The Orthodox Study Bible: New Testament and Psalms, New King James Version

There are several ways to read the Bible - the two most common are devotional and academic. A devotional reader reads the Bible as if it were a love-letter from their Beloved - reading not critically, not looking for flaws or loopholes, or evidence, but rather looking for what the Beloved wishes to communicate. The academic reader reads as if reading a scientific textbook, searching for flaws, evidence, arguments, and proof. There is a place for both types of reading. Devotional for the Spiritual life, and Academic for the person who needs more evidence to come to Faith regarding a particular teaching, or who writes for those in such a position, or a person who simply has an academic interest in Religious matters. Many times a person might alternate between the two types of reading based on their needs at a given time. If you are a person who wishes to read the Bible devotionally, with an understanding of the Orthodox Church's teachings on the passages, this is a perfect choice. If you are new to Orthodoxy, or cradle Orthodox, or if you know nothing of Orthodoxy, and want to understand the Church's teachings about every New Testament passage, this is an ideal place to start. If you are an academic reader, I would still strongly encourage this edition, only with the caveat that you shouldn't expect it to what it is not. It gives a wonderful first level overview of any given passage, and a good place to start for further reasearch. It is not an apologetic work, but neither was it intended to be. I have read this edition from cover-to-cover - every word, every footnote, every article (except perhaps the index and the copyright page ; ) - I cannot recommend it more highly. Inside the cover there is an impressive list of endorsements by many well-known Orthodox Bishops.

This happens to be the first English study Bible that offers study aids written from the Orthodox perspective. This Orthodox Study Bible is published by Thomas Nelson, it uses the New King James Version (NKJV and KJV are the versions most often found and approved by the Orthodox churches in the US) and it includes the New Testament 27 books along with the Psalms. Side Note: the Psalms are numbered according to the Masoretic text but after Psalm 9 (which is where the numerical divergence begins between the Septuagint-LXX and the Masoretic text) a footnote shows the Septuagint number for each subsequent psalm. This study Bible project is the brainchild of Fr. Peter E. Gillquist, famous former Campus-Crusade-for-Christ leader and convert to Orthodoxy,(and author or "Becoming Orthodox: A Journey to the Ancient Christian Faith," "Coming Home: Why Protestant Clergy Are Becoming Orthodox,") and is also edited and backed-up by various Orthodox Th.D.'s, Ph.D.'s, Priests, Bishops, and Metropolitans. This is the most uniquely structured (and most treasured) study-Bible in my collection. As a Christian-unity minded Protestant I appreciate all the special features of this study-Bible that makes it so Orthodox. The study Bible starts with a section on The Bible and the Orthodox Church: The Church Fathers Speak, The Bible and Orthodox Tradition, The Creed and, Some Orthodox Beliefs and Their Biblical Foundation (which deals with topics such as Communion, honoring Mary, place of tradition vs Scripture, icons, saints, and liturgy). The second section of the introduction is basically A Guide to the Spiritual Life: Beginning the Journey to the Kingdom, How to Remain in Communion With God, Spritual Helps in the Examination of Your Conscience, Where to turn in the Psalms, and Where to turn in the New Testament (general subject indexes). There is also a short introduction on How to Use The Orthodox Study Bible and notes on the style and text of the NKJV. Each New Testament book is preceded by study notes on the Author, Date, Major Theme, Background Information, and an Outline. Gospel passages and sub-titles are shown with their equivalent texts in the other Gospels. Each text has carefully prepared study notes with easy to follow highlighted words. Keeping in line with Orthodox Christian living, this study Bible has a chart of Scripture reading to offer guidance for daily devotions, a guide for morning and evening prayers, and readings for feast days. Keeping in line with NKJV tradition, this study Bible has the words of Christ in red, and also center-columns cross references and translation notes. The end of this study Bible has lots of extras: a glossary of Orthodox Christian terminology, an index to annotations, a treatise on Interpreting the Scriptures, a harmony of the Gospels chart, Monies-Weighs-and-Mesures table, a Concordance, and Color Maps. A final addition that makes this study Bible distinctively eastern-Orthodox is the presence of various iconic im

_The Orthodox Study Bible: New Testament and Psalms_ is the only Eastern Orthodox study Bible available. This edition only contains the New Testament and the Psalms of the New King James translation. The text is commentated upon by notes giving the Orthodox teaching on Scripture. Currently, scholars at St. Athanasius Seminary are at work translating the entire Bible from the Septuagint, and will include the entire canonical Old Testament, including the Deutero-Canonical books (or as known to Protestants, the "Apocrypha") that are in the Greek Septuagint but not the Hebrew Bible. This edition contains information on how the Bible is viewed in the Orthodox Church, an outline of Orthodox history, tips on how the Bible is to be studied, a glossary of Orthodox Terms, a list of the Seventy, the lectionary and Orthodox prayers. The Canon of Scripture was decided AFTER the Ecumenical Council of Nicea, in which the Nicean Creed was drawn up as the statement of Orthodoxy, thus the Scripture is given its authority by the Church, and Scripture forms the centerpiece of the Church's Tradition dating from Christ and His Apostles. As another reviewer noted, this edition is a "who's who" of Orthodoxy, including Peter E. Gilquist, Jack Norman Sparks, Archbishop JAKOVOS, Bishop KALLISTOS, Bishop MAXIMOS and Fr. Anthondy Coniaris.

There are some people who feel that this translation is lacking in terms of it's strict adherence to Orthodox biblical tradition. The Holy Apostles Convent has published a two volume version of the New Testament that is heavily annotated with comments of major figures of Orthodoxy such as St. John Chrysostom, and is probably the more scholarly of the two versions. However, I still find the accessibility of the writing in the Orthodox Study Bible to be extremely helpful. and often read the versions together. The list of individuals who worked to create this Bible is a veritable who's who of contemporary Orthodoxy, and I certainly don't feel even remotely qualified to criticize their efforts. I believe that the Orthodox Study Bible is a very worthwhile investment and have purchased copies for my children and brother.