Customer Reviews

Lutheran Study Bible

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

I confess I was a bit disappointed when I received this new Bible because I had been expecting more substance. The helps and commentary are quite limited and elementary, and more subjectively opinionated than academic. And there is no cross-referencing between OT texts quoted in the NT, or any cross-referencing system at all for that matter. One positive result is that there is a lot of blank space on most pages for my own notes. With the (sometimes condescending) reflection questions next to the text, this Bible to me is more of a devotional Bible. And sorry, but the pastel blue cover color is a bit too feminine for my comfort. And the pastel blue lettering inside for titles and sub-titles is too light to be read comfortably. For someone looking for a solid NRSV Study Bible, I believe they would be better served by the New Oxford Annotated Bible, or the Harper-Collins Study Bible. Sorry, but only three stars.

The best parts of Lutheran Study Bible are the essays which deal with how Luther read the Bible and how we, in turn, read and interpret it. In Mary Jane Haemig's essay on Luther and the Bible, she quotes Luther's statement "Christ's teaching should be orally continued giving no command that it should be written". Luther saw the introduction of the mechanically printed Bibles, and considered the need for the printed word to be `a serious decline and a lack of the Spirit which necessity forced upon us...' I am profoundly with Luther on this point, which is why Bible Study, the weekly lectionary readings and the weekly sermon are my most effective paths to spirituality. This is also why this `Book of Life' initiative is important to Lutherans.

The edition is oriented to those who take the lectio divina road to Bible reading. Nothing shows this more clearly than A Short Guide to Personal Bible Reading on page 1553. I am not, however, fond of its suggestion for marking passages in the Bible with a pen or pencil. (If you are inclined to do this, I strongly suggest you get The New Inductive Study Bible, which is designed explicitly for marking up with colors). The Lutheran provides a good Bible reading plan, in the form of a lectionary. For the browser, it has lists of `stories' which would be useful for reading to children and a number of sidebars within the text.

And yet, this edition fell short of my expectations. It does not include the deuterocanonical books. This is surprising, because the Lutheran has almost as many pages and weighs almost as much as NRSV study Bibles which do include these `apocryphal' books. This is relevant because I handed it to one of my students who could use a new Bible, and it was literally too heavy for her to hold. (She had no problem with the Harper Study Bible, which has all 66 Protestant books plus notes.) The added weight is due the paper which is heavier than the tissue paper style of pages in many Bibles and the fact that the book has only a single column of text per page rather than two. This is doubly surprising since the type is smaller than in both the HarperCollins Study Bible and The New Oxford Annotated Bible, the two most commonly cited when you ask about peoples' favorite study Bibles. The Lutheran has 19 characters to the inch, while the Oxford has less than 11 characters to the inch, so the Lutheran is about 35% more difficult to read than Oxford and HarperCollins.

The Lutheran has fewer notes than the Oxford and HarperCollins. On the first page of Genesis, the Lutheran has twelve (12) notes, the same as both other study Bibles, but three of those twelve are questions to the reader. The notes in the other Bibles tend to be longer and more informative about the original Hebrew. In these first 24 verses, there are even differences in interpretation of the language between the Lutheran and the Oxford notes. Genesis 1:2 is translated in the NRSV as `2 ...the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters.' The Lutheran notes that the Hebrew word translated as `wind' is better understood as `spirit'; however the Hebrew word is identical to the one in Genesis 8:1, where God made the wind blow over the face of the earth. That is, the same word is used in a context where the literal sense of `moving air' is reasonable, and consistent with the sense of `wind' in 1:2. Luther was the great exponent of interpreting the passages in the Bible by comparing how the words made sense in similar passages. He was a great exponent of understanding what the authors meant when they wrote this text. I suggest our modern Lutheran Bible scholars may have been a bit too free with their interpretation, putting later Greek meanings into the quills of the early Hebrew scribes.

The Lutheran has a `Subject Guide', which is very similar to concordances in other study Bibles. When I compared it to the best Study Bible concordance I've seen so far, in The New Inductive Study Bible (New American Standard translation), the Lutheran had 22 double column pages versus 112 4-column pages in the Inductive. The Lutheran had 13 entries for `wisdom', not including some important ones from Job, while the Inductive had 15 entries, divided between `wisdom' and `wise'. The Lutheran had no entries for `wind', while the Inductive had 11.

An important object of this edition is to present the Lutheran interpretation on the Bible, and on this I was most disappointed. What I hoped to see was Luther's own words he used to introduce the books of the Bible in his German translation. But these are nowhere to be found. In the introduction to Matthew, we get an upbeat introduction we might expect of something written for middle school children. For example, it cites the theoretical `Q' document as if we could touch it like one of the Dead Sea scrolls. The existence of `Q' is an hypothesis, and the evidence for its existence is less substantial than the evidence for the existence of sub-atomic particles. Lutheran Perspectives material is primarily added in the form of marginal notes identified by Luther's symbolic white rose with red inner heart and cross. In Ecclesiastes, there are only three such short notes, in spite of the fact that Luther delivered lectures on Ecclesiastes which fill over 80 pages in English translation.

If, like Gollum in Lord of the Rings, you are intent on learning the secrets at the roots of the mountain which are our scriptures, this book is not the best. If, however, you are like the pious St. Teresa of Avila for whom the scripture heals the wounds of Christ's absence, this is for you.

Rather than "study Bible," this would more properly be billed as a Bible with theological commentary and devotional aids. There are almost no text notes to explain difficult passages or define obscure terms. The marginal comments that do appear are theological or devotional, or, unfortunately, "discussion questions," some of which border on the downright silly - e.g., "Tell about a time when you were forgiven" (p. 994). There are whole pages of text with no notes at all (and not just in the genealogies).

This was clearly was done in a hurry to support the ELCA's Book of Faith initiative. For Lutherans seeking a real study Bible, the LCMS's new publication The Lutheran Study Bible: English Standard Version is a much better choice, even for ELCA Lutherans like me who don't agree with all its hyperconservative stances.

This is one of my favorite Bibles because it is NRSV, which is a very faithful translation, and has some of good Lutheran background--I just wish there was more. The study notes are great but is a bit too brief. It's also great at meeting people on all levels--from beginners to life-long Bible studiers (which is very important according to Luther).

First off, no study bible is perfect. The best option is to have access to as many different study bibles as possible, since all of them have strengths and weaknesses. If you can have only one, I'd still choose the HarperCollins Study Bible as the one to beat, but the Lutheran Study Bible is a great addition.

It's a bit hard to read the font, which is small in spite of the heft of this book. I'm still adjusting to the book names and chapters being on the bottom of the page - but that's much more about my natural resistance to change than any fault of the designers.

What makes this study bible worthwhile are the articles it includes on particularly Lutheran insights on hermeneutics, theology, and general biblical study. They're well done: thought-provoking, unapologetically Lutheran (in my opinion, anyway), and a very helpful middle ground between fundamentalist/literal readings and who-cares-it's-all-made-up-anyway apathy. The softcover version is a better deal: more affordable and lighter. And better for banging on the pulpit when you're at a weak point in the sermon.

Overall: well done.

I've only had my Lutheran Study Bible for a week, but have had a lot of difficulty with its readability. I am 64 y o and wear bifocals, but have a very hard time reading the notes and the text, almost needing a magnifying glass for them, making it very difficult and hard on my eyes. Also, sing a very light blue for titles is a bad idea for folks with poor contrast perception. Didn't like the powder blue cover either, expected something much more classy for an expensive hardcover book.

I have read some of the explanatory text about Luther and reading the Bible and have been confused by some of the statements. It seems the language and content are for maybe a lower high school level, not I think suitable for a "Study" Bible. Altogether, I am disappointed and will probably continue to use my Oxford study Bible NRSV in the future.

Very informative sections at the beginning of each book with History and time book was written. Good study bible and good bible to read for information ie: you can look up different times in the year and also times of life of the bible. This is just an excellent bible for a study group or individual reading.

The Lutheran Study Bible is fine as far as it goes. However, I would like to have had more - and more extensive - margin notes. Perhaps the publishers simply didn't want to increase the heft of what is already a hefty Bible, and they could hardly have made the type size smaller without seriously compromising the readability.

Overall, it's a fine Bible. I just wish there were more to it!

I had been anxiously awaiting this study Bible for a time, and am disappointed upon seeing it. Compared to the NIV Study Bible, or the new ESV Study Bible, this edition contains very few notes. I suppose that gives the reader plenty of room for their own notes, but I was expecting more insight into the passages. I'm also disappointed by the lack of a good concordance. Instead there is a sort of topical index, but no real concordance. I'll stick with the ESV Study Bible.

The Concordia study bible is more in depth and appears more Lutheran in content and context. This bible reminds me of what we use to call "bubble gum music" sweet and hollow with a pleasant beat but no substance. Buy it at your own risk.