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Title: The New Interpreter's Study Bible: New Revised Standard Version With the Apocrapha by Walter J. Harrelson ISBN: 0-687-27832-5 Publisher: Abingdon Press Pub. Date: May, 2003 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $45.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.6 (5 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Much anticipated and well worth the wait!
Comment: I can't overpraise this study Bible. Like its key rivals in the academic market, The Harper Collins Study Bible (HCSB) and The New Oxford Annotated Bible (NOAB), it uses the New Revised Standard Version as its text base (a good, responsible, and fairly literal translation of the full biblical canon--the 66 Old and New Testament books all Christian traditions use, plus 16 deuterocanonical/apocryphal books used in the Roman Catholic and/or Eastern Orthodox traditions). Also like its competitors, it has excellent scholarly introductions to each book, extensive explanatory notes, background articles, and maps.
So why, if you already own a good NRSV reference Bible, do you also need to get this one? Because the book introductions are incredibly fresh and up-to-date. Because the study notes are insightful and well-phrased. And because, unlike the HCSB and the NOAB, the New Interpreters' Study Bible has two additional kinds of notes. From time to time, the NISB inserts a "Special Note" among the footnotes that makes an interesting observation on the text to help the reader appreciate the larger issues at play within the Bible as a whole. For instance, at 1 Samuel 2.9 there is a special note that calls attention to two distinct points of view in the Bible about justice/theodicy. These special notes are more information than the reader needs to understand the particular passage at hand (and as such can be easily skipped over because they are slightly indented and set off from the surrounding, more text-specific notes), but they are like little windows opening onto a much wider world...and should not be overlooked. In addition, there are almost 100 brief Excurses on thought-provoking topics like "Sibling Rivalry in Genesis," "Interpretations of Rahab," "Suicide," "Anti-Semitic Interpretations of Isaiah," "The Influence of the Maccabean Martyrs," and "Responsibility for the Death of Jesus." And the editors had the foresight to provide an alphabetical listing of these excurses, knowing that readers were going to want to come back to them from time to time.
The essays included in the NISB mostly focus, as one would expect, on interpretive matters: "The Reliability of Scripture," "The Authority of the Bible," "The Inspiration of Scripture," "Guidelines for Reading and Interpretation," "Varieties of Readings and Interpretations of the Biblical Text," and "Culture and Religion Among the Ancient Israelities." The glossary is mostly a list of literary and theological terms (anthropomorphism, chiasm, theophany), but does include a few typical "Bible terms" that the reader may not find satisfying definitions for in a standard collegiate dictionary(such as, sackcloth, Gentile, Sheol).
If you're a reference book addict like me, the NISB promises countless hours of pleasurable reading and exploring.
Rating: 5
Summary: Brilliant but beware!
Comment: Readers of the bible would do well to remind themselves that only the text of scripture is inspired, and not the accompanying notes produced by biblical scholars, which these days have become as lengthy and assertive as the text itself.
The present publication is the culmination of a newer trend in publications of the bible. One finds copious annotations, notes and commentary. Almost every scholar of note has had something to do with it. That can be a good thing when it illumines the text, but it can also prove to be a highly frustrating thing, when scholars are intent on imposing their own interpretations onto the text of scripture. The notes of this edition, scholarly though they are, have a decided ideological slant which the reader should know about before he goes ahead and purchases it. What is this slant?
First, this bible makes an effort to reclaim the Old Testament for Jews. The OT is the "Hebrew Bible", which in no way reveals the messiah of Christians. All passages of messianic import are interpreted historically and critically. On rare occasions one is informed that Christians have regarded this or that passage as referring to Jesus, but the bottom line is that these Christian readings are external to the true meaning of the text. Messianic Psalms are all about the psalmist, not about Jesus. Isaiah 53 is about Israel.
Second, passages in the Bible that suggest patriarchy are neutered to confirm to a notion of gender egalitarianism, nowhere found in the bible. Paul is a sexist, and his view of women is effectively excised by skillful annotations that rework Paul's view of man in accordance with modern notions of equality.
Third, difficult aspects of the Bible are toned down such as the anti-Semitism inherent in some pages of the New Testament. These are reinterpreted so that one thinks the early Christians had no disagreements at all with early Jews or Judaism. "Isn't that a good thing?" No. I don't think it is up to us to improve the Bible. The notes inform the reader that Jesus never brought a new covenant (contra Ezekiel) since God had never forsaken the covenant he made with Moses. It all sounds terrific, but is it Christian?
Fourth, the scholars who produced this Bible make no attempt to disguise the fact that the bible is no longer the property of Christians. Like modern democracy, it belongs to all of us: Jews, Moslems, atheists, and well, yes, Christians too, but now they must wait at the back of the queue to get their helpings-and such meager helpings they are! What comes through loud and clear is that the bible no longer belongs to the church. These Ivy League academics have made it their mission to modify what (in their view) the church has cocked up.
On the positive side: this bible is very well printed and has brilliant academic and scholarly annotations which throw great light on the critical questions surrounding the literature Christians call scripture. If the reader is looking for a scholarly study bible, this is it. A Christian may or may not recognize his faith here, and he may even have a hard time understanding why Jesus ended up getting crucified, but he will be able to find out almost anything he wants to know about the historical, social and political background of the biblical text. In truth, this is a great publication (I use it almost every day-if only to become mad), but it must be used with caution. Hubris has duped some of these bright sparks into thinking their word is on a par with God's.
Rating: 3
Summary: A DISAPPOINTMENT
Comment: I bought this Bible because I have enjoyed reading the commentaries in the New Interpreter's Bible. Some of the annotators in the Study Bible are the same as in the NIB, but many seem to be to less respectful of the Biblical text. The notes for the various books in this Bible are by 62 different scholars, ranging from conservative to skeptical. At John 14.6 ("No one comes to the Father except through me.") we learn that this text "celebrates how Jesus reveals God for those in this particular faith community and is not a statement about the relative worth of the world's religions." A note on the parable of judgment in Matthew 25 informs us that this parable is at odds with the acknowledgment of God's inclusive mercy in Matthew 5. Some of the books are well-served by their annotators.
Old Testament passages quoted in the New are seldom noted in the Old Testament and sometimes overlooked in the New.
This would be a good Bible for someone who is interested only in literary and historical aspects of the Bible. I regret I bought it.
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Title: The Jewish Study Bible: Tanakh Translation, Torah, Nevi'Im, Kethuvim by Adele Berlin, Marc Zvi Brettler, Michael Fishbane ISBN: 0195297512 Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: January, 2004 List Price(USD): $40.00 |
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Title: An Introduction to the Old Testament: The Canon and Christian Imagination by Walter Brueggemann ISBN: 0664224121 Publisher: Westminster John Knox Press Pub. Date: November, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: The New Interpreter's Bible: Luke - John (Volume 9) by Abingdon Press ISBN: 0687278228 Publisher: Abingdon Press Pub. Date: February, 1996 List Price(USD): $60.00 |
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Title: The Heart of Christianity: Rediscovering a Life of Faith by Marcus J. Borg ISBN: 0060526769 Publisher: Harper SanFrancisco Pub. Date: 23 September, 2003 List Price(USD): $22.95 |
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Title: The New Interpreter's Bible: Matthew - Mark (Volume 8) by Abingdon Press, Leander E. Keck ISBN: 068727821X Publisher: Abingdon Press Pub. Date: July, 1995 List Price(USD): $60.00 |
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