Study Bibles, are they as helpful as they first seem?

  • Thread starter Thread starter jimmudcatgrant
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They're basically a handy fill-in for a full collection of reference books, which would be hard to carry around, short of e-reader format. I find them very useful, if both the translation and the notes are good. The ESV Study Bible is one of my favorites. It's heavy and bulky though, so I don't generally carry it to church unless I have a SS class.
 
I believe the four points in the article to be a great help...too many people get a study book and make it the authority rather than the Bible.  I have people make comments all the time about the study notes in their Bibles as if they are Scripture...it makes for a great teaching moment to help them let Scripture be their final authority.  I encourage people to approach every study book or commentary by asking is this really what the Bible passage is saying.

I like the four points given in the article...
 
Yep, pretty much what T-Bone said. Study notes can be very helpful, but they're not scripture, they're commentary.
 
I would say, study bibles are irrelevant, search online. Free yourself from orthodoxy and make it your life's work to know what Paul, Peter, John, Jude believed. What Jesus taught. We have a multidimensional transcendent library of power in the Holy Spirit! Study Bibles are like what Paul called milk. Its time for solid food. Go to you room, kneel, and in faith ask for wisdom and guidance. Then do your research. You will be surprised at what you learn, even in opening a noteless Bible, the truth is there.

 
thethinkingrebel said:
I would say, study bibles are irrelevant, search online. Free yourself from orthodoxy and make it your life's work to know what Paul, Peter, John, Jude believed. What Jesus taught. We have a multidimensional transcendent library of power in the Holy Spirit! Study Bibles are like what Paul called milk. Its time for solid food. Go to you room, kneel, and in faith ask for wisdom and guidance. Then do your research. You will be surprised at what you learn, even in opening a noteless Bible, the truth is there.
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So simply throw away 1000s of years of church history and Christian teaching for no reason whatsoever. Yes, God does talk to His people through His Word however, whenever someone claims to come up with some "new" thing in Scripture I am always leery. As Solomon said, "There is no new thing under the sun." Too many times new truth = wrong truth and to throw away the wealth of Christian history we have is exceedingly shortsighted in my opinion.
 
Miller said:
thethinkingrebel said:
I would say, study bibles are irrelevant, search online. Free yourself from orthodoxy and make it your life's work to know what Paul, Peter, John, Jude believed. What Jesus taught. We have a multidimensional transcendent library of power in the Holy Spirit! Study Bibles are like what Paul called milk. Its time for solid food. Go to you room, kneel, and in faith ask for wisdom and guidance. Then do your research. You will be surprised at what you learn, even in opening a noteless Bible, the truth is there.
Click to expand...

So simply throw away 1000s of years of church history and Christian teaching for no reason whatsoever. Yes, God does talk to His people through His Word however, whenever someone claims to come up with some "new" thing in Scripture I am always leery. As Solomon said, "There is no new thing under the sun." Too many times new truth = wrong truth and to throw away the wealth of Christian history we have is exceedingly shortsighted in my opinion.
Click to expand...

Sorry you misinterpret me. To put it succinctly, I was basically saying "Figure it out for yourself". Too often we have our beliefs dictated to us by others. There are SOME doctrines that I disagree with in the church and just looking at my Bible alone I see as obvious. There's nothing wrong with a study bible. But its bad for someone new to Christianity because anything could be taught within them 2000 pages and they wouldn't know the difference.

Its like giving a new Christian the message. How will they know the difference? Often these study bibles aren't preaching the 2000 years of theology that's come (but frankly a lot of it is catholic inspired nonsense anyway) but its often the opinion of the writer.

What a new Christian needs most is a human being to guide them. Not a book where half is God and the other is man interpreting it for them.
 
Miller said:
thethinkingrebel said:
I would say, study bibles are irrelevant, search online. Free yourself from orthodoxy and make it your life's work to know what Paul, Peter, John, Jude believed. What Jesus taught. We have a multidimensional transcendent library of power in the Holy Spirit! Study Bibles are like what Paul called milk. Its time for solid food. Go to you room, kneel, and in faith ask for wisdom and guidance. Then do your research. You will be surprised at what you learn, even in opening a noteless Bible, the truth is there.
Click to expand...

So simply throw away 1000s of years of church history and Christian teaching for no reason whatsoever. Yes, God does talk to His people through His Word however, whenever someone claims to come up with some "new" thing in Scripture I am always leery. As Solomon said, "There is no new thing under the sun." Too many times new truth = wrong truth and to throw away the wealth of Christian history we have is exceedingly shortsighted in my opinion.
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Also, what new truth? I am not offering any new truth. Nor am I saying that you will find THE truth in the Bible. Grabbing a study bible that teaches eternal torment, and the rapture will teach you a NEW truth.

You can use study bibles, but you have to KNOW what you believe before you have some dude you've never met who claims to be a Christian yet denies half the bible as being real teaching your teenage son or daughter doctrine.
 
[quote author=thethinkingrebel]Sorry you misinterpret me. To put it succinctly, I was basically saying "Figure it out for yourself".[/quote]

Herein lies the road to heresy.

Study for yourself. Come to your own conclusions. But if you come to a new "truth" and it contradicts 2000 of Christian belief, then your new "truth" is highly questionable.
 
rsc2a said:
[quote author=thethinkingrebel]Sorry you misinterpret me. To put it succinctly, I was basically saying "Figure it out for yourself".
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Herein lies the road to heresy.

Study for yourself. Come to your own conclusions. But if you come to a new "truth" and it contradicts 2000 of Christian belief, then your new "truth" is highly questionable.
[/quote]

This is true. It's also true that there are some rather off the wall study bibles out there, particularly some of the one man ones. I don't rely on those, but on ones that are pretty mainstream... and even then, I don't take anything in the notes as "gospel" but as opinions of men.
 
My Bible software includes about 9 or 10 study Bibles. I make full use of them, but they are not the final authority: the Bible itself is.  I find a lot that I disagree with in the study Bibles, but I also find a lot of useful information in them.
 
As a sort of PS to my last post:

I am not a new Christian. I've been one for 40-something years. I am definitely more liberal than the majority of this board, which is mainly IFB. I'm mainline orthodox in the Anglican and Lutheran traditions, and theologically conservative in a similar way to N.T. Wright.

But I've studied a lot. I know the history of the church and standard doctrine and all the standard heresies, and I know them when I see them. The ESV Study Bible that I rely on is from a conservative evangelical POV with a Reformed leaning. That's not exactly how I believe, but it's a known quantity and contains no surprises.
 
jimmudcatgrant said:
I like my study bibles.  But we may use them as a crutch for real study, according to this article.  I agree with some of the points and realize that the Holy Spirit needs to be the final authority.

http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/tgc/2012/07/11/recalculating-how-study-bibles-can-limit-bible-study/
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I suppose the same could be said about commentaries. Here's what one old-timer said:


"In order to be able to expound the Scriptures, and as an aid to your pulpit studies, you will need to be familiar with the commentators: a glorious army, let me tell you, whose acquaintance will be your delight and profit. Of course, you are not such "wiseacres" as to think or say that you can expound Scripture without assistance from the works of divines and learned men who have laboured before you in the field of exposition. If you are of that opinion, pray REMAIN SO, for you are not worth the trouble of conversion, and like a little coterie who think with you, would resent the attempt as an insult to your infallibility. It seems odd, that certain men who talk so much of what the Holy Spirit reveals to themselves, should think so little of what he has revealed to others"


I'm no preacher but I'll still use my books. But that's just me  :)





 
Obviously, in order to learn, you do need a variety of sources, but you need discernment (from the Spirit) when looking through them. Everyone goes through the same process. We all need others to help us, that's one of the points of "the church", in order to educate its members. The way the church is at the moment often misses the point.

I suppose in a way, the study bible, commentaries and systematic theology textbooks make up for the lack of instruction in the modern church.

I have a few study bibles in my collection. The HCSB one is brilliant, and pretty! But the ESV one is very thorough!
 
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