ESV Study Bible | English Standard Version

We are now making available the last full-book sample from the ESV Study Bible, the Book of Esther.

The introduction and notes are by Barry Webb, Senior Research Fellow in Old Testament, Moore Theological College, Sydney, Australia.

Gordon Cheng of Matthias Media’s Sola Panel blog recently interviewed Dr. Webb about his work on Esther. Here are the questions:

• Barry, how long have you been a student of the Old Testament?
• What’s the book of Esther about?
• Tell us a bit about the flawed heroes of the story, Esther and Mordecai.
• You’ve said in your ESV Study Bible notes on Esther that it is a humorous book. Can you give some examples of what you mean?
• You also said in your notes on Esther 6:1–13, “Events now move so tellingly in favor of Esther and Mordecai that a presumption of God’s providential involvement becomes unavoidable”. Can you say more about that? Can we read providence in our own circumstances of life?
• What tips would you give for someone who is trying to preach through the book of Esther for the first time?

We are now making available the whole book of 1 John from the ESV Study Bible. It’s a 14-page PDF. We hope that you find it helpful in your study of God’s Word.

Andy Naselli interviews S.M. Baugh, NT Professor at Westminster Seminary California and the author of the notes on Ephesians for the ESV Study Bible. The introduction to Ephesians, along with the notes for the first chapter, are online for preview as well.

We have now posted the Introduction and notes for chapter 1 of Colossians from the ESV Study Bible.

You can also read an interview with the contributor, Clinton Arnold, NT professor Talbot Theological Seminary.

We’ve now posted online the next sample from the ESV Study Bible: the introduction to the book of Isaiah, along with the notes for the first two chapters.

Colin Adams, who blogs at Unashamed Workman (a helpful blog related to preaching), interviews Ray Ortlund about the book of Isaiah, preaching through it, and writing these notes.

Andy Naselli recently interviewed David Reimer, who authored the ESV Study Bible notes on Ezekiel. Dr. Reimer not only describes some of the process involved in composing the notes, but also gives an overview of the theme, along with some suggestions on preaching Ezekiel.

We have now posted a PDF containing the introduction to Ezekiel, along with the first two chapters.

One thing that might be confusing at first glance is why the ESV has different types of notes, indicated by different types of shading.

The answer has to do with the outline.

For example, in the outline to the book of Revelation, here are the first two headings:

Related to this you can see our three different levels of notes:

The first type covers the main heading of the outline, and is within a shaded box:

The next note, with just the section title shaded, is a summary of the second point of the outline:

The third type of note, then, looks at the individual verses within those sections: