counsel of God.

Defining Evangelicalism
The goals set for the volume are very good (p. 10) and clearly helped guide the development of the project. Overall, the notes are scholarly and evangelical. However, the description of the book's doctrinal perspective as "classical evangelical orthodoxy, in the historic stream of the Reformation" is incorrect. The reality is that the ESV Study Bible is a presentation of classic Zwinglian/Calvinist doctrine, the so-called "Reformed" theology, with the very strong influence of decision-based American Evangelicalism. It generally excludes the doctrine of Lutherans and other Christians who consider their distinctive teachings to also be orthodox.

The historical article on interpreting the Bible characterizes Luther as an important "German reformer" (p. 2564). Wycliffe and Calvin are not characterized nationally; Wycliffe is presented as the font of faithful Reformation interpretation and Calvin is presented as the pinnacle of the tradition, whose works remain popular today. So the article sequesters Luther geographically and historically.

Perhaps the oddest point in the book is the description of the Lutheran view of the Lord's Supper in notes for Lk 22:19 and 1Co 11:24. "Lutherans hold that the literal body and blood of Christ are present 'in, with, and under' the bread and wine (something like the way water is present in a sponge)." This sponge analogy is totally unfamiliar and isn't from a Lutheran teacher. It may be an analogy used in Christian mysticism.

Articles
"Overview of the Bible" by Poythress, reflects the best elements of the Reformed tradition; However, it lacks explicit description of the traditional western interpretive distinction between the Law and the Promises or "Law and Gospel," as Lutherans commonly put it today. This should alert Lutheran readers to the fact that a different approach to the Bible will follow.

The next article, "The Theology of the Old Testament" by Collins, begins well with God's self-revelation in Exodus 34:6-7. However, there is a Reformed emphasis on covenant theology. The article stalls when it states, "The OT is thus the story of the one true Creator God, who called the family of Abraham to be his remedy for the defilement that came into the world through the sin of Adam and Eve" (p. 30). Israel rather than Christ remains the focus of the article. So, salvation is described as sanitation rather than justification.

The "Doctrinal Perspective" states that the interpretations "represent fairly the various evangelical positions on disputed topics" (p 11). This is not the case, as the sections below will reveal.

Weak Handling of Messianic Prophecies
Notes on Messianic prophecies are hesitant to affirm that Jesus is the undisputed fulfillment of OT expectations and that the NT interpretation of the passages is normative. (This approach sadly contradicts the good emphases in Poythress's "Overview of the Bible.")
Some examples of weaknesses:
Gn 3:15. "Some interpreters have suggested that by saying `he' and `his,' the intended meaning is that one particular offspring is in view." Paul's interpretation of the passage is not affirmed.
Gn 22:5-8. "It is unclear whether Abraham is speaking ironically here (Isaac is the `lamb'), or whether he is expressing faith that somehow God will preserve his son."
Dt 18:15-19. "In the first century A.D., Jews expected a final prophet whom NT writers identified as Jesus . . . ."

The notes usually use circuitous language to say that "this OT passage was seen by NT writers" or "has been interpreted by Christians" as fulfilled in Christ. While that kind of statement is true, it leaves you in the realm of opinion and interpretation, not in the realm of objective history and factual truth. It would be much better to say, "Christ fulfilled this OT passage," period.

How can the notes not cite NT passages that directly refer to the OT passages? That silence gives you the impression that the NT interpretation of the OT is optional, or possibly not relevant. There's an article on "How the New Testament Quotes and Interprets the Old Testament" (pp. 2605-2607). But what happens in the notes is most important for the day-to-day reader.

Lack of Sacramental Theology
Despite the promise to "represent fairly the various evangelical positions on disputed topics" (p 11), sacramental theology is not presented or is dismissed at virtually every point.
The notes consistently emphasize an individual's need to make a personal commitment but fail to emphasize the sacraments as acts of God, who in mercy commits Himself to us. As a consequence, the "theology" of sacraments is human-centered rather than Christ-centered.
Mt 26:28. No comment on "for the forgiveness of sins."
Mk 1:4. "Baptism was not the means by which sins were forgiven."
Mk 14:22. "Jesus declares this is my body while he is still in his body, thus establishing a particular connection with bread as representing . . . ."
1Co 6:11. "Spiritual cleansing . . . that is symbolized in the `washing' of baptism."
1Co 10:16. "Participation . . . Paul probably means that those who eat the Lord's Supper align themselves with Jesus."
This description illustrates that the writer/editor is working within the Reformed tradition and does not even acknowledge the views held by Lutherans, sacrament-minded Anglicans, Roman Catholics, or Eastern Orthodox.

Conclusion
Readers who are looking for a scholarly presentation of Zwinglian/Calvinist doctrine and interpretation will find the ESV Study Bible a helpful reference tool. Others seeking a study Bible for their general use will be disappointed.
(The research and writing of a respected pastor were used for the content of this review. There are many other citations of the ESV Study Bible's limitations which could be given, but this presentation's length is limited. Please email or write comments if you want more detail.)

5 out of 5 stars

This is one you MUST get! October 15, 2008
29 out of 31 found this review helpful

In a day when most Christians have taken the concept of Sola Scriptura to mean "solo scripture" where everyone appears to interpret Scripture anyway that is convenient to them without regard to background, interpretation through 2000 years of history or scholarship, the ESV Study Bible is a Godsend.
I have been counting the days for the arrival of the ESV Study Bible since I found out about it late this Spring, and I am not disappointed. The scholarship of the notes match and sometimes surpass the notes in the Spirit of the Reformation Study Bible or The New Interpreters Study Bible. The introductions answer the critical questions raised by modernists very nicely, and the detailed notes are supported with historical facts, archaeological findings and logical thinking. Theologically, the positions taken in the notes are consistent with interpretations held by Christians for hundreds of years and do not support wild speculative theologies that have cropped up in the last 150 years. At the same time it not dogmatic about minor issues and differences that Christians have had for 2000 years.
The editors have however, included in introductions and articles, some speculative theologies that cannot be supported from Scripture, but the notes are consistently to the point. This is true even in the notes for the book of Revelation where these kinds of issues usually crop up. The commentaries on the gospels follow a traditional, historic understanding of the Gospel.
The only thing which would have made this excellent resource even better would have been more discussion on the scholarship that has developed over the years, including the pastoral epistles, dating of Revelation, etc. For example, no mention is made of the strong internal evidence for a pre-AD 70 date for the book. Surely an event such as the destruction of the Temple that would have been equivalent to the 9/11 attack and would have been recorded by the author of Revelation. A discussion on that would have been nice.

The online bible access is a big plus, and it appears that it will also be available in software program soon with an announcement forthcoming on which program or programs are going to have it.
For those of us who are visually challenged, the font size is quite acceptable and is an improvement over the some of the other study bibles that I have.

As a lay person, I find this study bible to be very best and it will be used along with other study bibles (Spirit of the Reformation Study Bible, New Interpreters Study Bible, NIV Study Bible, Reformation Study Bible, Harper-Collins Study Bible) in order to help me understand what was said, why and its implications for my life today.
I recommend this without reservation.

1 out of 5 stars

Sloppy binding should make you think about waiting October 26, 2008
24 out of 31 found this review helpful

I returned the first ESV hardback Study Bible I ordered because the pages were so uneven and "bunched up" in the gutter. While I waited for my replacement to arrive, I saw this same problem in a display copy in a bookstore, leading me to think that this is a production problem. That was confirmed when my replacement from Amazon arrived. Although the problem was not as severe as in the first copy, it is still noticeable. And this is not something I have seen in any other study bibles or books of similar heft. I am keeping the second Amazon copy only because it appears that the only way I am to get this otherwise outstanding volume is to accept (grudgingly) that I have to settle for sub-par binding.

So much about this Bible is good--the printing, the paper, the sturdiness of the binding, and of course the contents themselves. But I will never be able to open this book without grousing over the hard, lumpy waves in the gutter--paper bunched up as it they simply weren't careful in binding it.

I give this one star in hopes that people thinking about buying this will simply wait, and give the company time to remedy this problem. An ESV Study Bible without these lumpy gutters would be a five-star book.

In the meantime, go for the ESV Reformation Study Bible if you need one that's been constructed better. The difference in construction in this respect is dramatic. Indeed, in that bookstore where I saw the display copy the ESV Study Bible was lined up with some six or seven other study Bibles. It was the only one with this defect.

5 out of 5 stars

The Bible I've Always Wanted October 16, 2008
20 out of 22 found this review helpful

I just recieved my pre-order copies yesterday and am already devouring it. The detail and richness of notes is exceptional. Unlike other Study Bibles its depth is incredible, including whole articles regarding ethics, theology, and on and on.

What I enjoy most of all is the non-dogmatic nature of the notes. This is the most non-denominational study bible I've ever seen. It presents the reader with multiple points of view and allows you to decide for yourself based on the Word, rather than simply stating matter-of-factly "this is what it means". The end result is that you spend more time in engaged thinking and less time in confused questioning. A good example is Revelations, if you have a Scofield Study Bible you get the dispensational point of view... I grew up not knowing there were other points of view.

The ESV is a wonderful translation and the Study Bible combines a whole research library into a single (massive) volume.

I have both the hardbound and leatherbound edition, both are beautiful with high grade paper. I expected the hardbound edition to have inferior paper quality, but was surprised that it does not.

This is an excellent tool, and given the quantity and quality of the content, its an exceptional value. The best buy might be to buy the hardbound copy with a bible cover that has handles... this thing is heavy!

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