Given that the house-church was still studying the Holy
Spirit when the bible arrived, it made perfect sense that I would begin my
reviewing adventures in Acts 1. It wound
up being the perfect place to start, which I will explain later in this review. But first, I’d like to lay out some of the features
of this particular bible – many of which I like, some I don’t.
TITLE PAGE:
First, each book in this Bible begins with a short detail
description of the Author, Date, Content, Purpose, Personal Application, Christ
Revealed, and the Holy Spirit at Work (approximately 2-3 pages). The title page of each book also contains a
small box that hits the absolute basics in very brief order: Author, Date,
Theme, and Key Words. On the following
page or two is a book outline. I like
these features. They’re clear and
concise, and provide a spring board for where to begin your studies if you wish
to go deeper.
WORD WEALTH:
Next, each book contains several Word Wealth insets. These are small boxes that pertain to
particular words in the text that the editors believed would be helpful. What is great is that these boxes are not
filled with an author’s personal opinions, or how a particular denomination
believes. Instead, words are lightly
dissected in their Hebrew or Greek usage.
This feature does some of the legwork for those times when you wish you
had an exhaustive concordance handy.
KINGDOM DYNAMICS:
Third, another similar inset box contained within the
text is this Kingdom Dynamics feature.
This box contains information for how the text applies to the Kingdom of
God, what the first hearers/believers were experiencing, etc. It provides a more detailed commentary about
an important theme in the passage. This
commentary is slightly different from those “bottom-of-the-page” commentaries
where a particular author tells you what s/he believes about, let’s say, the
“rapture” for example.
COMMENTARY:
So naturally, this brings me to the next point:
commentaries. Have you ever read a study
Bible by so-and-so and you wished s/he would leave personal or debatable
opinions out of it? That’s been done in
this Bible. Since there are so many
contributors to this Bible, it is highly unlikely they all believed the same
things on those debatable issues. And
those opinions have been omitted from the commentaries. So if you’re looking for someone to tell you
what to believe at all turns, this isn’t the Bible for you.
VERSE DIVISIONS:
Fifth, and finally I’m going to gripe about
something. I absolutely do not like the
way verses have been divided in this Bible.
Whether the verse is complete or not, each verse number starts the next
line in the column. For example, if
you’re reading Acts 1:10-11, it looks like this:
10 And while
they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up, behold, two men stood by
them in white apparel,
11 who also
said…
I don’t like it because it’s choppy. Do you remember your high school or college
literature class where you were required to read a poem aloud? I know you didn’t do this, but as you
listened to your classmates read the poem line by line, you and everyone else could
tell when one line concluded and the next began. It sounded choppy rather than “flowy”. That’s what this broken-verse format does in
this Bible, so I’ll just come out and say it: I hate this feature. Although I’m relatively certain the editors’ rationale
was to make each verse easier to find in rapid searches, I’m positively against
chopping up paragraphs like this. ‘Nuff
said.
TRUTH-IN-ACTION:
This section completes each book. Numerical references throughout the Biblical
text may point the reader to one or more of these points. The Truth section briefly explains the
history behind the passage’s theme. The
Action section describes what the Holy Spirit intends for us to do with the
given theme or information in the text.
It’s brilliant! For what good is
reading the Bible if we don’t also make life application?
I mentioned in my second paragraph that Acts 1 was the
perfect place to begin my study-review.
After reading, I was directed to one of the Truth-in-Action points for
Acts 4:13. It reads, “Expect your Spirit-filled relationship
with Jesus to help you speak boldly, with courage and spiritual
understanding.” I went jogging in a park
later that evening, and when I returned to my vehicle I saw a woman sitting
alone in her vehicle. She didn’t appear
to be resting or happy. As I stretched,
I felt some kind of difficult-to-explain inner prompting to approach the woman
and offer her a Pocket Testament I carry for times such as these. As I debated with God the reasons why I
shouldn’t approach her, I finally asked for His strength to speak boldly and clearly
with her. In other words, I expected the
Holy Spirit to back me up on this one.
He did. The woman began crying as
we spoke (not because I was mean), and we finished in prayer.
So, could it be said that the Holy Spirit intended all of
these things to come together at near intervals (Bible study, study Bible, and
conversation)? I think so. I don’t believe it all happened accidentally,
but was orchestrated by Divine appointment – for there are no accidents in God’s
economy.
RATING & RECOMMENDATION:
Definitely 4 1/2 stars.
That half star is close to a full star due to the verse divisions. But I’m going to err on the side of grace and
choose to believe there was good intention and reason behind those
divisions. This Bible has officially
replaced my old, worn-out “So-and-so’s Study Bible”.
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