The Apologetics Study Bible, Ted Cabal, General Editor. Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishing, 2007. Jacketed Hardback. 2,048 pages. $39.99
(Review copy courtesy of B&H Publishing.)
Website: The Apologetics Study Bible (a very resourceful page!)
Features: Holman CSB® translation; Introduction to the Holman CSB®; Two-column Bible text setting; Translation footnotes; 100+ articles; Profiles of Christian apologists; 72-page Bible concordance .
ISBNs: 158640024X / 978-1586400248
Dr. Ted Cabal, General Editor, is professor of Christian Philosophy & Applied Apologetics at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Along with Dr. Cabal, about one hundred other scholars contributed to this study Bible.
My Comments:
I was able to preview this Study Bible prior to sending it on to Paul and was very impressed with the amount of information contained within it. I was concerned to find out if the articles and notes were written from either a Presuppositional or Evidentialist perspective. There is quite a difference in both of these approaches, but I did not have time to read any of the articles. According to Paul Henebury, "ASB is definitely slanted toward an evidentialist perspective, but presuppositionalists will not encounter as many objectionable entries as they might suspect."
I think that this is very important to keep in mind as you use this tool. In general it seems to be a very helpful tool. I can imagine any Christian benefiting from reading these articles and notes, although I don't expect to see a whole lot of these Bibles showing up at church. I've enjoyed reading the HCSB translation, but it isn't my favorite. I've seen a few Southern Baptist churches using this translation, but I don't expect it to supersede any of the other standard translations already available.
One critique I have with this edition has to do with the graphics. This is something that seems to be consistent with other HCSB editions. The cover is awesome. I love the strong black background with silver text and decorations.
However, the inside is overwhelmed with graphics. For instance, consider the title pages and the "Twisted Scripture" blurbs:
The design certainly is creative, but so many graphic elements make for a very busy, and possibly distracting, page layout.
Finally, there is a lot of good information made available, but it brings me back to my original concern with study Bibles. Do these elements encourage reading, meditation and memorization of the text? Do articles, notes, blurbs, graphics, charts, indices, concordances, and so on, work together to exalt the text or crowed it out? I fear that the latter may be more true, as fine as these articles are.
I see this Study Bible being left on a shelf and used as a reference work, not as a regular, everyday, or every Sunday, Bible. However, if this system was added to a software package like Libronix, so that these articles could be found while searching the Bible electronically, that would be very nice. Maybe something like this is in the works. We'll see.
The Apologetics Study Bible is included in the Holman Reference Collection (11 volumes), which is currently on Pre-Pub: http://www.logos.com/products/prepub/details/3855.
ReplyDeletePhil
That's good to know.
ReplyDeleteI noticed that only the notes and articles will be included, not the HCSB text.
Thanks for sharing the link.
Yeah. That's how we handle study Bibles. It works best to have them as two different resources since you normally want to see them side by side. And if multiple study Bibles use the same version, it doesn't make sense to have duplicate copies of it.
ReplyDelete