by mavie 11 Replies latest jw friends
Has anyone studied the Bible with the Archaeological Study Bible published by Zondervan? The NIV translation is used with cross-references and footnotes along with a ton of archaeological, historical, and geographical essays/factoids relating to the text of the Bible. Bought it at my local bookstore.
I'd recommend it to anyone interested in the historicity of the Bible who isn't overly concerned with doctrinal issues.
An Archaeological Study Bible? That sounds fascinating!
Here is a link to it's Amazon page. --VM44
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/031092605X/qid=1145771077/102-7434282-2507313
That is the one VM. Zondervan has a website up for the Bible, you can download Genesis in pdf format:
http://www.archaeologicalstudybible.com/
Just click on 'Sampler' near the top of the page.
So far, I've found that the publishers have avoided doctrinal issues in favor of simply presenting the facts. Critical viewpoints are discussed too. I wish they would have used a literal, verses dynamic, translation. I realize the NIV is reader friendly, but I feel a study Bible should try to render the original text as close as possible. Sacrifice easy reading for superior wording.
Hi Mavie,
I just saw this one in the book store on Saturday and thought about buying it. Let us know how you like it, and what, if any, problems you see as you study it. I've got in on my 'acquire' list for later in the year when I have more time.
Using the words bible and study in the same sentence makes me cringe.
I was just looking at that today in Borders. Let us know if you have any additional thoughts on it, Mavie. I'm going to wait 'til Borders emails me a 25% or 30% off coupon before buying it.
I get borders dicounts too. I think I will go and look at it, it looks interesting. I like the NIV bible anyway. I am going to go on Amazon and see if I can look at some pages. Sometimes they have the "look inside" this book feature. Thanks for the information on this. Lilly
That looks real interesting! Thanks for the heads-up, mavie.
You can download and mail in a $10 rebate if you purchase the book before, I believe, June 1st. Just go to the publishers website I linked to in a previous post.
Looking through the book closer today, I began to get the feeling that the authors who contributed to the book treated the bible as literature, written by uninspired humans. This means the framework other commentaries and study bibles work within is missing. I'm not saying that is a good or bad thing, just how I percieve it. Overall, I find it well balanced, very objective.
Looks like an interesting sample of conservative popularisation.
Very helpful to the typical "Bible-only-reader" who may start to realise that the Bible did not fall down from heaven, but belongs to a much wider literary corpus.
Not so helpful to the student who wants to figure out how the texts really came about, for the lack of clear criteria to sort the data out.
E.g.: a fundamentalistic reader will look mostly for 2nd-millenium BC historical echoes to Genesis or Exodus; a critical reader will look for 6th- to 4th-century literary parallels. Without a clear explanation, at least of what is at stake, many readers will be lost.
