An Excellent Exposition of Conservative Biblical Scholarship

There is much that one could find to criticize in this Bible: size (huge), typeface (small), translation (outdated), pseudo-parchment pages (distracting), the predictability of the conclusions the annotators draw (always conservative). ^M

Good, but theologically conservative

Like most of the study Bibles put out by Zondervan Bible Publishers, this one is targeted mainly to Evangelical Christians with a fairly literalist view of Scripture. The cautiousness of their approach to their subject is exemplified by their choosing to use the older New International Version Bible text (last updated in 1984) with its bias toward masculinist language rather than the Today's NIV (2005) which took some heavy criticism from high-visibility Evangelical preachers for its employment of inclusive language (even though the revision was quite restrained in this regard). The conservative Protestant stance of this Bible's editors is also evidenced by the fact that it excludes (and only makes passing reference to) the Old Testament Apocrypha books, including the fascinating 1 & 2 Maccabees, two primary texts known to provide some very key information on the "inter-Testamental" or "Second Temple" period (not to mention the biblical basis for the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah). The exclusion of the Apocrypha/Deuterocanonicals would make this an unacceptable text for most Roman Catholics.^M

Bible text chosen not the best one

I would preferred if the text chosen was not the NIV. The publishers could have used other translation of the Bible for this work. The NIV is a paraphrased Bible, therefore, it is not the best choice for a study Bible. The study notes are mostly a synoptic view of the ancient world of the Old Testament and New Testament. I give 3 stars because of NIV text.^M