ESV Study Bible | English Standard Version

Following the radio program mentioned in our last post, Dr. Mohler has written on “How to Use a Study Bible”.

From his article:

How should a study Bible be used?

1. Read the text of the Bible first. Meditate upon the text and read it with care. Apply your own knowledge of the Bible in order to understand the particular text within its context and place in the biblical story-line. Consider and note other texts that come to your mind as directly related to this text. Read the text with full attention and conviction.

2. Look carefully at the cross-references that the study Bible links to the text you are reading. Do not look only to the citations, but read the actual passages. This assistance is still the main contribution of a study Bible — making related and parallel passages more accessible. A first principle of interpreting the Bible is to interpret the Bible by the Bible. In other words, to allow the Bible to interpret itself text by text.

3. As a third step, take full advantage of the notes, articles, and other helps printed alongside the text. In some cases, short articles will help in understanding contested issues or matters that might otherwise require a Bible dictionary or encyclopedia. Where appropriate, maps can be very useful, along with tables of measurement and similar points of reference. The very best of the study Bibles will also offer some level of commentary within the notes.

Read the rest of Dr. Mohler’s article.

Boundless.org has posted Justin Taylor’s article on Jesus and the Temple, which features a number of illustrations from the ESV Study Bible:

• Herod’s Temple (cutaway perspective)
• Herod’s Temple Complex
• The Temple Mount
• The Temple Mount and Golgotha

The ESV Study Bible has about 50 essays in the back of the Bible, addressing a number of issues that people inside and outside the church have questions about (e.g., the reliability of the Scriptures and their manuscripts, the canon of Scripture, world religions, how questions of ethics and theology relate to God’s Word, etc.) In addition there are a number of articles throughout the Bible, introducing major sections (e.g., the Pentateuch, the Gospels, etc.).

We thought it might be helpful to list all of the articles, in the order that they appear in the ESVSB: (more…)

The full Interview with Vern Poythress on Biblical Theology is now available online as a PDF. The interview is in conjunction with Dr. Poythress’s introductory Survey of the History of Salvation for the ESV Study Bible.

The next sampling from the ESV Study Bible is now online: The Bible and World Religions (a 9-page PDF).

Here you’ll find three articles written by three excellent, careful, evangelical scholars:

• Judaism, by Marvin Wilson (Harold J. Ockenga Professor of Biblical and Theological Studies at Gordon College);
• World Religions, by Harold Netland (Professor of Philosophy of Religion and Intercultural Studies and the Naomi A. Fausch chair of missions at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School);
• Islam, by Timothy Tennent (Professor of World Missions and Indian Studies, Director of Missions Programs at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary).

Owen Strachan (Managing Director of the Henry Center at Trinity Evangelical Divinity) today posted a fascinating interview with Dr. Netland on world religions, pluralism, global Christianity, his experience as a missionary in Japan, and what it was like studying under the pluralist John Hick. It’s about 45 minutes in length.

We hope you find these articles, and the accompanying interview, to be helpful.

The lead-off essay in the ESV Study Bible is by Vern Poythress, entitled Overview of the Bible: A Survey of the History of Salvation (available now for free download).

In addition to having Dr. Poythress give an overview of biblical theology, we also asked him to pen notes showing the connections between the OT and Christ and his new covenant. So in the back of the ESVSB there are 1600 notes working through each book of the OT and showing how they might point to the NT.

Today the guys at Beginning with Moses have posted the first part of an interview with Dr. Poythress. Part Two will be available next Monday (Sept. 15).

Michael Spencer at InternetMonk.com interviews ESV Study Bible contributor David Powlison on “Reading the Bible For Personal Application.”

The interview links to a new excerpt from the ESV Study Bible, Powlison’s essay on “Reading the Bible.”

Daniel B. Wallace (NT professor at Dallas Theological Seminary) is a world-class expert on NT manuscripts. For the ESV Study Bible he wrote a very helpful introductory essay on the reliability of the NT mss, along with some basic principles of textual criticism.

In this interview (part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4) you can find out a bit about Dr. Wallace (and some serious personal struggles he has faced), along with his views on textual criticism and information about his ministry.

Peter Gentry, OT professor at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, wrote the article on the Septuagint (Greek translations of the OT), an important source on many fronts.

Here is an interview with Dr. Gentry about these issues, which covers some of the same ground found in his essay for the ESV Study Bible.