Customer Reviews

Zondervan NIV Study Bible

5 star:		(58)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(10)
1 star:		(21)

 

 

Because of the bad reviews for the Kindle NIV version, I waited for this to be released with the hope that the shortcomings would be addressed. Well, the problems are now worse. There is still no way to jump to a verse. The reason why it is worse is that because of all the study reference headings that are now in the TOC, you have to go to the menu, then TOC, then to the next page before you can even select OT or NT. After several times of practice, it is still taking me twice as long to find a verse as does a paper copy. This may be fine for reading cover to cover, but I need to use this in Bible study class. Completely useless for most needs... and overpriced. This is NOT adapted for kindle... only converted. Zondervan does not have a clue.

Because it is the Word it deserves a 5 star rating. However I downloaded bible into my kindle and cant navigate to find a book or verse. How do we navigate if I cant find he table of contents? Can someone respond? Please.

I am very disappointed with this purchase. I don't write reviews, but I feel very strongly that Amazon is selling a product for Kindle that borders on fraud. The Zondervan NIV Study Bible is a great study Bible in book form. However, the Kindle version does not let you use all the great features of a study Bible.

First, it is hard to navigate. I've only been able to go to the Table of Contents to get to the scripture that I want. There is no search feature to take you directly to the chapter and verse you want. Amazon or Zondervon, whoever is responsible for this inferior product, go to [...] and see how an electronic Bible is supposed to work.

Second, you can't get to the study notes from the scripture you are reading. This is the purpose of a study Bible! All you can do with this electronic version is read the Bible, it is not a study tool.

I wish I could get my money back. I was really looking forward to using my Kindle as my primary Bible, but that will not be the case. Please, don't waste your money on this product!

90% of the reason I wanted a Kindle had to do with using it for Bible study. The form factor of the Kindle 3 combined with the availability of the NIV Study Bible sold me on giving it a try. My thought was that it would be a lot more convenient to use than my hardcover version of this Bible and I could also download a few other books to read on the same device. And, I could carry it all in a package that was about half the size and weight of my hardcover NIV Study Bible. I read the various negative reviews on the Kindle version but thought there must be a way around the awkwardness of navigating on the Bible on the Kindle that I could discover myself. Unfortunately, there is no way around it. The net perspective on the problem is this:

1) It takes approximately 40 seconds to look up a new book, chapter and verse on the Kindle
2) It takes approximately 25 seconds to look up a new book, chapter and verse in a hardcover Bible
3) It takes approximately 8 seconds to look up a new book, chapter and verse on the Tecarte NIV Bible on an iPhone

Need I say more? The way Zondervan et.al. have implemented their various Bibles on the Kindle is cumbersome, to put it kindly. I downloaded several samples from a variety of other Bibles available for the Kindle, and they are all the same. What's needed, of course, is the Tecarte solution of being able to bring up a single screen that allows you to scroll very quickly to the book, chapter and verse you want to navigate to. But, without a touch screen, that would be a very hard thing to program in.

One other point of interest is the awkwardness of doing a word search. The results on the Kindle come back without the book, chapter and verse identified. You do get the results - you just don't have a clue as to where they are coming from. The only information on where they are coming from is in terms of their positional location. For this book there are 320308 "locations." Your search shows that this particular "hit" on the word or group of words you are searching for came from location 18005, 240490, etc. It's not until you click on one of the items returned that you are given the book, chapter and verse. Again, on Tecarte for the iPhone, each search result has the book, chapter and verse identified.

Enough said. For anyone who wants to use this Bible or any other available Bible on the Kindle, I'd recommend that you do it only if you're an avid reader of other books and not intending to do any serious Bible study as your first priority.

The NIV translation of the Bible is one of the most popular translations in use today. In the "Zondervan NIV Study Bible" Zondervan publishing has produced the ultimate study Bible for the average user. I will admit that I have always been a fan of Zondervan Bibles because of their quality and organization. I have used the Zondervan King James Cyclopedic Bible for almost thirty years simply because it was the best study Bible that I could find. This NIV Study Bible is a better study Bible in many respects (although I will still be keeping my old one).

The Bible contains thousands of study notes throughout the text. The notes are organized at the bottom of each page so you don't have to go to another section of the book to cross reference notes to the text. The notes also contains icons next to each of them so that you will know at a glance about the type of note. For example, a small trowel icon indicates that the note is about archaeological information.

Each book has an introduction and outline just before the book so you can quickly get a feel for who wrote it, when, and why. They also have all the features that you have come to expect in a quality Bible, center column verse cross references, words of Christ in red, etc. In addition there are many, many features that make this a quality source for study. For example, a chronological chart that shows how the different book, people, and stories of the Bible fit in with world history, multiple maps, an index to maps, charts, diagrams, subject and study notes index, etc.

In short, this is unquestionably one of the best reference Bibles on the market today. If you are looking for a Bible for serious reading and study then you could not do better than the Zondervan NIV Study Bible.

Wish I had read reviews BEFORE I bought this for my kindle. Own and love my hard copy so simply auto purchased the Kindle version. No in line study notes, no direct navigation to verses. Wait until someone figures out how to do this for Kindle and stick with your hard copy.

I'm really not at all pleased with the kindle version of this study Bible. It is difficult to use. I haven't been able to access the refernece notes that appear at the bottom of each page of the hard copy. Finding passages is very hard. It would be great for reading cover to cover but is not much use as a study Bible.

I wish I could return it for a refund.

The notes that are on every page of the paper study Bible are nowhere tobe found in the Kindle version. There are other study helps but some awkward to access. The verse by verse comments, on the same page as the Bible text, are what I really wanted, but could not find.

I wanted a study Bible for my Kindle. I figured it would have all the cool information like my printed copy by Tyndale has.. only linked right to the verses. Nope, there are tons of links but so far all I've found is references to verses that are related and a couple of definitions of words. Considering the Kindle version actually costs MORE than the printed copy (what's up with THAT?) I would expect more than I got. Basically it's a regular Bible.

Zondervan, I'm very disappointed with you!

Similar experience to all other reviewers for the Kindle version - study notes are completely missing, no jump-to-verse or verse search feature, diagrams are too small, LOTS of problems. It is simply NOT READY for Kindle. BIG disappointment. I have written to Zondervan complaining about the product and everyone who bought the Kindle version should do the same.